We Have Nothing Left but Faith. Let’s Ride it For All It’s Worth
Posted by Johnny Goodtimes on November 2nd, 2009
I’ll tell you when it hit a bitter, cynical old curmudgeon like myself (see post below). It was when I decided to read the lyrics to “High Hopes” today in an effort to pick my hopes back up off the ground after last night. Suddenly it all made sense. Like the Red Sox in 2004 needing to pull off the greatest comeback in baseball history to knock off The Curse, so too did the Phillies need to be backed against the wall to pull off the prophecy of Harry’s favorite song. There are no ants or rubber tree plants in a 2-2 Series. But now, suddenly, our faith is being tested in a way that it not been tested in the past two years. Don’t you see that it could not happen any other way? A 3-1 series deficit. We are facing the rubber tree plants. Anyone with any sense would know to throw their hands up and quit. But that is what faith is. It is riding beyond the boundaries of the expected, daring to believe in things that do not make sense. It is tantamount to insanity, because the math makes doesn’t compute, everything that has happened before must be thrown out the window, and we must simply ride on a belief. FAITH. It is not made of gold or steel or mortar. And yet we MUST, we MUST BELIEVE TONIGHT. We must keep the faith.
It is easy to a cynic tonight. Easy because the odds say that the cynic will be proven right tonight. And there are few things that we enjoy better than being proven right. Well screw the odds, screw the cynics, and screw our personal desires to be proven right. Tonight, let’s run on faith. Do you think Harry would give up on this team after falling behind 3 games to 1? Heck no, and despite being a bitter old curmudgeon, I’m not going to either. Oops there goes another rubber tree…Game 5. Oops, there goes another rubber tree…Game 6. Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant…Game 7. Hey, maybe there is a little math to this thing after all.
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm
you’d be better served to hop off the faith bandwagon and instead say the Phillies can win because they are just as good or better in any single game. They should win tonight’s game because they have the better pitcher on the mound and then you take it from there. Faith makes no sense, and in the rare times when it appears that faith is rewarded, it is merely a happy and coincidental convergence of some other factor (i.e. better pitching in all three remaining games).
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Parsnip rooted for Mr. Potter in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
I never watched the whole movie actually, just smippets of it…besides, that movie was universal in its message, the Phillies are most certainly not playing against Mr. Potter for everyone but only from their own fan’s perspectives…but go ahead, make fun even though I thought I was clearly pointing out that having faith and faith only is an insult to a team that’s good enough to win each game without walking on water…
November 2nd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
“Faith makes no sense.” If I was a Mets fan, Parsnip, I’d probably feel the same way.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Faith not making any sense is a universal axiom…people think that the earth is 6,000 years old based on faith and the same criteria that you defined faith to be…some people can only hang their hat on the amorphus concept of faith but a true fan of baseball and the Phillie will expect his/her team to win based on its components and proven abilities…as for the Mets, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy than Omar Minaya…
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
For the love of all that is good and holy, Parsnip, if you had been coach of the US Olympic Hockey team in ‘80, instead of a motivational speech, you would have broken out some bar graphs to show the team what their mathematical odds were of winning against the Soviets.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
wow, it took you this long to call me out on my tone? So unlike you….I was wondering when you would go after me for being so methodical…
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Hey Method Man, hopefully I’ll see ya tonight at P and K so we can settle this like men-by drinking lots of beer, watching baseball, and arguing loudly.