On the Bright Side: Losing Builds Character

John Finger has a nice article today focusing on Chase Utley's actions, or lack there of when the laptops disappeared, following last night's tough loss to the Braves.

“Times like this can build character for a team,” he said a good 45-minutes later as he dressed for the trip home. “That’s the way I look at it.”

If anyone knew how to solve the losing ways and malaise engulfing the baseball team it was Utley. Chances are he wasn’t merely sitting there like David Puddy from that Seinfeld episode where Elaine Benes’ boyfriend wiled away the time on a flight simply staring out into the middle distance.

The Phillies must have some of the best character in all of baseball after their incredible 4-14 stretch in their last 18 games.

Utley certainly isn't the guy to point the blame at but watching his reading about his reaction to this wretched stretch is certainly intriguing. Have the Phillies been painful to watch lately? ABSOLUTELY. Do you have the same confidence in this team as you had in last year's team? No way.

But the majority of the pieces are the same. Maybe you simply can't win when your ace is struggling, your number two is gone for the season, you throw out rookie starter after rookie starter, and your stud closer and setup man stink for over a month.

Who knows, it's still early July. They have plenty of time to make things right and they can start tonight against the Mets. Do I think they will? My confidence has surely been shaken but I still have faith in the boys.

At the end of the day, Chase says they're coming to the park prepared. I guess that's all you can ask of them.

“I feel like we’re coming to the park prepared,” Utley said. “We obviously haven’t been playing that well, but we haven’t seen a change in our attitude for the negative. It’s obviously a rough stretch. We’re definitely not making any excuses, but we do need to start playing better in all parts of the ball: offensively, defensively. We need to pitch better. That’s the bottom line. How do you do that? You stay motivated. You stay positive.”

If Chase can stay positive, we as fans can at least put on a fake positive face for a while, can't we? Remember that WFC thing?

Come on Phils. And Happy Fourth of July.

>>Searching for an answer [Finger Food]

Comments

[will.H]

team just isnt hungry anymore. their will to win seems to decrease everyday. no one wants to be the guy to take a risk to get something started. no more drag bunts from vic and stealing bases is all but a myth for this team anymore. it seems like everyones afraid to make an out becuase they'll be blamed after the game is over.

I want that rowand-break-your-face-for-the-team attitude again

[PhiPhan5648]

@will.H

Boy oh boy could I use a shot of that right now. Some all out, balls to the wall play from this team really could go a long ways to renew my phaith in them. Despite the fact that I do still have phaith, it's starting to fade away.