They won the World Series, they deserve a 5 star. Well I have the Mets winning the NL East, but won't be surprised if they knock off the Mets once again.

****10/16/08 Update:  Oh my Lord, I haven't rated my Phillies in four years.  And oh my Lord, we're in the World Series.

It's looking more and more like we'll face off against the Rays next week, which is daunting.  But the Phils are on fire.  Starting with the bullpen, Lidge remains perfect, tacking 6 post-season saves onto his regular-season tally of 41.  Our middle relievers, Madsen, Romero, Durbin, et al., are some of the best in the business.  Phils still haven't lost a game when they led going into the 7th.  Our starters are winning games.  Between Cole's consistently nasty stuff, Brett's decision to revert to his dominance of old, and Blanton's machine-like ability to go deep in games, it appears we have a 1-2-3 capable of doing some damage.  But it helps that our offense is deep--so deep that we had no trouble advancing w/o the help of our big bats (Howard and Utley) for much of the post-season thus far.  Victorino, the Flyin Hawaiian, deserves special mention.  He seems to have turned it on this post-season, getting the clutch, late-inning 2-run homer to tie Game 4 against LA, and making some gravity-defying catches in center field.  And he's lost no class in the process, telling Furcal to keep his head up after botching 3 critical plays at shortstop and explaining during a press conference that he had no beef with Kuroda despite some head-hunting. 

I could go on all day.  Go Phils.

***8/18/04 Update: The Phillies have dropped 5 in a row now, are 2-8 over their last 10 games, and are in 5th place (6 games back) in the wild card race. Bowa isn't totally to blame (Burrell, Wagner, Millwood, and Madsen are all injured and badly missed), but he still has to go. This is a team that, 5 months ago, popular opinion had taking the division without breaking a sweat. 4 -albeit key- injuries shouldn't ruin our chances like this. That said, I still haven't lost hope. **5/20/04 Update: If Burrell continues to hit well, and if Wagner can stay healthy once he's off the DL, I think the Phillies have as good a shot at going all the way as any team in the league. *OC: I've been a loyal fan for my entire life. Some of my fondest all-time best sports-related memories are of sitting in the nose-bleed seats at the Vet during the '93 play-offs. There are times when I find myself wondering about some trade incentives but all in all, I have never lost respect for the fightin's. I may be a minority on this one... 

I remember going to Veterans Stadium a bunch of times.  I've always enjoyed watching the Phillies

This is the year!!!!

Not my team, but I always liked the grittly Phillies. This team had so many characters of the person you think of a typical Philly type.

Loaded with talent! Bullpen is a little icky though but a solid team overall with some stud players in Utley, Rollins, and Howard

They're not the greatest team, but they are doing ok

Pretty good team at present, have generally been at best disappointing, often horrible over the years.Save for the mid 70's/ early 80's era, they have never really been a force to be reckoned with for a sustained period of time, and their fans make the pre 2004 Red Sox fans look like the cast of the show "Up With People."

I bleed Philly Red forever! They are playing good at the moment. Hopefully they keep it up. Im moving to AZ again but I will always root for the Phils! Whooo!!!!!!!

So much talent....and they still suck.

no daught my favorite nl team.. i think they need a little more better pitching. they have some good players but the best pitchers they have are wolf and padillia(i cant spell the name)

This is a franchise that's lasted for over 120 years and only 1 championship to show for. Sad. ... The 2005 Phillies team is talented and should make the postseason now that the short-fused, pessimistic Larry Bowa is gone. With Charlie Manuel as manager, they should be relaxed. Expect them to play winning ball in 2005.

Get ready for another season of watching Altanta breeze on by you. The Phils have a good history, just not much success w/winning the big games.

Stick a fork in them - they're done. What makes this Phillies season so disappointing is the expectations that preceded it. New stadium. Big time closer. Big bats from 1-8 in the line up. A talented young corp of starting pitchers anchored by a veteran. Folks that know baseball were actually mentioning things like 'division champs' and 'world series contenders.' But alas, the Philly curse strikes again. Plenty of injuries provided convenient excuses for a team that just can't seem to step up, and seems more than willing to meekly fade away. I see big changes coming - Bowa and Wade should probably go after this fiasco of a season.

