October 7, 2011 was a bad night. Sure, we knew it was bad at the time, but we had no idea just how bad it was. Because as awful as it was to watch a heavily favored Phillies team lose in the first round of the playoffs, we didn’t realize that it would be the last time we’d get to watch the Phillies play in the playoffs for the next eleven years.
There were times it seemed like the Phillies would never return to the playoffs. It felt like we were destined for a lifetime of watching players like Vince Velasquez, Brandon Workman, and Michael Saunders lose game after game.