Mike Lieberthal: Phillies Anchor

Former Phillies catcher Mike Lieberthal officially retired from baseball today. Without much fanfare, as one would expect for a 36-year-old backup catcher, but also as one would expect from a guy like Lieby.

During his 13 seasons in Philadelphia, Lieby didn’t really make waves. He wasn’t worshipped by the fans, but he wasn’t scorned by them either. He was a mild-mannered guy of average build who did not have good dancing skills, but who played solid baseball and anchored the Phillies squads through plenty of ups and downs and personnel changes.

Once Darren Daulton’s body was too worn down to catch, and the Benito Santiago plan was scrapped, Lieby was there behind the plate, day in and day out, at least when injuries didn’t get in the way.

He was not a spectacular hitter, but he was an important contributor—a number five or six in the lineup type of guy. Lieby’s best season was 1999, when he hit 31 home runs, had 96 runs batted in, and maintained a .300 batting average. He also had a fielding percentage of .997, won the Gold Glove, and was named to the All-Star team.

Defensively, he was a strong backstop, and he handled the pitching staff deftly. Think of all the terrible pitchers the Phillies had over the years. Poor Lieby had to deal with all of them. For every Curt Schilling or Brett Myers that he caught, there were dozens of Toby Borlands and Matt Beeches.

I personally enjoyed Lieby’s old school approach to his equipment. Even when it became trendy for catchers to resemble hockey goalies, Lieby never wavered from the backwards batting helmet—sans earflaps—and classic catcher’s mask.

When the Phillies decided to let Lieberthal go after the 2006 season, I felt strangely adrift. Lieby had been with the franchise for as long as I had been following the team. A Phillies roster without Mike Lieberthal just seemed odd to me.

After the Phillies made the playoffs in 2007, though, Lieberthal as Phillies anchor took on a new meaning. He was drafted by the organization in 1990 and made his debut in 1994, the year after the team’s miraculous trip to the World Series. While Lieby was on the roster, the team never made it to the postseason. In 2007, with him wearing Dodger blue, the Phillies won the N.L. East. It makes you wonder.

Yet in a way, it is also fitting that Lieberthal’s tenure spanned the period of the Phillies’ playoff drought. His career is symbolic of the team’s essence during that time. There were flashes of greatness, but not enough sustained brilliance to join the elite. There were low times, when poor play and injuries made the seasons forgettable. Not good enough to get over the hump, but showing enough potential to encourage hope.

Marlon Anderson Is A Team Player

It was a sad day in Dodgerville when Marlon Anderson was given his release a week ago. Why? Turns out he was the model teammate:

Upon his arrival from Washington, he informed new teammate Brad Penny that the pitcher had been tipping his breaking ball, and almost every hitter in the National League knew it.

While Penny couldn't tighten his mechanics in time to help the Dodgers last season, a few offseason adjustments have led to his Cy Young Award candidacy in this one. Anderson said he actually watched a couple of Penny's bullpen sessions late in the season.

"If I'm on a team with a guy, that's something I'll do for him," Anderson said. "I've always been that way."

And so shall the Phillies rue the day they dismantled their Duo of SuperMarlons. Especially since Anderson ("The Tall One") was picked up by the New York Mutts. Say hello to Endy Chavez for me, Marlon!

Dodgers-Phillies Extra: The Boogeyman, otherwise known as Roberto Hernandez, was surprisingly picked up by the Dodgers this past week to shore up a bullpen that didn't really seem in dire need of assistance (Beimel/Broxton/Saito looks pretty darn good to me), just in time to turn his Suckitude up to 11 against the Mets. I can only assume that this is an incredibly shrewd attempt at sabotaging the Phils' last remaining hopes of winning the division on the part of Los Angeles. The rivalry lives!

Five and Fly 7/20/07 [Yahoo! Sports]

Phillies Notes: A Family Affair

Is there such a thing as a two-game sweep in a three-game series? The Phillies were lucky to get out of Cleveland with one win. Pitching was subpar for all three games (especially the horrendous bullpen) and though they scored some runs, a diet of three straight lefties had the Fightings taking a lot of awfully ugly swings.

