Philly Front Office

October 9, 2025 will go down as one of the most dismal days in Philly sports history. The Eagles loss, as depressing as it is, will fade. The Phillies loss on a walk off error in the 11th inning will live on though. We all have those losses that stick with us like a stain on a couch or cigarette smell in a car, just a funk that will be forever with us. They are worse than blowouts, but also not truly great games because we weren’t beaten, we blew it. We had the opportunity and we wasted it with only ourselves to blame.

What I Don’t Mean

Just so we are on the same page, I want to mention some awful games that, though terrible outcomes every one,  were just losses. We were beaten in spectacular ways, but beaten by the other team. No regrets.

• Sixers (90) at Raptors (92) – ECS Game 7 – May 12, 2019
  • The Kawhi shot. I wish it never went in and he probably traveled, but this is an all-time great game that was a seesaw battle from the beginning. At no point did I think we would win or lose. If he missed, the game goes to OT. It wasn’t like we had a lead and blew it, maybe that would have been more painful.
• Astros (5) at Phillies (0) – WS Game 4 – November 2, 2022
  • The no-hitter. It’s hard to say anything other than this was miserable. Despite the big win in the previous game, we were very obviously outmatched. The series was effectively over at this point despite being tied at 2.
• Sixers at Celtics – ECS Game 7 – May 14th, 2023
  • The most predictable loss of my life. It’s funny to think that a game that was back and forth in the first half could be a guaranteed loss, but we knew this one was over within a few minutes of the 3rd quarter. Embiid was in his own head and our doors were blown off with a 33-5 Celtics run. We had blown it the night before and we all knew it.
• Eagles (9) at Buccaneers (32) – WC Game – January 15, 2024
  • We were all waiting for this season to die at this point. Despite going to the Super Bowl the previous year and starting 10-1, this team was dysfunctional and essentially had our lunch stolen by SF and never got it back. We all knew it was over. Never could I imagine preferring to forfeit a playoff game instead of playing in my life, but here we were. Betting my first born on this loss  would not have caused me to lose a wink of sleep.
• Eagles (35) vs Chiefs (38) – Super Bowl 57 – February 12, 2023
  • Does the penalty at the end still seem cheap? Yes. But it was also a great game that could have gone either way. If anything, I’m upset we never had the chance to win it. It was the right call though and we lost. Last year’s decimation of KC makes this one hurt a lot less.
• Eagles (21) vs Patriots (24) – Super Bowl 39 – February 6, 2005
  • Losing to the Patriots and Tom Brady in a game we were never winning sucked but it wasn’t cheap. At least at the time the future still seemed bright. LOL
• Phillies (6) at Blue Jays (8) – WS Game 6 – October 23, 1993
  • This is the first game I remember, and it made 10-year-old me cry. Joe Carter just beat us. Maybe I was too young for it to stick with me as anything more than a sad childhood anecdote. He still had to hit it though.

Honorable (?) Mention – Phillies (1) at Dodgers (2) – NLDS Game 4 – October 9, 2025

The wound is still incredibly fresh. I think we all came in optimistic after the ass whooping we delivered the day before and with a gettable Tyler Glasnow on the mound for LA. Inning after inning though, we weren’t getting through. As the hitless at bats started to accumulate we all hoped someone, anyone would come through. Somehow it was Max Kepler scoring on a Nick Castellanos double. Then a blown strike 3 call and an intentional walk of the coldest hitter on the team (who just happens to be the best player in the world) led to a tie game. Then…nothing. When the team was in most need of a hit, none came; just like we all feared. It doesn’t help that the game ended in one of the most debilitating ways possible. The guy who no one trusted but the manager panicked on a comebacker and that was that (I’m not blaming him, he shouldn’t have been in there). We don’t know for sure yet, but this probably ended this era of Phillies baseball, just like #2 on this list. We’ll see how badly this one ages with time.

#6 – Celtics (95) at Sixers (86) – ECS Game 6 – May 11, 2023

We had them. Whenever I think about regrets from the last 10 years of Sixers basketball, I don’t think about the Kawhi shot, I think about this game (and #4 on this list for different reasons). Up 3 games to 2 in the series with the ball and a 2-point lead at home, Tyrese Maxey took an early in the shot clock, going for the kill 3 with 5 minutes left. He missed. The Celtics would go on a 14-1 run to close it out. Probably more than any game on this list, I regret this lost chance most. We were methodically scoring and playing defense, then it evaporated. Everything just seemed like it was going to work out… But we all know that’s when they get you.

#5 – Phillies (5) at Diamondbacks (6) – NLCS Game 4 – October 20, 2023

What kills me the most about losing to the Dodgers isn’t so much how we lost, it’s that the Phillies manager went with Orion Kerkering in a big spot with runners on base…again. It didn’t work earlier in the series and it didn’t work all year. We all knew that. Rob Thomson did it anyway though, just like he did in 2023. This is why I blame the manager and not the pitcher here.

