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NY Mets: The three Phillies players that I despise the most
The New York Mets have gone 490-526 against the Philadelphia Phillies in their franchise history. The Phillies are considered one of if not the biggest rival of the Mets and they are the team I personally despise the most.
The reason for this has to do with some of their players, and the fact that they ran the National League East for a majority of my childhood.
From 2007-2011 they won the division including winning it the two years the Mets collapsed in 2007 and 2008. Those were the last two seasons at Shea Stadium which couldn’t have ended worse for the Mets.
While I dislike the Phillies, I wish the Phillies and Mets were good at the same time to make this even more of a legitimate rivalry.
There have been some good moments in this Mets Phillies rivalry for me as well. In 2015, the Mets went on their World Series run but prior to this great run, the Mets absolutely owned the Phillies going 14-5 with some memorable moments. Matt Harvey hit Chase Utley in the back with a pitch, and the Mets had an eight home run game including one from David Wright on the first pitch he saw back from injury.
In 2016, the Mets went 12-7 against the Phillies and had the memorable Asdrubal Cabrera home run to win a crucial game in late September. They also clinched a spot in the postseason on the field at Citizens Bank Park which was very cool to watch.
There have been good moments and bad moments but one thing has stayed constant, the hatred I have for a couple of Phillies players. Here are the three I can’t stand the most.
Chase Utley
I don’t even know where to start. The reason a lot of Mets fans hate Chase Utley is because of what he did to Ruben Tejada in the postseason as a member of the Dodgers. What happened in that play was ridiculous and I still can’t believe Utley was never punished for it. For me, that only added to the hatred I already had for him.
In his career, Utley slashed .281/.374/.526 against the Mets with 39 home runs and 116 RBI. The 39 home runs were nine more than he hit against any other opponent. At Citi Field in particular Utley slashed .294/.370/.557 with 14 home runs and 49 RBI. The only ballparks Utley had more home runs and RBI in were Citizens Bank Park and Dodger Stadium, the home of the teams he played for.
The crazy thing about that stat is Utley played six seasons before Citi Field even opened and had his best years before 2009, the first year of the ballpark. Utley hit most if not all of his home runs into the right field corner which many called “Utley’s Corner”. He hit plenty of big home runs against the Mets and just tortured me and the Mets year after year.
While Utley certainly wasn’t the best member of those dominant Phillies teams, he was the one who killed the Mets the most. Luckily for me, I got to let my frustrations out at Game 3 of the NLDS in 2015 against the Dodgers and I and the 40,000 other Mets fans in attendance booed our hearts out at Chase Utley when he was introduced. That was one of my favorite moments in all of my years as a Mets fan.
Maikel Franco
This is a very strange one to many, but Maikel Franco absolutely destroyed Met pitching. In his career against the Mets so far, he has slashed .272/.314/.524 with 19 home runs and 55 RBI in just 67 career games. If he played a full 162 game season against Met pitching he’d be on a 46-home run pace. For someone who was so bad the Phillies ended up non-tendering him, that’s quite the beating he’s put on the Mets. It’s safe to say I’m happy he ended up in Kansas City last season.
Franco has hit eight more home runs against the Mets than he has against any opponent and I really can’t put my finger on why that is.
Franco has hit a number of big home runs against the Mets as well. In 2016 when the Mets were trying to get a Wild Card spot, Franco hit a go-ahead three-run shot against the unhittable Addison Reed to give the Phillies a lead. Luckily the Mets would come back and win that game.
In 2019 when the Mets were trying to avoid the sweep at the hands of the Phillies Franco hit a game-tying two-run shot in the ninth off of Edwin Diaz. Earlier that season, Franco hit a three-run bomb off of Steven Matz to give the Phillies an 8-0 lead before Matz could even record an out.
The fact that someone who was never really any good just tortured the Mets for no good reason is why Maikel Franco is one of my most hated Phillies.
Ryan Howard
Ryan Howard unlike Utley and Harper is a guy I have a lot of respect for. He was a legit power hitter who did not need or use PED’s to hit all of the home runs he ended up hitting. If he stayed healthy I believe he would’ve been one of the most feared power hitters of all time.
With that being said, I still don’t like Ryan Howard one bit. The fear he instilled in my heart was unmatched. The sheer size of this man along with the way he held the bat made it seem like every swing he took would result in a 500+ foot home run.
This, for the most part, was true. Howard slashed .242/.319/.499 against the Mets with 48 home runs and 136 RBI. This was in 177 games played so in a little more than a full season’s worth of games he hit 48 home runs.
While the home runs were very infuriating to deal with, what really makes me dislike Ryan Howard was what he did to David Wright. Howard beat Wright five to four in the final round of the 2006 home run derby in what was a crushing defeat for me as a young child. Watching my favorite player lose to the most feared hitter on my least favorite team did not make me very happy.
Howard in my eyes was the best player on a really good team and along with Chase Utley tormented New York. Nothing made me happier than seeing the Phillies rebuild in 2015-2016 and having the Mets beat the breaks off of them.
Next. Who should bat leadoff for the 2021 Mets?
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Now that both teams are trying to win hopefully a real rivalry can be instated again. It’s been so long since both teams have been good at the same time and it’s much more fun to watch when that is the case.