Phillies Bandwagon Quiz

Start Counting From Negative One.

The Phillies are more popular than they’ve ever been.  There are a number of numerical ways to prove this.  Their TV ratings are higher than they’ve ever been.  Their revenue is at an all-time high.  Look at attendance.  In 1980, a team that had won 3 division titles in 4 years and was on its way to the World Series barely filled more than half the Vet every night, drawing about 32,000 fans on average.  The Phils do about 40% better than that now, selling out every single home game.  You can even go to the streets and see a sea of people walking around in Phillies gear.  It’s great to have all this attention, but with such a jump in interest, it’s inevitable that a decent percentage of these people are bandwagon.  This isn’t a crusade against bandwagon fans, just accepting the facts for what they are.  I decided to put together a little test so that you can check to see if you are a bandwagon Phillies fan.

Section One: Penalty Points.

Subtract One Point For Each of the Following:

1. You own a shirt or hoodie with “ILL” on it.

2. You have a driver’s license, but never went to the Vet for a Phillies game.

3. You think the Vet is where you take your sick dog.

4. You save your rally towels.

5. You like the Sunday afternoon jersey.

6. All of your Phillies gear is pink.

7. You wait in the crab fries line.

8. You only know one way home from the stadium.

Section Two: Multiple Choice. 

One Point for each correct answer.

1.  Dan Baker is:

a. Phillies PA announcer

b. The Original Philly Phanatic

c. Nick Leyva’s pitching coach

d. Nick who?

 2.  Mike Schmidt hit his 500^th home run against:

a. Atlanta Braves

b. Chicago Cubs

c. Pittsburgh Pirates

d. New York Mets

3.  Von Hayes was traded to the Phillies from what American League Team:

a. Cleveland Indians

b. Detroit Tigers

c. Texas Rangers

d. Milwaukee Brewers

4. On June 11^th, 1985 the Phillies beat what team 26-7:

a. Chicago Cubs

b. St. Louis Cardinals

c. Atlanta Braves

d. New York Mets

5.  The seats in the 700-Level before the whole stadium went blue were what color:

a. orange

b. yellow

c. brown

d. red

6.  John Russell, Steve Lake, and Bo Diaz all played which position:

a. 1^st Base

b. 3^rd Base

c. catcher

d. centerfield

 7. Before moving to Bright House Field, the Phillies played Spring Training games at:

a. Jack Russell Stadium

b. Pinellas County Stadium

c. Memorial Stadium

d. Connie Mack Stadium

8.  Which player led the 1980 Phillies in stolen bases:

a. Larry Bowa

b. Bob Dernier

c. Mike Schmidt

d. Lonnie Smith

 9.  The Phillies traded what member of the 1993 NL Champs for Bobby Abreu:

a. Dave Hollins

b. Curt Schilling

c. Kevin Stocker

d. Wes Chamberlain

10.  Which pitcher did not start an Opening Day in the 1980s

a. Bruce Ruffin

b. Floyd Youmans

c. Steve Carlton

d. Shane Rawley

11.  The Phillies bench coach in 1980 was:

a. Pat Corrales

b. Mike Ryan

c. Paul Owens

d. Bobby Wine

12.  Richie Asburn wore what number:

a. 0

b. 9

c. 7

d. 1

13.  Which of the following was not a Phillies 1^st Round Draft Pick:

a. Jeff Jackson

b. Gavin Floyd

c. Jimmy Rollins

d. Tyler Green

14.  In his classic skit, the Phanatic crushes the opposition’s helmet with:

a. A Tamper

b. His 4-wheeler

c. His Foot

d. A bat

15.  Which Pitcher had the Phillies’ first no-hitter at Veterans Stadium

a. Steve Carlton

b. Tommy Greene

c. Terry Mulholland

d. Kevin Millwood

Answers in the Comments.

 Scoring:

 >2 points: Stone Bandwagon.  You watch the games from McFadden’s

3-5 points: Bandwagon, but you pick stuff up on Sports Talk.

6-9 points: You can blend, but may have a CHOOOOOCH shirt

10-14 points: Congratulations, you are not a fraud

15 points: You may be related to a Phillie

My Brief Love Affair With Tennis.

Wimbledon Hands Out Something A Bit Nicer.