Barely .500? Unacceptable for Philly fans.

They are good, of course since they are 2nd in the NL. but i mean they have GOT to win more games! i went to the philles game against the rockies where they won 15-4. i mean where are the homeruns when tehy need them, when they are trailing by one run! i love em', but they gotta do better.

I love the Phils with a passion, and I know they will screw it up down the stretch, they always do, but I still love them.

PHILLIES PHILLIES GO PHILLIES PHILLY RULES. LET'S HAVE ANOTHER 1980.

They might face the sox in the world series.

Phillies have been my favorite team since I was five years old. I watched my fair share of Phillies' broadcasts, as well as the Braves on TBS, and since I'm from PA, I picked the Phillies since they were local. Coincidentally, in my first year of watching Phillies baseball, they went to the World Series in 1983, only to lose to the Baltimore Orioles in five games. I think I bawled after game five, but my optimistic grandfather assured me, Don't worry, they're still a good team, they'll win the World Series one day. LOL. With the lone exception of 1993, the Phillies from 1984-2002 were the laughingstock of the league, and I received a good deal of ribbing from bandwagon Mets, A's, Reds fans from school (remember, these were teams that went to a few World Series during the 80s and 90s; if these same kids were in junior high today, I guarantee you they'd be Yankees fans). I got a brief reprieve during the magical year of 1993, when that whacky, wild, and goofy bunch of characters seemed to have career years at the right time, resulting in one of the better World Series in history. That Game 4 was the wildest roller coaster ride of any game in any sport I've ever watched. Too bad Fregosi brought in the Wild Thing in the 9th in Game 6 rather than sticking with the red-hot Roger Mason, but I digress. Subsequently, the Phillies resumed their woeful ways in 1994, only to become competitive again in 2001, but a bad 2nd half cost them a playoff spot. The signings of Thome and Bell, along with the Millwood trade, had me pumped for the 2003 season. For the first time that I can remember, I was thinking, You know, the Phillies can really do some damage this year. They were in the playoff hunt during 2003, but came up short to Florida for the Wild Card. As I write this, they're currently a half-game behind Florida for the East lead, somewhat remarkable considering the Phils started 1-6, and have lost all 6 games head-to-head with Florida. I think they'll win the East this year, but it's contingent on beating those pesky Fish in the remaining 12-13 games they play head-to-head. GO PHILS!

I've never lived anywhere near Philadelphia, but I became a Phillies fan when I was a young child, and never switched to anyone else, though there are other teams I like (the Tigers in particular). I always liked their name, the uniform with the stars over the letter "i," their history, even the decal I got in my bubble gum cards when I was a child in the late 1950s & early 60s. It had a picture of a baseball cap with a ball orbiting around it. For no reason I can identify, I think the Phils will always be my favorites. They won the Series just one time, the same year Reagan was elected. I wish they could win it again SOMETIME.

Y'all should update your votes and posts, because this is a very sound team that's going to cause considerable trouble for other squads in the NL in 2003. They have a strong offense, a solid starting rotation, a will to win and a supportive fan base. The only minus is that they play in the most competitive division in baseball, which may make the playoffs a very distant goal.

they're clean this year

Jim Thome! David Bell! Bartolo Colon!?!?!?! PHILLLLLIEEEEESSSS 90+ WINS THIS YEAR BABY, NL EAST CHAMPS!

This one hurts the most. I mean this one REALLY hurts. I love the Phils. I grew up with the Phils. But they suck. And like a trailer-park wife I keep coming back for more abuse. The Phillies have finished last MORE TIMES in the history of the National League since 1883. This amounts to 120 years of bad baseball. Only shining moment was the span between 1976-1993 when the Phils were competitive and made the World Series three times while managing to somehow beat the Royals in 1980. My happy childhood has passed into a dark, dispeptic, brooding adulthood because of the slow agonizing demise of my ballteam. They will win the World Series again when I am old and gray.

WARNING ALL ATHLETES, BEWARE OF THE NAME PHILADELPHIA!!!

The Phillies are a very good team! They really try hard and they deserve to be in first place right now, as they are!! I was born and raised in south Philly, only a mile from the Vet, watched it as it was built, and was there for the very first game! I've been a Phillies fan all of my life, and will always continue to be!!