MLB Showdown Obsession

 Blaming a "curse" for your team's misfortune is often looked at as just excuse making. The Cubs blamed a goat for this ills. The Red Sox blamed a trade they themselves approved of. But for the Phillies, their "curse" was more than just something that plagued the team, but the entire city of Philadelphia. For the longest time, there was an unofficial rule in the city that the highest feature would be the statue of Philadelphia's founder William Penn on top of the city hall, and no building should ever exceed this height. This rule was in effect through the 1970's and into the '80's where the city was enjoying some good fortunes in sports; The NHL Flyers and won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975, the Phillies had won their 1st World Series in 1980 with an additional pennant in '83, and more recently the NBA 76ers had dominated the Finals with a sweep in 1983. Philadelphia City Hall is 548 feet, which doesn't seem that tall by toda...

 It is not an uncommon occurrence in baseball for a team to start strong and look promising for the season, only to hit a significant speedbump and collapse. Such instances can prove to be too much for even an MVP or Cy Young effort to turn around. The Arizona Diamondbacks entered 2006 looking to take advantage of a wide open NL West. The previous season was their first without former ace Randy Johnson and they only won 77 games. With Brandon Webb now the ace, he was looking to fill the void and lead Arizona back to October. Bob Melvin was in year 2 as Manager and was looking for improvements from last season's 2nd place finish. The year started perfectly. Through May, the team was in 1st place and Webb was undefeated. As the calendar turned to June, the D-Backs were well on their way, but a heck of a speedbump happened when Jason Grimsley admitted to PED use, immediately asked for his release and cleared out of town. He retired from baseball and began a messy battle with the Diamo...