25 Unheralded Stars from the ‘Dark Days’ of Philadelphia Phillies Baseball
February 20, 2012 by Greg Pinto
Filed under Fan News
Life has been sweet for fans of the Philadelphia Phillies gifted with short-term memory. The club has reeled off five straight division titles, won a World Series and has grown to become one of the most dominant forces in the sport of baseball.
It hasn’t always been that way. Not even close.
Fans with a long-term memory will recall that the Phillies were, once upon a time and several times over, one of the worst teams in baseball. They struggled with a number of issues, including terrible ownership, almost no source of revenue, a downtrodden ballpark and a payroll that would make today’s Tampa Bay Rays seem like high-rollers.
The result of that off-the-field struggle was an obvious on-the-field catastrophe. The Phillies failed to field teams capable of winning anything, let alone a title, and played several periods of baseball that were hard to watch. The Phillies have had their share of dark days indeed.
However, though they, as a whole, were comparable to the Bad News Bears at times, the Phillies still managed to find their diamonds in the rough. In their dark days, the Phillies found a number of very good players, players who often fail to receive the recognition they deserve because of the time period they played in.
May they be unheralded no longer.
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