By John McMullen
I was recently asked to give my Major League Baseball predictions for another media outlet this week and as I looked at my crystal ball, one thing became clear.........The Atlanta Braves are DOA.
The streak of 14-straight division titles will end this year. The only question is --- Who will end it?
In my mind, the Phillies and the New York Mets are dead even but I picked the Mets to win Eastern Division crown -- I may have been in Minneapolis for a decade but I grew up here and have been around this town long enough to know good things just don't happen a lot.
That said, what if the Phils do win the division crown?
Will the town's faithful swallow their collective pride and admit the man responsible for building this team, by and large, was.....gulp....Ed Wade?
Yep, in case you haven't noticed. "Stand" Pat Gillick has done very little since taking over.
Sure he brought in Aaron Rowand, Tom Gordon and Ryan Franklin but if the Phillies do win this thing, it will because of names like Rollins, Utley, Howard, Burrell, Abreu, Lieber and Myers --- all players brought into the organization during Wade's watch.
I'm sure most will conveniently forget that Wade was responsible for garnering the majority of the talent on this team and just enjoy the playoffs.
But, behind closed doors, Gillick will be breathing a sigh of relief and thanking his predecessor.
John McMullen can be reached at jmcmullen1@comcast.net
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