One of the first lessons you learn as a sports fan is that you can’t win ’em all. It’s become a common saying, but it’s an inescapable truth to accept if you want to emotionally invest yourself in a team, especially in a game like baseball where even the best teams still lose about 60 games a year. It doesn’t mean that some damages don’t sting, and some even leave emotional scars that may take years to heal, if ever.
But what if you could pay to play one of those games that haunts you to this day. There are of course many examples from Phillies history, with perhaps the most famous being Game 6 of the 1993 World Series. Who knows what would have happened if Mitch Williams had successfully kept the shutout and forced a decisive game 7 over the Blue Jays? Maybe the Phillies’ Cinderella season would have ended with a ring. At least, an entire generation of Phillies fans would have been spared the trauma.
Advertisement
There are also more recent examples. The 2023 NLCS will go down in infamy in Philadelphia, but what if the Phillies can close it out in Game 6 or even Game 7 to win their second straight NL pennant? It is not difficult to see them being able to capture their elusive third championship in the history of their franchise and in this era it is easier to look back fondly.
Yes, If you could change the outcome of one Phillies story, what would it be? Do you want to pay Joe Carter? What about doing that to never have to think about Kevin Ginkel again? Or maybe it’s one unique time-lapse that’s lived in your head for your own reason.