The history. The lore. The improbability. jaysonst wants to think about everything that had to happen to make this magical Phillies postseason run possible. 'When a team wins a game on a home run like that home run, it’s always worthy of reflection.'
I asked Middleton on Sunday if he ever finds himself thinking these days that when he hired Dombrowski, he’d made a good choice.
Funny coincidence alert: The Phillies exceeded that threshold this year for the first time in franchise history. And guess where they’ll be playing in a few days?), even though it would take them over the tax line, Middleton said he was on board within minutes. Since that day, it feels as if Dombrowski has nailed the decisions, big and small. But I reminded him Sunday night that some things that carry a team to this place are completely out of the team’s control. For instance …You might have heard somewhere that there were two new rules in place this season. One added an extra wild-card team in each league. The other brought the designated hitter to the National League for the first time.
And without the DH, you know how many at-bats Harper would have gotten this season after he injured his right elbow in April? Zero! So there wasn’t a position on the field he could play — except DH. Which means not only would there have been no fairy-tale homer from him Sunday, but also nothing around him would have looked the same.