The legacy of the Philadelphia Phillies over the years can be summed up as perennial losers with flashes of success from time to time.  They currently have amassed the most losses of any team in the history of pro sports, not just baseball, all of professional sports.  Including today’s loss they are just 118 defeats away from 10,000 all-time (9,882 if you’re counting).  Established in 1883 the team has had little to celebrate.  Now in their 123rd year of existence, the Phillies lay claim to 9 playoff appearances, 5 pennants and just one World Championship.  However, the team has seen a streak of winning seasons as of late, but improved in nearly every way, there is still one position that seems to haunt the Phils organization, the closer.

            The Phils have had their most recent post season post season experience back in 1993.  They dominated during the regular season (they didn’t lose back-to-back games that year until sometime in early August) and made their way to the World Series.  In the series they faced the defending champions the Toronto Blue Jays.  It was truly a great series, although for the Phils’ faithful, the ending was disappointing.  Mitch “Wild-Thing” Williams served up the game and series ending homer to Joe Carter and the rest was history.

            The closer position in Philadelphia has never recovered.  Williams by all accounts had a stellar season in ’93.  He finished the year with 43 saves and while he did save a lot of games, he had his share of blown saves.  He lived up to his nickname of “The Wild Thing”.  However, after serving up the series ending homerun neither Williams nor the Phillies closers ever recovered.  Williams was run out of town and could not pull together his stuff and was soon out of baseball.  Williams may be gone, but for the Phils Phaithful the memory remains.  No one position in any sport has been as scrutinized since ’93 in Philadelphia (although the Flyers goaltenders come in a close 2^nd). 

        Closers have come and gone from Philadelphia in the past 13 years, but as the team has seen those recent successes, they have come close, only to be let down by their good friend, the closer.  Jose Mesa was filling the closer roll when the Phils began to become winners again.  Mesa posted 42 and 45 save seasons in his first two campaigns with the Phillies (2001, 2002).  Great numbers but Mesa seemed to collapse at the most in opportune times and the Phils could not hit post season pay dirt.  2003 was the end of the road for him, managing only 24 saves.  Mesa, the once dominant closer looked rattled at best most of the time.  The media and the fans came down hard on him for his blown saves, despite posting back to back season of over 40 saves.  Mesa left Philadelphia and the very next year was back to his normally confident self and had 43 saves for the Pirates in ’04.  So, was it Mesa after all who was to blame?

            Enter the next victim, Billy Wagner.  Wagner was signed by the Phillies to be their savior in the pen.  An established closer (so was Mesa at the time he was signed) Wagner was expected to come in, shut things down and get the team over the hump that had plagued them for so long.  Wagner had great numbers in Philadelphia, but was not overly impressive with his save totals, just 21 his first season and 38 last year.  But even with the likes of Wagner, closing out games for the Phils always seemed to be an adventure.  Why is this?

            Besides the pressure of fans and media, there is something else going on with Phillies closers, the coaching staff.  Wagner posted 38 saves last year, but the shocking statistic is that he appeared in 75 games last year.  75 games!  It seems a bit high for his save total.  The fact is there has been mismanagement of the pitching staff in Philadelphia over the past several season.  Man times over the course of Wagner’s tenure he was trotted out to the mound in non-save situations, only to have the team be in a save situation the very next day, only to have a tired Wagner who was worked 2-3 innings the night before.  In 2004 he had a similar game to saves ratio, appearing in 45 games and saving 21. 

            Wagner wasn’t the only one.  Mesa appeared in over 70 games each of his first two seasons as a Phillie.  His final year he appeared in 61 games and saved 24.  Although his last season there his confidence was definitely shaken after recording a career high of 9 blown saves the prior year (2002, his previous high in a season was 5 and averages just over 3 per season for his career).  It seems that current Phillies closer Tom Gordon is in for much the same fate.  Already much maligned from the outset in Philadelphia, the coaching staff doesn’t seem like it wants to take the pressure off their closer.  In the second game of the season Gordon was put in the game, in a non-save situation and gave up the winning run.  It looks like the start short tenure for Gordon (although this season might seem like an eternity for him). 

            So who is to fault here, is it Mitch Williams and him adding even more pressure and attention to an already pressure packed role?  Is it the pitchers themselves?  Or is it the coaching staff, Larry Bowa and Joe Kerrigan both have felt the wrath partly (more like mostly) due to pitching woe’s.  However Charlie Manuel and Rich Dubee appear to be running down the same road, the road to heartbreak and failure….