James Earl Jones was right.
And wrong.
"People will come, Ray. People will definitely come," he intoned in that lovely baritone in the crucial scene from the classic baseball flick "A Field of Dreams."
There was a place in South Philly that was once a field of dreams. It's where Philly fans used to gather to party and watch a championship caliber baseball team.
In short, in the summer, Citizens Bank Park was the place to be. A Field of Dreams.
Not anymore.
Despite the great words of Jones. Nightmare might better describe what is happening at The Bank these days.
"They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom."
Just the way we used to block to South Philly.
"It's money they have, but it's peace they like. They'll sit in their shirt sleeves on a perfect afternoon." Pretty much the way yesterday unfolded on a gorgeous early April opening day as the Phillies faced the Red Sox.
"They'll cheer their heroes and they'll watch the game, and it will be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters."
We once dipped ourselves in magic waters, and cheered players such as Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth and Cole Hamels.
"The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces."
Anyone else remember 2008? Seems like a long time ago now.
But never as long ago as yesterday, when the Phillies rolled out a thoroughly mediocre lineup that did not seem terribly different than the one that struggled the last three years.
Sure, Jimmy Rollins was shipped to L.A., where his three-run homer lifted the Dodgers to an opening day win.
But Chase Utley is still here. So is Ryan Howard. The battery tandem of Cole Hamels and Carlos Ruiz looked familiar.
But that's about all.
Hamels surrendered four home runs, and the once-vaunted Phillies attack managed all of three hits in getting shut out by the BoSox. A grand slam in the ninth added a little bit of salt to the wound in an 8-0 debacle.
"People will come, Ray."
Well, they will for one day, a sun-splashed, pictureperfect afternoon in Philly.
More than 45,000 packed Citizens Bank Park to watch an inferior product.
I am guessing that will be the last Phils' sellout for awhile. I'd put the over-under for attendance most nights at about 15,000. I'll take the under.
"The one constant through all the years has been baseball," Jones once bellowed.
Not in Philly. It's been losing. And aside from that one glorious stretch, the losing has "rolled by a like an army of steamrollers."
"Baseball has marked the time."
Well, the only thing we're marking is some bad old memories. The memories of a team that set the record for losses by a professional franchise.
"This game is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good. And that could be again.
"People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come."
After yesterday, I'm not so sure.
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