Craig Kimbrel had been pretty solid on the year for the Phillies, but by the end of the season and the playoffs, he was cooked. We all knew it. Still, Thomson put Kimbrel in to keep the game tied in the 9th of NLCS Game 3. He went walk, stolen base, single, out at the plate, walk, single, game over. He didn’t get a single person out pitching and we lost the game. That should have been the end of his season. Nope. The Phillies were up 5-3 in Game 4 in the 8th inning. Because of a ridiculously quick hook for Cristopher Sanchez, the Phillies basically had a bullpen game that featured 6 pitchers before Topper turned to Kimbrel (instead of Alvarado). Kimbral goes double, out, HR, out, single, and HBP before Topper finally goes to Alvarado who gives up the game losing single. The Phillies would go on to win the next game then lose the last 2 at home, but this game was the real chance to ice the series. Losing this one the way we did was the beginning of the end. We went from looking invincible to losing the series so because Topper had to stick with his guy and now he just did it again. Too bad he never learned from his mistakes.

#4 – Hawks (103) at Sixers (96) – ECS Game 7 – June 20, 2021

This whole series is a painful memory, but if their is one image that defines sports misery for Philly fans over the last decade, it isn’t the Bradberry penalty and it won’t be Kerkering on the mound, it’s Ben Simmons passing the ball off instead of dunking on Trae Young so hard that he no longer had the desire to continue playing basketball. This was THE year we were supposed to launch ourselves into the NBA’s upper tier as a perennial power and the flight path had been cleared. We didn’t just crash the ship, we exploded on the tarmac.

The whole series felt like the team and the fanbase was waiting for the Sixers to kick the Hawks ass. Ok fellas, time to take over…any time now.  Even with superior talent, you can’t play like that. Ben Simmons was wilting before our eyes. His second half statistics were non-existent. It all came to a head though with the Sixers down 2 with 3:30 to go. Simmons got the ball down low with only Trae Young anywhere near him. Young is 10 inches shorter, 75 pounds lighter and allergic to defense. For some reason Simmons threw the ball to Matisse Thybulle who was fouled. He only made 1 foul shot and the game drifted away. We lost the game, we lost the series, and the Simmons era was effectively over. No one ever forgave him for this.

#3 – Panthers (14) at Eagles (3) – NFC Championship Game – January 18, 2004

This game is often forgotten in the 3 straight conference championship losses but it was the most inexplicable. Losing to Kurt Warner and the Greatest Show on Turf is fair. The Bucs had one of the greatest defenses ever. The Panthers though? Two words: Jake Delhomme.

The Eagles threw 4 INTs and still had a chance… Except they didn’t. This game seemed over at halftime. It wasn’t just bad, it was boring. They came out flat and scared and never improved. It’s the least memorable of the devastating losses, but devastating nonetheless.

How does an Andy Reid team score 3 points in the NFC Championship?

#2 – Cardinals (1) at Phillies (0) – NLDS Game 5 – October 7, 2011

Losing in the most devastating way possible. The best team we ever saw with the best pitching staff ever assembled lost in the NLDS. After scoring a fluke run in the first inning, Roy Halladay matched Chris Carpenter zero for zero the rest of the game. The score was 1-0 until the bottom of the 9th and Ryan Howard at the plate with 2 outs, the best team in Phillies history and era of Utley, Howard, and Rollins were over in a ruptured Achilles tendon. Literally and symbolically it was all over.

#1 – Bucs (27) at Eagles (10) – NFC Championship Game – January 27, 2002

All we needed was homefield advantage and we would go to the Super Bowl. This was especially true against a Tampa team that had never won a game when the temperature was below 40 degrees. The game time temperature was 26 degrees and dropping. What a way to celebrate the final Eagles game ever at Veteren’s Stadium. It could not have started out any better too. After a huge kickoff return to Tampa’s 20, Duce Staley scored on the 2nd play of the game to make it 7-0 before anyone had even settled in. What happened next was the most depressing 59 minutes of sports you will ever see.

The game is remembered as a funeral, but it was really a series of deaths. Driving at the end of the first half, McNabb was strip sacked to end the threat. Tampa was up 17-10 at halftime. After forcing a punt, McNabb was strip sacked AGAIN. We still had a chance though, until McNabb threw a 92 yard pick 6 to Ronde Barber that sealed it. Ronde fucking Barber. We blew it.

I don’t know why I wrote this today. I mean I do, I’m a combination of mad, sad, and empty inside, but this absolutely didn’t help. I’m just wallowing in my own misery here.