Before the Phillies got their new stadium deal done they whined on and on about how they couldn't compete down the road without the deal and how everything would be different if they got a new stadium and a bigger cut of the ancillary revenue. So what is the net result? Their soon to be free agent 3B called their bluff by demanding an "out clause" tied to payroll which was lower than it should be (only 6th highest when the Phillies payroll should be the 2nd highest in the game) and the Phillies responded by shutting down the contract negotiations and going on the attack. The newspapers (both owned and operated by Knight Ridder) acted as the Phillies advocate for a new stadium all along, even lying to the public about the Phillies financial situation leading them to believe that they were losing money when they were in fact making at least $20mil in profit every year.

"I'm from old money. The money was so old that moths ate it. Now I'm a pauper, you can believe me."

So the deal is done, the taxpayers are on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars. They will foot the bill for at least two thirds of the cost of the new park and what do they get for it? A lot of torment about whether one of their favorite players will even be here when this park finally opens. They have flirted with first place all of the 2001 season but need another stud bat as they knew they would last winter when two of the best in the game were available. They need a stud starter to lead the rotation and they knew they lacked this last winter when two of the best were available.     

So as the trade deadline approached in 2001 the papers were ripping the Phillies for inaction and pushing them to get Jason Giambi right? No, they were instead giving us depressing Phillies propaganda pieces about how nothing is going to change because the Phillies don't have money. Excuse me, but what happened to the new deal they got in November? What about the $20mil profit they rake in with only 12,000 people in the stands? Do you smell something crooked, something corrupt going on here? Everyone knew that this is how this ownership does business but the politicians and those Knight Ridder owned newspapers the Inquirer and Daily News still worked together to give them what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars on top of the hundred fifty million plus they have already pocketed over the past fifteen years just in yearly profits. The team was bought for only $30mil but is now worth $450mil and will soon be worth over $650mil when the new tax payer funded ball park opens in 04.

Why would so many members of the media do this? Why would so many city and state legislators be complicit with a corrupt bunch of "venture capitalists" such as those who own the Phillies? Perhaps a Federal investigation is needed to examine why so many people in influential places would be so cooperative with people who are ripping off the public. In San Diego a Federal investigation brought two convictions against a San Diego city councilwoman who accepted Initial Public Offering shares in a software company owned by John Moores the owner of the Padres team.

With all that the taxpayers have given the Phillies we should have Rolen signed already and A-Rod at shortstop, Hampton and Schilling leading the rotation, Drew in CF, Teixeira in the farm system and Giambi at 1B. Instead we have none of these things and we have "writers" for the Daily News and Inquirer writing fact-less pieces to justify this untenable position of the Phillies.

Perhaps the Phillies sensed the coming rage, which might explain why they recently hired a former U.S. Attorney as a high ranking, high salaried executive for the team. It's good to have "influence" at every level of the government.

The Phillies tell us that they are winning so why should they spend? They lost 97 games in 2000 and then slashed the payroll! Every year it's a shell game of excuses and differing lines that always mean the same thing, the Phillies will not run a real payroll.

"I'm so poor that I live in a cardboard box. Trust me."

They also like to point to their farm system and tell us that they are building from within yet in 1997 they drafted J.D. Drew, a stud CF prospect and middle-of-the-order bat whose agent had informed the Phillies before they drafted Drew that he would want a major league contract for $11mil spread over four years. The Phillies had no intention of paying this even though they understood that he was a great talent and a "sure thing" prospect. They offered Drew $6mil initially and after months of inaction and circulating slanderous stories about Drew they upped the offer to $7mil. They never negotiated with Scott Boras, never made a credible offer even though Boras had been honest with them before the draft. The Phillies instead drove Drew into the Northern League and finally back into the draft.

One of the things that Drew sited that the Phillies pounced on to demonize him was his statement that he didn't want to be the big guy in the Phillies lineup as a rookie and he expected to be compensated for it. In 2001 we saw exactly what Drew was referring to with the Phillies public assault on Scott Rolen.

If you read various Phillies forums on the internet then you know that the Phillies have had people from their organization circulate vicious rumors about Scottie saying that he has told people that he will not sign another contract with the Phillies no matter what, that he doesn't want to play in Philly. This is a BIG LIE and it is exactly what they did in regard to Curt Schilling who still makes his home in the Philly area, who still does work for charity in the Philly area and has said that Philly will always be his home. The Phillies traded Schilling because they did not want to pay him and after being pressed about it Ed Wade finally admitted that this was the reason for the trade. Schilling made $6.5mil in 2001 as he produced a "Cy Young" caliber season and won the World Series MVP with Randy Johnson. This year he'll make $11mil, four million less than Greg Maddux and the Phillies say he isn't worth it.

It must be pointed out that this is not really Jim Buck Jr, the Phillies mysterious owner. It would have been nice to include an authentic picture but there are none available as per Mr. Buck's wishes. Indeed Mr. Buck and his brothers William and Alexander, do not want to share anything about themselves with the public who have enriched their already large fortunes by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fellow Phans, when are we going to say "enough!" and raise up against this corrupt ownership and their corrupted politicians and members of the media who are conspiring with one another to rape the Phans for enormous profit while ripping talented players, organizing one "battery night" sendoff after the other for them while raking in tens of millions in profit from us?

We should not even be concerned about the Phillies signing Rolen, he is our player and the Phillies should pay him. We should have been discussing the acquisition of the hitter that we all know we need, Jason Giambi. The fact that not one "writer" at those Knight Ridder publications (Inquirer/Daily News) has written an article about Jason Giambi and the need for him on the Phillies while writing about the lack of offense all season long is scandalous. Writers for newspapers in New York and Atlanta wrote often about Giambi, urging their teams to acquire this great hitter. Why would the "writers" at the Inquirer/Daily News not do so when they know the Phillies have a payroll of only $42mil? Mark Bradley of the Atlanta journal Constitution on August 14th, 2001 wrote a piece about the Braves $90mil payroll and urged the Braves to up it a lot more than $20mil this winter. He specifically named Jason Giambi as one of the players the Braves had to sign.

Surely you can see that something is very wrong in Philadelphia. The Phillies could not have gone from the Hall of Fame era of Bowa's time of Schmidt/Carlton/Rose to this with no furor being raised in the media without large amounts of money changing hands. Do you realize that the Phillies payroll in the late seventies was up there with the Yankees and Dodgers? Schmidt, Carlton, and Rose would cost more than the Phillies current payroll. The roster of the 1980 World Series team would cost in the neighborhood of $130mil to assemble today given the age and quality of the players.

We the Phans are being raped by the criminal scam known as the Phillies. When will you stop throwing batteries at the Phillies stud players and start throwing the batteries at the criminals who own the Phillies? Are you too scared to throw batteries at $Billionaire venture capitalists?

Ed Wade

"Jason's a funny guy and Scottie will probably be a U.S. Senator from Indiana some day but unlike the diabolical webmaster would have you believe there are Phans who support us in our attempt to keep the payroll at the bottom of the game. Just click me and you can hear from the opposition."

The Rotation

2002 Picks

"What me worry? We're goin' to the Series!" Maybe not Alfred. Click him to find out why that may never happen again.