This was the team that made me fall in love with baseball. You say they reminded you of "asshole jocks" at your school, but to me and my classmates, you couldn't be more wrong. Every other team, it seemed, featured egotistical jerks who had lost their love of the game. Those Phils reminded us of our dads' buddies - crude but authentic. Thanks for writing about them!
My pleasure, and definitely an oversimplification on my part. I can't say I identified with that team a lot- they were a lot more like my dad's buddies too than me at that time, but I definitely don't want to imply that I had anything against them. You're absolutely right that they had a realness to them that other teams lacked. They were a lot of fun to watch and one of the most entertaining teams I've ever come across, both on and off the field. And how can anyone not like Kruk? That guy was great.
John Kruk authored one of the best baseball quotes of all time. Admonished by a woman who saw him smoking and expressed disbelief a professional athlete would do such a thing, he responded, "I ain't an athlete, lady, I'm a baseball player." Anyway, I really liked the '93 Phils, since both the Braves and Blue Jays were already old hat and seemed like a bunch of rich country club kids.
I think he used that as the title to his autobiography, if I remember correctly. I had a soft spot for the Braves, so it took me a little longer to get sick of them, but the 93 Phils were a lot of fun, and I was definitely rooting for them in the WS. And, as I'm sure the article makes clear, Kruk was by far my favorite player on that team. I kinda miss him being on a national platform like Baseball Tonight, because he was always a likeable storyteller. I'm sure some people didn't like that, but I enjoyed it.
Fun and funny, Patrick! I sure hope baseball fans catch on to your Powder Blue Nostalgia, and your wide range of baseball-related articles (and may mistakenly think you're only focused on one team)! I didn't remember the Farley/Kruk bit, so that was a hoot to see!
Your article made me think of the PR aspect of baseball front offices! While the '93 Phils, say (or any other winning team), were busy winning, they seemed to embrace the slovenly, gum-popping, tobacky-chawin' slobs public-perception the FO must've (I'm guessing) been hand-wringing and teeth-grinding thru the season! I gotta think, at some point, somebody in the FO had to say (by the summer, anyway)....."oh, great! Do you think this'll put a dent in our ticket sales?"
I'm drawing the connection, of course, to another public relations-focused lane...rock music and its sometimes questionably-behaving principals! Record label FOs often shudder at the headlines so eagerly grabbed by their respective artists, and cringe at the possible (if not probable) blow-back on sales!
Thanks Brad! I doubt that a team dynamic like the 93 Phils (or the 86 Mets) is sustainable long term, but when you catch lightning in a bottle for a season, it can be pretty special. I'm sure there was some anxiety in the FO, but as long as you're rolling in the standings and people are in the seats, I'm not sure you have any choice but to roll with it. That said, even though the Phils went downhill for quite a while after 93, I bet there was some relief when that core moved on. Speaking for myself, if I was in their FO, I wouldn't have wanted to deal with Dykstra for sure!
This was the team that made me fall in love with baseball. You say they reminded you of "asshole jocks" at your school, but to me and my classmates, you couldn't be more wrong. Every other team, it seemed, featured egotistical jerks who had lost their love of the game. Those Phils reminded us of our dads' buddies - crude but authentic. Thanks for writing about them!
My pleasure, and definitely an oversimplification on my part. I can't say I identified with that team a lot- they were a lot more like my dad's buddies too than me at that time, but I definitely don't want to imply that I had anything against them. You're absolutely right that they had a realness to them that other teams lacked. They were a lot of fun to watch and one of the most entertaining teams I've ever come across, both on and off the field. And how can anyone not like Kruk? That guy was great.
John Kruk authored one of the best baseball quotes of all time. Admonished by a woman who saw him smoking and expressed disbelief a professional athlete would do such a thing, he responded, "I ain't an athlete, lady, I'm a baseball player." Anyway, I really liked the '93 Phils, since both the Braves and Blue Jays were already old hat and seemed like a bunch of rich country club kids.
I think he used that as the title to his autobiography, if I remember correctly. I had a soft spot for the Braves, so it took me a little longer to get sick of them, but the 93 Phils were a lot of fun, and I was definitely rooting for them in the WS. And, as I'm sure the article makes clear, Kruk was by far my favorite player on that team. I kinda miss him being on a national platform like Baseball Tonight, because he was always a likeable storyteller. I'm sure some people didn't like that, but I enjoyed it.
Fun and funny, Patrick! I sure hope baseball fans catch on to your Powder Blue Nostalgia, and your wide range of baseball-related articles (and may mistakenly think you're only focused on one team)! I didn't remember the Farley/Kruk bit, so that was a hoot to see!
Your article made me think of the PR aspect of baseball front offices! While the '93 Phils, say (or any other winning team), were busy winning, they seemed to embrace the slovenly, gum-popping, tobacky-chawin' slobs public-perception the FO must've (I'm guessing) been hand-wringing and teeth-grinding thru the season! I gotta think, at some point, somebody in the FO had to say (by the summer, anyway)....."oh, great! Do you think this'll put a dent in our ticket sales?"
I'm drawing the connection, of course, to another public relations-focused lane...rock music and its sometimes questionably-behaving principals! Record label FOs often shudder at the headlines so eagerly grabbed by their respective artists, and cringe at the possible (if not probable) blow-back on sales!
Thanks Brad! I doubt that a team dynamic like the 93 Phils (or the 86 Mets) is sustainable long term, but when you catch lightning in a bottle for a season, it can be pretty special. I'm sure there was some anxiety in the FO, but as long as you're rolling in the standings and people are in the seats, I'm not sure you have any choice but to roll with it. That said, even though the Phils went downhill for quite a while after 93, I bet there was some relief when that core moved on. Speaking for myself, if I was in their FO, I wouldn't have wanted to deal with Dykstra for sure!