Seeing Stars

Hmmm. Two loaded and veteran teams plagued by horrendous underachieving as summer gets underway. The playoffs are a mirage, hazy and questionable on the distant horizon.

Team A insists everything will be fine once everyone starts playing to his potential. The manager stays, and the trading-deadline deals are for uninteresting middle relievers.

Team B cashiers its skipper and lands a stud in a major trade.

Fast-forward two months. The Phillies needed a doubleheader sweep of the Braves tonight just to climb a game over .500; they are a hopeless 11-1/2 games out of first and a daunting six games behind in the wild-card hunt. Their season is, for all intents and purposes, over.

Team B, the Astros, has caught fire. Houston has finally gotten its shit together, and after ripping off its 12th straight win, is up a half-game in the wild-card standings.

I've not followed the 'Stros nearly well enough to tell whether Phil Garner and Carlos Beltran have made the difference for them, though I do know that Roger Clemens has been the kind of ace the Phillies envisioned Kevin Millwood being. (Oh, how naive we all were.) But Gerry Hunsicker took decisive action, while Ed Wade sat in his office gauging the amount of starch in his shirts.

And guess who's a hell of a lot closer to the post-season?