Finally, Vilification For Philly’s Boobirds

Cheer up, Phillies fans! Not only has your team scored thirty-five runs in the past two games, but it appears your hearty boos over 125 years of the franchise has actually paid off. So, uh, rather: Get angry, Phillies fans! Boo anything you can think of!

The idea that a team’s passionate fans helps a team win — or, rather, helps a team avoid long losing streaks — comes from superb baseball writer Joe Posnanski. While he goes over the league-leading 11 losing streaks of eight games or more by the Kansas City Royals since 2002 — 9 since ‘04! — he notes that only three franchises haven’t had a losing streak of eight games or more since then: Yankees, Red Sox and (!) Phillies.

Yes, somehow the Fightins haven’t lost over a week’s worth of games since Terry Francona skippered eight straight defeats in late August and early September of 2000. (It wasn’t a September swoon, as the Phillies weren’t even above .500 all season; that team had both Ron Gant and Desi Relaford.)

I wonder if the booing fans, the angry media, the intensive talk shows, the angry Internet boards — I wonder if these things keep the players a bit more on edge. I’m not saying this can make the players BETTER over the long term — I’m not saying boos can turn a 73-win talent into an 89-win team. But we’re not talking about that — it only takes one victory to break a losing streak. And maybe in the angriest towns there is a heightened sense of awareness when the losses start to mount, a greater sense of agitation, a feeling like, “Um, we better freaking go out and win a game already or it’s going to get really ugly around here.”

I’m not one to take a throw-it-out-there blog post — where the author writes, “I suspect that if someone did study it they would find there’s nothing to it” — and treat is as gospel, but… wait, yes I am. Okay, Philadelphia fans, let’s all use this as an excuse to boo the players mercilessly after a single loss. After all, we wouldn’t want them to go into a two-game losing streak.

Fans Who Boo Loudest Suffer Least [Joe Posnanski]

IronPigs Open Season With A Whimper

While the Phillies haven’t exactly burst out of the gate with a good start (they’re 6-7), at least they’re not the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. The Phils’ new AAA affiliate has opened its inaugural season with an 0-11 start.

They’ve been outscored so far, 53-16, and have been shut out three times. The IronPigs are already 7.5 games back in their division and haven’t scored more than 3 runs in a game this year. They also were dominated in their most recent series by a guy named Barbaro.

On the plus side… uhm… gee, I dunno. Lehigh Valley did beat the Phillies’ AA affiliate in a preseason game. 0-11! That’s pretty hard to do in baseball. Perhaps the Lehigh Valley IronPigs are the new Washington Generals, traveling around the country only to lose every single time.

IronPigs Losing Streak Reaches 11 [Iron Pigs via Philly EDGE]