One of the few enjoyable subplots was following the performance of the high number of former Phillies on the current Indians roster at the beginning of the series. Pat Burrell's former fishing buddy, Jason Michaels, was the only guy who really torched the Phils, going 5-10 with a homer and 3 RBI. Maybe he heard about Pat's engagement.

Aaron Fultz also pitched a couple innings, didn't give up any runs, and somehow continues to avoid injury with that violent-looking delivery of his.

On the flip side, David Dellucci proved he was an "everyday player" by blowing out a hammy while running to first base. This being the Phillies, he still beat the throw. And Roberto Hernandez played himself all the way to the minors on Tuesday. Sadly, Paul Byrd and his forehead did not make an appearance.

To recap: five little Indians who played for Philadelphia on Monday; only three left by Thursday. You're welcome, Cleveland.

- Good riddance to interleague play! The Phillies escaped with a winning record for once (8-7), but I'm sure they wouldn't be sad to see it go. After the Expos left Montreal, Toronto became Philly's "natural rival." With Baltimore, there used to be a little juice to the games, but Phillies-Blue Jays has all the spark of Padres-Mariners. It's pretty depressing.

And with the exception of the White Sox, the AL Central just destroyed the Phils--even the Royals.

- Goodtime Charlie got ejected again on Sunday, his league-leading fifth ejection of the year. The Phillies, unsurprisingly, also lead the majors in ejections as a team.

This was always one of my pet peeves about Larry Bowa. If you whine and yell all the time, umpires are going to remember that. Manuel was supposed to be a change of pace--a guy who might actually endear himself to a few of the guys in blue. Now it seems like he'll get himself thrown out because he doesn't know what else to do.

- The Road to 10K continues, the magic number dwindling to 9. And despite all of the turmoil of the past week--the schizoid play, the bullpen implosions, the suspensions--only two games separate the Mets, Braves, and Phillies in the NL East.

Whatta game, folks.

I Will Now Go Stick My Head In the Oven

Report: Phillies sign Jose Mesa

Like it or not, we're gonna party like it's 2002.

Some outlets are also reporting that Freddy Garcia may find his way to the DL after giving up 6 runs in less than 2 innings to the motherfrakking Royals last night. This will most likely be a completely fabricated "injury" (a la Jeff Weaver) and is precisely what I was predicting as I watched the likes of Mark Grudzielanek slaughter the Chief.

Don't be surprised if Freddy has a mishap "washing his truck" this weekend.

Fun Times At Shea

A few observations after attending my first Phillies road game at Shea Stadium last night:

- Nothing was sweeter than Jimmy Rollins' first home run since April 27. The casual chatter of Mets fans in the nosebleeds revealed that nearly all of them loathe J-Roll for his pre-season comments about the Phils being "the team to beat" in the NL East. What surprised me though, was the use of euphemism (e.g. "punk," "all that other stuff he's done") that made Jimmy seem more like Pacman Jones. It was a fascinating study in scapegoating--Mets fans were practically inventing a rap sheet for J-Roll that simply doesn't exist.

- Julio Franco got to pinch-hit in the exciting 7th. Just want to point out that he was part of the Von Hayes trade in 1982. Also, Endy Chavez made us proud by grounding into a double play with the bases loaded (though he hurt his hamstring running it out, sucking some of the schadenfreude out of the situation).

- My buddy marveling at Shane Victorino's throwing arm after gunning down Carlos Delgado in the 4th: "He's like a cannon with a glove!" And Rod Barajas actually blocked the plate, kind of!

- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fan #1: A guy on the long escalator ride to the upper deck loudly argued that Ryan Howard was the worst defensive first baseman in the National League. Ryan later made a great diving stop to prevent a run from scoring in the critical 7th. Presumably, this fan forgot that his own team, which starts Delgado at first, is also in the National League.

- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fan #2: I walked by a guy in the concourse who yelled, "Oooh, the Phillies, never won a World Series!" Presumably, this fan's memory does not extend past the Mike Piazza Era.

