Phillies Legend of the Week

As the evolution of the Phillies new Big 3 continue lets focus on the flip side for an additional week.

In 1997 one Leiter brother would pitch in game 7 of the World Series and secure a second Championship ring and the other Leiter brother would go on to lose a career worst 17 games. Which one do you think the Phillies had??


Signed in 1997 "the shitty leiter" as our friends would refer to him, would not only give up a career high 115 earned runs but also record an ERA over 5 for a Phillies team that would win 68 games.

The sad part about this is that Leiter was the Phils second best pitcher!! Slotted second behind Curt Schilling and in front of RTB "legends" Tyler Green, Garrett Stephenson and Matt Beech Leiter would be second on the team in wins, games started, innings pitched and complete games.

Due to problems in the bullpen in 1998 Leiter would move into the closers role and record 23 saves for a team that would finish with 75 wins.

So as the Pennant race heats up here in late August maybe you should take a quick breathe and think about Mark Leiter or any of the other bums that were pitching behind him in 1997 before you criticize Kyle Kendrick and Joe Blanton....at least they are the best pitchers in their own Family!

Phillies Legend Of The Week

Sorry for the absence. RTB has been bouncing around the country doing our side jobs. Anywho you don't care about that you want to see some Damn legends!!! So we gladly present our
Phillies Legend of The Week:

Andy Ashby

At one point this season Jason Werth had officially become the most hated Phillie on the team. He could not hit, run the bases correctly (still can't), defend or shave accordingly. Every Phillies fan from here to the southern depths of Delaware wanted him gone. Well fast forward a month and all of a sudden Jason seems to be taking the small steps towards snapping out of his season long suckfest and winning back the Phaithful. How does this relate to Andy Ashby you say??? Well Andy certianly can relate to Jason's problems when he was here...only he never quite found the solution... Let's go back in the RTB time machine to recount Andy's second tour of duty.

During the 2000 off season San Diego had placed Ashby on the trade market. He was coming off of two All star appearances, was regarded as an anchor on the 1998 Pennant winning Padres and compiled a 70-62 record over an eight year span pitching out west. Plus as an added value he had aleady spent the begining of his career with the Phillies, signing as an undrafted Free agent in 1986 and making his Major league debut in 1991.

The Phillies at the time were looking for someone who could back up Curt Schilling as a Number 2 pitcher. Someone who could eat a ton of innings and provide that one two punch for a Phillies team that was young, hungry and quietly whispering about taking the Braves out in the NL East. How could this pairing not work??

When the trade was announced Sportscenter brought on Peter Gammons for an analysis and he believed that with Ashby now in the fold the Phillies could be considered as NL East Contenders. Well if Hall of Fame writer Peter Gammons thought it was a great move then it must be we all thought.

Boy were we all wrong........

Ashby was the symbol for everything that went wrong with that Phillies team. On their way to finishing with 97 Losses Ashby would contribute 4 wins in 16 starts and consistently leave the pitching rubber in the vet showered in Boos. His ERA would hover above five all season and he gave up 17 homeruns in the first half of the season along with 13 more k's then BBs. He was awful...

So how did Ashby respond to the all this hate?? By walking off the mound of the Vet and giving the crowd the middle finger after they booed another short outing. Shortly after Ashby would be shipped to the Braves, the team we once thought we could overtake with this player was now mercifully taking him off of our hands. How did Ashby do afterwards you ask?? 8 wins in 15 apperances, 55ks and 33 Bbs all while helping the braves win their seventh straight division title...UGHH!

Looking back that 2000 season was one of the most important in the long existence of this franchise (Schilling traded, Burrell and Rollins make debut, Utley Drafted) and this Ashby incident was a mere blip it still provided us with an important lesson. In sports nothing is for certain. No matter if the numbers, situation, Half Of Famers and common sense say they are.

Thank you Mr. Ashbhy for teaching us that lesson and because of that you will aways be looked at as Legendary at RTB. Take the rest of the week off.