I really feel like he could've been one of the best second basemen ever if he stayed healthy. Because not only did he miss a lot of time but the injuries definitely affected his production and performance. It just takes a lot out of you to have to constantly come back from injury during a 162 game season. Where you have to get in a groove and really find your swing and feel for pitches at the plate. I guess I'm glad that we only wonder what MORE COULD'VE happened with guys like Rollins, Utley, Howard, Hamels, Ruiz, Victorino, Madsen, Myers and maybe a few others. Instead of saying IF this or this happened they could've won a World Series.
Which is really a haunting thought if they won the division every year from '07-'11 and didn't have a World Series to show for it in '08. And honestly if that had happened, I don't think the '08 team would get that much shit for not winning it all. Which could've happened if Victorino and Stairs didn't each hit two run homers in the top of the 8th in game 4. I mean the Phils were losing 5-3 in the top of the 8th in LA and to me at least, it really felt like the Dodgers had all the momentum. And with their bullpen that year, a 5-3 win was pretty likely and nobody would've been surprised at that point to see LA tie the series 2-2. And then with that momentum maybe they get to Cole in game 5 to actually take the series lead 3-2 going to Philly. Even if they don't, who knows if we win either game 6 or 7 to go to the World Series.
That team had essentially next to no playoff experience going into that run. Just a series against the Rockies where we were swept in 3 games. So the '08 team gets eliminated in the NLCS and it would likely still be considered disappointing because we had the 2-0 series lead. But still would be viewed as another step in the right direction. Then if everything else stayed the same, we'd lose the World Series in 6 games to the Yanks the next year. Lose in 6 in the NLCS to SF and then with the best record in baseball and 100+wins, we lose in 5 in the NLDS to the Cardinals. It's just a haunting thought to think about looking back at that era without the WS title in '08. It would be the Phillies version of the Reid era in football. More specifically, the run the Eagles had from '00-'05.
A lot of similarities, I think it would be each team with 5 straight playoff appearances. The Phils would have 3 NLCS appearances compared to the Eagles 4 NFC title games. And each would have lost in the years they made it to the Super Bowl or World Series. I thought of this mostly as a response to the guy saying Rollins is our only hope at a HOFer from that era. And I just thought it's much nicer to be hoping for that and wondering if they could've won more. Than looking back at that era and wishing they had won a world series. If there's someone in that alternate universe, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to have that one world series title.