July 12, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports
Kyle Schwarber is yet another key cog in the machine that is the 2024 Phillies.
The 2024 Phillies are a juggernaut.
They will more than likely, at the very least, go down in history as one of the best regular season squads baseball has seen so far this century.
It's inarguably a special campaign that's unfolding in South Philadelphia and across the country whenever the Phils take the field.
The difference between whether they go down in baseball lore as this decade's version of the 1998 New York Yankees is simple: winning the World Series.
It is a championship-or-bust season.
The main reason that's the case is because this Phillies core has already nearly reached the mountaintop. 2022 was the totally unexpected "vibes to the max" moment for the Fightins. That regular season was a slog, but when you tumble after having a 2-1 World Series lead over a perennial contender like the Houston Astros, the loss stings.
2023 didn't quite have that mentality as that regular season was yet again good, if unspectacular. Red October rolled around and the fellas in red pinstripes were dancing on their own once again, but crumbling after having a 3-2 NLCS lead with two games remaining at home is crushing and even embarrassing to a certain segment of hardened Philadelphians.
2024, of course, is different from the last two years of this current Phillies era.
They are the big bad wolf. They are the one who knocks. They are not the pesky Wild Card team smacking homers and grooving to upset wins. The target is on their backs. When you destroy a Dodgers team at home with an emphatic three-game sweep, as the Phillies did this week, the aura around the team grows by the half-inning frame.
The Phillies have been in this position somewhat recently, too.
The Phillies pulled off an all-time comeback to win the 2007 NL East, but were thrashed in the NLDS. The team went on to win the World Series the following year. 2009, 2010 and 2011 brought innumerable magical moments for the team itself and the fans who gobbled it all up. This Phillies team is most akin to that franchise-best 2011 squad. They are sharks circling the water as the city waits for the playoffs. It would be an insult to those summer evenings watching Roy Halladay dominate on the mound and Ryan Howard pulverize baseballs that could've reached Fishtown to say those seasons were failures. They weren't, but it's OK to say that falling short of a championship stings. It does.
A playoff flameout wouldn't take away the fun Phillies fans had crowding Citizens Bank Park or the laughs that John Kruk brought in the TV broadcast booth, but it would change their legacy. It'll alter the city's memory of how everything will transpire. You'll no longer be saying, "I remember where I was when I knew they were going to win it all." The Schwarbombs and Ranger Suárez strikeouts will linger in the back of your brain, but the prism you view them through will be a tad less rosy.
They set themselves up for the expectations with the torrid pace they're on. It's fair. That's how sports work and I doubt a single person in that clubhouse would back away from that pressure.
"Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."
There's a difference between people reminiscing about how electric the summer of 2024 was and going down as the best team in the history of Philadelphia sports. The latter is well within the Phillies' sights. July has been baseball heaven in Philly, but only October will bring eternal glory.
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