The Dirty Inning

It's 1976. The Phillies' backs are against the wall, down 2-0 in the NLCS. Nobody in Philadelphia believes that they can pull off the impossible against the Big Red Machine in Cincinnati. And they would be right, because they can't. Justin and Trev go back to a time when the Phillies were a playoff team for just one more day, and what a day of press coverage and fan sentiments it was.

In April 1986, the Phillies infield made a trio of costly errors in one inning that weren't even the last errors they'd commit all day. Let's learn about how a 41-year-old Steve Carlton felt about that, and how manager John Felske felt about Carlton's feelings.

Go back to 1996 for a day of poor reflexes and early exit at first base. Switching from third to first is supposed to be somewhat seamless, but it certainly didn't look that way for Todd Zeile on August 7, when he broke a National League record for defensive errors in one game and committed two on the same play.

In the nineties, one moment sparked a secret war between the Phillies and the NL umpires that the Phillies said was obvious and the umpires said of course was not and would never happen.

Trev and Justin take a fun little jaunt back to 2011, the easiest year of Phillies fandom ever recorded, to prove that hey; a terrible bullpen can pop up anywhere at anytime on any team.

Go back to 1960 with Gene Mauch and the Phillies, whose first game managing the New Phillies took place only days after a threatening message rang out across Connie Mack Stadium, warning fans to deny their base instincts to throw trash.

It sucked to hit against Tom Seaver in the seventies. His career vs. the Phillies had a lot of that. And he crushed them. A lot. Except for one back-up first baseman for no reason.

Remember when Hall of Fame third baseman, twelve-time all-star, twelve-time Gold Glove winner, nine-time Silver Slugger, and three-time MVP Mike Schmidt was booed? Well, by the time the Phillies were retiring his number in 1990, they weren't booing him anymore! They were booing several other people who ruined the entire evening for Schmidt and everyone else.

It's the anniversary of the day the Phillies traded Ryne Sandberg to Chicago, so we're going to talk about the time, decades later, when he came back. Retrace Sandberg's steps through a boring and stupid era of Phillies baseball, up to the dirtiest inning of Sandberg's final game.

Jack Taylor didn't play for the Phillies very long. In addition, Jack Taylor didn't play for the Phillies very well. Let's visit 1897 Cincinnati for some reason and check in on a city overrun by squealing pigs and struggling Phillies.