After last week's mostly expository hour-long debut episode, this week's installment of The Pen on the MLB Network takes the Philly pen from their sweep out west against the San Diego Padres in late May, up to their series in New York a few weeks ago against the Mets. Much happens in the period covered which I'm sure most of you remember--Chan Ho Park goes to the pen after losing his rotation slot to J.A. Happ, J.C. Romero returns to the team from his 50-game suspension, and Ryan Madson inherits the role of closer after Brad Lidge blows two straight saves in Los Angeles and goes to the DL with knee inflammation. We also get to see more of our boys on their downtime, going out for tacos in a limo and holding a contest to see which reliever is a better barber, Mad Dog or J.C.
Two episodes in, and the show still hasn't really answered the primary question thusfar: So what? I mean, yeah, as a Phillies fan it's kind of amusing to see Chad Durbin lie to Chan Ho Park about Benjamin Franklin being a pitcher ("He threw kites") and Jimmy Rollins channel his inner reality TV judge when deciding the Madson-Romero haircut contest, but ultimately, this show is about as hard hitting as an end-of-inning segment at CBP where all the players talk about their favorite kind of breakfast sandwich. C'mon guys, we wanna see Charlie Manuel giving Jack Taschner hell for leaving a slider up in the strike zone on a 3-1 count. We wanna see Clay Condrey throwing up in the locker room after walking in the winning run in the 10th inning. We wanna see Scott Eyre and Brad Lidge getting kicked out of a strip club after they refuse to pay for their whiskey and ginger ales. For a show about the "ultimate pressure cooker," there's distressingly little drama to speak of.
Of course, you know what they say--it's a long season, and you're not out of it till the very end. It might be interesting to see what happens in upcoming episodes as Madson starts to falter as the closer, the role guys blow a couple games and tensions start to really get high. I'll keep watching just in case, but I can't imagine why anyone who wasn't already emotionally invested in this team (or at least fascinated with their terrible facial hair) would.
Original Story:
http://www.the700level.com/2009/06/sl...