A while back, I can’t even remember when exactly, I took a deep breath and tossed most of the trophies I had won in my youth.  It wasn’t as impressive a collection of hardware as you might expect.  A good portion of them were participation trophies handed out by an overzealous Little League coach who I toiled under for years.  This isn’t to say I never won anything, occasionally I earned an award for doing something other than paying a registration fee.  Most of those trophies are now taking up landfill space as well, but among that subset of trophies that I actually earned, was a small collection of little golden men swinging a tennis racket like you see in the picture above.  Thinking about it now, I realize I’ve mostly forgotten about my little flirtation with tennis.  It was a long time ago, but, seeing as it is Wimbledon week, or apparently “Wimby” week as they’re calling it at ESPN, I thought I’d try to relive my tennis heyday.

If you asked me when I was about 10 years old if I played tennis I would have told you that I did, but then you would have realized that what I really did was hit a ball against our garage door with a racket ball racket.  A successful “match” might entail not losing my ball in the rain gutters or not doing permanent damage to the light fixture between the garage doors.  I also was a big fan of televised tennis at this point, although about the only tournaments I remember being on the air were the four majors.   Wimbledon, which I would have spelled with a “t” at that point, was an especially big deal.  Breakfast at Wimbledon was a prime television occasion.

I think I might have been a Boris Becker fan.  I can’t say that for sure.  I was definitely anti-Stefan Edberg.  I had such disdain for Edberg, in fact, that I claimed, without a shred of doubt, that I could easily return his serve and possibly beat him at tennis.  I was serious (Keep in mind I’d still never actually played tennis at this point).  I would get into arguments with my sister about it, and then she would use it as an example of my stupidity when talking to one of her friends.  He thinks he can beat Stefan Edberg, and then playing my role I would insist that I could.  Belated apologies to Stefan Edberg, I can say with some comfort now that you probably would have bested me.

In response to all this tennis talk, or perhaps in an attempt to save the garage door, my parents asked me if I actually wanted to try playing tennis–for real.  I had a pretty busy sports schedule at this point.  Baseball, golf, my miserable soccer career may or may not have been over, basketball, the only time to fit some tennis in would be the summer after baseball was over.  I decided I wanted to play, and not long after that I showed up for my first lesson.  I did not bring my racket ball racket.  The woman had to grab me a  tennis racket out of her car or something, and we got started with her showing me the different tennis grips.  I was immediately bored out of my mind.

I think I know now that I liked the idea of playing tennis more than I actually liked playing tennis.  When I was hitting the ball against my garage door, I could be as good as I wanted to be in my mind.  When I actually got on the court and I realized there were boundaries, that my serve wasn’t that great, and that I’d rather be playing golf, it lost a good bit of its luster.  I stuck with it for a season, maybe two, and as my discarded trophies would suggest–I wasn’t awful.  I quit at just the right time when any natural athletic ability I had was about to be swallowed up by kids who actually played and practiced the game with some discipline.

I remember years later, maybe toward the end of high school, I was hanging around with some kids who I played golf with, and one of them brought up a kid who had quit playing golf with us to focus on tennis.  He’d become a very good tennis player, and this surprised me a little bit, because I remembered playing tennis with him when we were both just starting out.  He was a few years younger than me, and while he could hold his own with the older kids, I would have hardly called him a prodigy.  I expressed some doubt about the level he had attained by saying something like, “he can’t be that good if he lost to me.”  Then someone else said, “That’s like saying Tiger Woods isn’t good at golf, because I beat him when he was three.”  We all got a pretty good laugh out of that, and it was probably the last time I ever thought of myself in terms of being a tennis player.

I guess my interest in tennis has waned considerably since my brief burst of enthusiasm in the late 80s, although I still pay attention to the same tournaments.  I’ve given up any incarnation of the game, though.  I don’t even know what became of my tennis racket, which I never returned to the coach who loaned it to me on the day of my first lesson.

I feel like this post should end with a list, and I’m thinking that I’ve disliked far more tennis players than I’ve actually been a fan of over the years.  So, here’s my list of top-5 tennis villains.

1. Ivan Lendl
2. Roger Federer
3. Stefan Edberg
4. Michael Stich
5. Jim Courier