Catch the Fever!

The Phillies have long had a promotional slogan - repeatedly requesting that we "Catch the Fever!". The slogan was printed on cups, shirts, hats and bats. It was even a cheesy disco song in the seventies starring Schmidt, Bowa, Luzinski, Maddox and the rest (send me an e-mail and I'll send it to you, very funny).

But with one championship in 122 seasons, I question if I really want to catch the kind of fever they've been promoting.

Yeah, it's a negative way of looking at things - but that's what being a Phillies fan is all about. The team puts something on the field worth supporting once a decade or so, and the fans spend the rest of those decades dispassionately following teams mired in mediocrity or stuck in dead last place.

The 1950 squad won the pennant and came close to winning it all. The sixties had the incredible rise and (more spectacular) demise of the 1964 team. The seventies took the decade off - but it was worth it when the world-championship of 1980 came around. The 1993 group of inmates took the city on its wildest ride yet.

Although the 2000's haven't produced a Phillies team worth watching yet, when it happens the city will get behind them and again become the loudest, most bodacious fans in the sport -- because we know there will be at least another ten years to rest and boo.

All that's really changed since last season is the Phillies let their most consistent starter, Eric Milton, go free. They replaced him with older, frailer Jon Lieber. They also sent Larry Bowa away, and replaced him with kinder, gentler Charlie Manuel. Manuel's been involved with professional baseball for 45 years now - so long that he actually has begun to resemble a baseball: He's round, bald, bright white, dressed in red pinstripes, and seems to go whatever way the players kick him.

Oh, and the Phillies started spring training by winning one of their first six games.

Catch the Fever? Hmmm...