This, too, shall pass

by Phil Wood

A rain delay of two hours, 22 minutes meant two things: One, Phillies' starter Roy Oswalt wouldn't actually take the mound at all, given the weather and his well-documented back problems; and two, by the time play resumed a lot of the local fans had opted to head home.

The result? It's now the fourth inning and if you had your eyes closed, you'd swear you were in Citizen's Bank Park.

I've heard enough "Let's Go Phillies" to last a lifetime.

I've mentioned, both on-air and in print that it's not been such a long time since Philadelphia's National League entry was essentially moribund. When I was growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Phillies were, to be blunt, pretty awful - like, Senators awful. Dead last from 1958-61, with the 1961 Phillies managing only a .305 winning percentage, worse than even the first-year expansion Senators' .379 percentage. They got past .500 in 1962, famously blew the 1964 NL pennant and then settled back into mediocrity until they experienced a run of success 1976-83, with two pennants and one world championship.

Dave Sheinin, the Washington Post's"Baseball Insider, brings the story closer to the present today with his entry "Phillies provide blueprint for what Nationals hope to build," pointing out that the Phillies were consistent losers 1994-2002, a span of nine years. They finally got it together in 2003 and have had winning seasons ever since.

Hey, nobody is good forever or bad forever. Feel free to look that up. Older Phillies fans know what it's like to finish out of the money and the younger ones will experience it at some point down the road. Nationals fans will, at some point, know what it's like to cheer for their team in the Phils' home ballpark and will do so with a degree of civility.

You can't legally prevent Phillies fans from attending games in Washington, but give it some time.

They won't be driving down I-95 to watch a third place club in 2013.