Recreational Holidays

The Philadelphia Phillies Have Every Right To Think The Third Time Will Be A Charm

While the Philadelphia Phillies played the role of the bridesmaid last season, they are on a run that any team in the league would kill for. They have gotten back to the World Series in back to back seasons, a feat that is truly rare these days. They also managed to steal headlines all winter long and eventually got the pitcher that they coveted at the end of last season.

While the Phillies were happy to get Cliff Lee at the end of the year in 2009, the player that they really wanted was Halladay. This is the true Ace that they had been longing for since the days of Curt Schilling and they managed to get him in a megadeal during the off-season. For financial reasons, they did not hand onto Cliff Lee, but they believe their starting rotation will more than do the job.

The fact that they got as far as they did last season with a struggling Cole Hamels is kind of incredible. It still seems to be a bit of a mystery as to what went wrong last year, but if he can get his head straight this season and be the Cole Hamels that he was in 2008, watch out National League.

Hamels will have the benefit of being the number two man this year. While he may not like being unseated as the team Ace, he will like the difference in opponent that he will face. For the most part, very few pitchers are of his caliber coming out of that position. If he is back on track, the Phillies could have two 20 game winners on their staff this season.

The bullpen of the Phillies has been rock solid the last few years and then Lidge just blew up. While it is of some concern, fans can look back to the 2007 when he faced similar challenges and then did something special in his comeback season, he converted every save he had. His perfect season is one of the main reasons that they all got rings in 2008.

While the pitching will be fun to watch, this team is all about knocking it out of the stadium. Imagine being a manager and knowing that you have seven legitimate shots in your starting lineup that can hit 20 or more home runs! Who else has that other than possibly the Yankees? This is a team that is going to put on run scoring show every night.

The ballpark will see sellout after sellout again this season. In a city that was starved for sports success, the Phillies are putting a full plate out to eat almost every night. The fans have rewarded them with support that few other cities can match. If you want tickets, you better move fast because this is far and away the hottest ticket in town.

Written by Jake Kohler, article sponsored by TicketSeating.com. TicketSeating.com sells Philadelphia Phillies Tickets, MLB Tickets, Sports Tickets and more to your favorite events around your area.