- Ladies and Gentlemen, Mets Fans #3-5: A group of three guys several rows down got ejected from the game after they threatened to beat up some other fans for throwing ketchup packets at them, too drunk to realize that they had spilled it on themselves. These were douchebags of the first degree, not a single one of them actually wearing any Mets gear, attending a baseball game in white belts and silk-screened hoodies. It reminded me of when J-Lo used to go to Sox games with Ben Affleck.

- Mets Fans--A Caveat: The large group of young businesspeople in front of us were very friendly and very focused on making propositional bets for every other batter. Good people.

You really can't beat the adrenaline rush of wearing an opposing team's colors in hostile territory, especially when your team wins. Leaving the stadium, I must have given the thumbs-up to or high-fived every single other Phillies fan I encountered. Mets fans silently filed out of the building, mustering only a few "Yankees Suck" chants.

Only six games ahead now and they're not even worried about the Phils. We've got them right where we wanted them a month and a half ago.

Sal Fasano Can Block the Plate

The Rod Barajas soap opera continues to plod on and shows no signs of stopping. Uncle Charlie started him for the third time in four games and Barajas responded by going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, dropping his season average to .217.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis...

Toronto put together a nice relay to throw Cuddy out - and my man Sal Fasano (former Royals prospect) blocked the plate well. The contact play was on when Punto took off for home, but the ball happened to be hit right at the shortstop. I thought Torii gambled the most when he tried to stretch his single but, again, Toronto made the play.

In addition to his third-inning heroics, Fasano made another run-saving play in the fifth. Both were significant in an extra-inning win for the Blue Jays over the Twins.

Philly misses you and your Fu Manchu, Sal!



About Last Night... [Twins Insider]

Curt Schilling Can't Catch A Break

Curt Schilling has not been getting along with the media early on this season. First he was antagonized over the whole Dan Shaughnessy imbroglio (all evidence of which has been curiously removed from Schill's blog).

Now he's being called a fraud by Gary Thorne (vis a vis Doug Mirabelli) during Wednesday's Bosox-Orioles broadcast for supposedly faking the famous "bloody sock" during the 2004 ALCS:

In the bottom of the fifth, Orioles play-by-play man Gary Thorne said on the air that he had been told by Red Sox catcher Doug Mirabelli that the substance was paint, not blood.

"The great story we were talking about the other night was that famous red stocking that he wore when they finally won, the blood on his stocking," Thorne told broadcast partner and Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer.

"Nah," Thorne said. "It was painted. Doug Mirabelli confessed up to it after. It was all for PR. Two-ball, two-strike count."

I like how Throne dropped that potentially libelous bombshell and, without skipping a beat, kept moving on with the play-by-play.

This can't be true. He's a hockey guy, for Pete's sake! What the hell is he doing calling Orioles games? (Though I imagine they both get similar ratings.)

Schill loves the limelight, but I don't know--that looks pretty legit to me. After making himself look like a total Valley Girl, I think Thorne can forget about getting that Christmas card this year.

Curt Schilling Accused of Being Self-Aggrandizing. Really. [Deadspin]
Mirabelli Denies Saying Bloody Sock Wasn't Real [ESPN]

Venezuela's Long National Nightmare Is Over

Ugueth Urbina, sentenced to fourteen years in prison for attempted murder.

Say it ain't so, Ugie. (If this is a precedent for former Phillies involved in legal investigations, it does not bode well for David Bell)

However, Urbina's lawyers are still appealing the decision--good news for teams still trying to shore up their bullpens...ahem:

"I am very disappointed and upset," his agent, Peter Greenberg, told ESPN. "We're hopeful that the judicial process will exonerate Uggie. I firmly believe he's innocent."

In fact, for all the beatings he took in Philadelphia, Urbina might be innocent in more ways than one (3.45 lifetime ERA, 237 career saves). So get on the phone, Pat Gillick. Let's see if your famous "connections" extend to the South American judicial system.