Some R and R for the Phillies

Well folks, it's World Series time, and guess what? The Philadelphia Phillies are 4 wins away from bringing home some hardware. Whoda thunkit??

Having clinched a World Series berth last week, they will have had about a week of R & R to get ready for Wednesday's Game 1 battle against the Tampa Bay ("Don't Call Me Devil") Rays. That rest and relaxation should help, and hopefully it will get them off to a hot start compared to the Rays who have ridden an emotional roller coaster of late.

But the other R & R that I felt like blogging about today was the one and only Randy Ready. Yes, you remember Randy Max Ready, the quintessential utility position player for the Phillies in 1989-1991 and then again in 1994 and 1995.

Having bounced around from team to team with six different stints from 1983-1995, Randy unfortunately wound up on some bad squads and only played in one single playoff game during his career (he struck out to Tom Henke in his only at bat, unfortunately). This playoff appearance was during his days of playing for the Oakland A's who went up against the infamous Toronto Blue Jays in the 1992 ALCS. The A's lost and the Jays went on to win the World Series, and then, as all Phillies fans know, went on to win the World Series again in 1993.

Otherwise, Ready was a pretty reliable guy to have off the bench. During his career, in fact, he played every single position except catcher, pitcher, and shortstop. He played 234 games at second base, followed by 203 at third base, and scattered his time across the field, as well as DH, throughout his career.

Another fact of note... in 1989, Ready was traded along with the quintessential '93 Phillies fan favorite, John Kruk, to the San Diego Padres for Chris James. His best season was actually in 1987 for the Padres when he hit .309 with 12 homers and 54 RBIs in 124 games. Unfortunately it was pretty much all downhill from there as his playing time steadily dropped.

Today, at age 47, Randy Ready manages the Portland Beavers, the triple-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. In his first season, the team finished fourth with a 70-74 record. Now for some fun facts... are you Ready for this one... Randy (whose middle name is Max) is flanked by Max Venable, hitting coach, and John Maxwell, trainer. Oh and one more doozy for ya about the Beavers: from the span of 1983 to 1987, the Beavers had four managers over five seasons, starting with John Felske (who later managed the Phils), Lee Elia (who later managed the Phils), and yes, the legendary Charlie Manuel, current manager of the Phils. Now THAT'S six degrees of baseball separation right there. Go sleep on those gems for a little bit... just make sure you wake up by Wednesday night...

Small Request to Charlie Manuel

Ok, this has been bugging me since Charlie Manuel first became manager of the Phillies.

Scenario:

It's time for a pitching change in the middle of an inning.

Coach Manuel walks to the mound.

And walks.

And keeps walking.

And what does he forget?

Oh yeah-- to signal to the bullpen to send the pitcher in.

Just a thought, Charlie... when first stepping onto the field from the dugout, wave to the bullpen right away so you don't forget. It's a long walk out to that mound and anything can happen from start to finish.

In today's playoff game against the Brewers, he walked all the way out to the mound and then finally waved in the middle of conversation with the players who had convened together. Oy.

It's a simple matter, really. Just wave.

Phillies Random Locker Room Postings

Lately I've read about two separate locker room postings that caught my attention.

First I heard about Mike Schmidt emailing this message to the Phillies in regards to the storm of the Phillies/Mets series:

"The Mets know you're better than they are. They remember last year."

For starters, I'm rather impressed that Mike Schmidt uses email. It's kind of cool to think of my childhood idol shooting a motivational email off to a bunch of younger guys. As of right now the email seems to be working as the Phils are closing the gap on the Mets, having won the first two games of the series.

Today I read about another locker room message that was posted between games of today's doubleheader. According to ESPN, Charlie Manuel apparently wants to keep his team focused before the second game of the day, so he posted the following directive:

"No football on any TV after 7:15."

Hmmm... I hate to break it to Charlie, but football games are basically over at 7:15, not to mention that I'm sure most or all of these guys could sneak a game on their cell phones if they really wanted to. Not to mention the other fact that the game time is 8:05 so I'm sure most of the guys will be warming up at that time anyway. All in all, it's not quite the spine-tingling "Win today and we walk together forever" message left by Fred Shero for the Flyers final game in the Stanley Cup.

Now we wait for the next exciting message to be found on the Phillies' locker room wall...