Quote: Pound on the Phillies
Tonight, the first-place Mets welcome the second-place Phillies for a three-game series in Shea Stadium, roughly two weeks since the Phillies completed a painful sweep of the Mets in Philadelphia.
Phillies 3B Wes Helms, on the up-coming series, as quoted by the Philadelphia Inquirer…
“It’s a big series. Even though the Mets have a big lead, they’re going to be gunning for us.”
On the Thursday afternoon of the sweep’s final game, the second-place Phillies celebrated quite loudly on the field, near the Mets dugout, with still 30 games left to play.
Billy Wagner, on the Phillies post-sweep celebration, and the up-coming series, as quoted by the Bergen Record…
“That’s why when you win, you win with class. You win because you expect to win. You don’t sweep and make a big deal about it. Now they are a bigger target for us. They embarrassed us…
“When they come in there’ll be a heightened awareness that, ‘Hey, they’re here and they think they can whip our butts.’ I honestly think you don’t want to wake a sleeping dog…
“It’ll be great to go out there and pound on them, just like they want to pound on us. When I played there, the Braves could come to town and it’s all right. But the Mets come to town, and it’s, ‘All the press, the lights.’ They wanted to be like the Mets. There is something to the Mets and Phillies.”
Popper also quotes Paul Lo Duca on the same subject, as well as David Wright, who disagrees with Wagner.
…i have never bought in to the Mets-Phillies rivalry, mostly because this is really the first season ever in which both teams competed for the same playoff spot deep in to September…now, though, it’s becoming a rivalry…and i like it…i’d rather them be our biggest rival than the Braves, because a) philly is closer, and b) Phillies fans are far more passionate than Braves fans, and Phillies fans are crazy, at least before and after football season…
By the way, since the sweep, the Mets are 10–2, and have increased their lead in the NL East from two games to seven.
