It was like they weren’t even there
Sometimes, the numbers of All-Stars a team has is a direct correlation with how good they are and where they are in the standings come the time of the Midsummer Classic. For example, the Phillies had the most wins in baseball at the time of the All-Star game last season. Part of the reward for that 62-34 record was a franchise record and MLB record-tying eight All-Star selections last season.
The Phillies were all over the 2024 All-Star game, with six of those eight players appearing in the game as well as three of them being in the starting lineup. That won’t be the case in 2025 however, as the Phillies were only awarded two All-Stars, Kyle Schwarber and Zack Wheeler, despite reasons to believe they should’ve had more. In any case, Wheeler has already dropped out of the game and won’t be in attendance, and Schwarber was selected at the same position, designated hitter, as Shohei Ohtani. Likely best-case scenario is Schwarber sees one pinch hit appearance.
The situation wasn’t very different in 2015. Except for the fact that the 2015 Phillies had the worst record in baseball by the time the All-Star game rolled around. Sitting at 29-62, a full ten losses worse than the next closest team, the 2015 Phillies were testing the limit on the rule that states every team must have at least one All-Star selection.
Many believed that Cole Hamels would have the dubious honor of representing this abomination of a baseball team whose manager had quit a little over two weeks before. But the 2008 World Series MVP was not selected as the Phillies representative, as the National League already boasted starting pitchers such as All-Star game starter Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Madison Bumgarner, Jacob deGrom, and Gerritt Cole.
That left only one way for the team to get its mandatory representative. And that was the lowest of the low, the one way that even a bad team can scrape the bottom of the barrel to find someone even remotely deserving of being honored as one of the best players in their respective league.
The Phillies sent a relief pitcher.
But it wasn’t just any relief pitcher. It was the Phillies all-time saves leader Jonathan Papelbon. Papelbon was less than a year removed from the infamous “gesture” he made to the booing crowd at Citizen’s Bank Park after blowing a save. The player everyone loved to hate would indeed be the only one representing the Philadelphia Phillies at the 2015 MLB All-Star game in Cincinatti.
Despite his status as biggest villain in Philadelphia, Papelbon actually was a deserving All-Star that year. He appeared in 32 games before the break and posted a 1.60 ERA, good for tenth best among al relievers, and converted all 14 of his saves, the eleventh most despite being on the worst team in baseball.
This is the part where you would expect to read what Papelbon did in the game as he was the only person at the game representing the Phillies and Philadelphia. Well funny thing about that.
He never actually got into the game.
It was the first time the Phillies had at least one player go to the game but not actually participate since 1998. But that didn’t stop Papelbon from making his presence known in Cincinatti!
Instead of making a splash on the field, Papelbon spent his time at the festivities criticizing the Phillies hereto failure at trading him and pleading to everyone and anyone who would listen to finally free him from the black hole of ineptitude that had become the Phillies.
Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon said it’s hard to play “in a losing environment” and urged the front office to trade him to a contender, colorfully adding that it was time to “you-know-what or get off the pot.”
“The Phillies have got to make a decision,” he said Monday to a large group of reporters during an All-Star Game media session. “You’ve got to go one way or the other. You can’t be in limbo and sit here and say, What if we do this or what if we do that? You’ve got to make a decision and go with it.”
He would have to wait another few weeks, but Papelbon’s decision to make his trade request so well known that the only step he didn’t take was to ask people on the street to help him would finally pay off. He was eventually shipped off to the Nationals at the trade deadline, thus finally ending his controversial tenure in Philadelphia and depriving the 2015 Phillies of their only All-Star.
Tonight, we’ll see if Kyle Schwarber will join this illustrious club of Phillies All-Star benchwarmers or if he’ll actually be able to at least get some light cardio in. Hopefully he doesn’t make any references to Dave Dombrowski’s bathroom etiquette in the process.