Chemistry
PHILADELPHIA - CHEMISTRY= FAILURE
By John Leon
Ok Class, listen up! Today’s lesson is on chemistry and how it can make or break a team. Especially you in Philadelphia listen and listen well because Professor Leon will now tell you how Philadelphia franchises continually shoot themselves in the foot.
It’s a lack of chemistry. Chemistry, as Webster defines it is “an interaction between people working together.” The key word is together.
It’s almost like they don’t WANT to succeed at a level that would bring possible championships to the starving masses. Whether it is money, personalities or injuries, this town is snake bitten for a multitude of reasons.
Let’s delve into the subject shall we?
The last championship for the town was 1983 when the Sixers brought home the trophy, and I don’t want to hear about the appearances in championship games, such as the Super Bowl or the Conference Playoffs, the Wild Card round or being the number 8 seed. In my mind they don’t count, because they only count how many rings you get.
It’s almost like they’re saying,” Here, see? Look what we did and this is just the tip of the iceberg…blah, blah, blah.”
Then they do the best to sabotage themselves. Case in point, the 2007 season.
Jeremiah Trotter – The linebacker who was cut by the Eagles because they thought that he couldn’t play anymore. They were right, granted, but he’s not playing for Tampa Bay either so why not keep him as a stabilizing force in the now-fractured locker room?
Aaron Rowand- My favorite topic this off-season. Runs into walls, clubhouse glue and vocal point man for a young team with blooming superstars that NOW will have the pressure of facing the media where Rowand did all that for them, allowing them to concentrate on just playing. By not giving him a 5-year deal, the Phils have now proven to the Ryan Howard’s and Cole Hamels’ that you can forget any long-term deals, and this is by a GM that’s leaving after this season!
Look I can understand a 3-year deal for a pitcher but a Gold Glove outfielder, a 25 homer and 85 RBI guy, a clubhouse stud, played hurt and a fan favorite. PLUS he’s your number 5 hitter behind…Ryan Howard. You going to trust Pat Burrell to have another season like last year? Nah didn’t think so.
Chemistry is a wonderful and fragile thing. It can be fruitful when it’s right or poisonous when it’s wrong. Look what happened to a good Phils team when Pete Rose got there. They had made the playoffs four straight years and couldn’t get over the hump. Rose arrives being the secret ingredient appears and voila! Instant chemistry and the first Championship in club history.
Allen Iverson was a bad ingredient and though he’s a warrior and the Sixers did get to the finals against the Lakers, the chemistry was bad and it still is. Think Denver’s going to win with him and Melo? Not in that Conference. Today the team has a lot of bright, young stars and no glue. Chemistry my friends, chemistry.
Chemistry is the New York Yankees of the late 90’s with Paul O’Neill, Scott Brosius, Joe Girardi, roles players all, and not one Hall of Famer in that group, but they won, because they all knew their roles. It is the lifeblood of chemistry, mixing the right ingredients to make a wonderful mixture.
Look at them now, overpaid superstars that find a way to get beat by teams with inferior talent. Pieces are missing and you can listen to any New York talk radio station and the fans pine for the O’Neill’s, etc.
The Flyers are another story but they’re picking up the pieces from a horrendous year, but they were the role models for Philadelphia’s franchises. That was a team that all knew their place and who was the leader, who would play defense and who’d be doing the scoring. Add to that superior goaltending and Lord Stanley appears.
Chemistry my friends, chemistry.
However they’ve been in a drought lately too, so their ingredients haven’t meshed together either.
Chemistry is finding the right pieces to the puzzle, whether it is free agency, draft picks, trades, etc. It’s putting the right players in the right position to make plays at the right time. It’s finding a common bond within the sanctity of the clubhouse where stories are told of teams that all went to dinners, movies or whatever. Teams that bonded together won championships together.
Management can help a team or hinder it’s growth and lately, the Philadelphia teams are all being hindered by a) penny pinching, b) bad long term contracts, c) horrible draft picks, choosing “the best athlete” instead of need or d) all of the above.
So in conclusion class, it’s not how much you spend, it’s not whom you spend it on, but how the pieces fit into the big puzzle that comprises professional sports or sports in general. You can’t put a square peg into a round hole, it’s been proven. Unfortunately the Philly teams keep trying, and that will keep championships out of the city for a few more years.
Sadly.
