Now what?

By Steven Lienert

Get busy living or get busy dying.

Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding, Morgan Freeman's character in the Shawshank Redemption, uttered that line throughout the movie, talking about how people either live life or let it wither away.

The Phillies got busy dying this week and, quite frankly, they are left to play out the string in the middle of June.

Welcome to baseball in Philly, Mr. Gillick.

What about the wild card, one might ask? Forget it about it. That belongs to either the Reds, Astros, or Padres, considering that the Cardinals and Dodgers win their respective divisions.

The worst part is, this is a virtually unfixable situation.

Not only doesn't anybody want Pat Burrell, he has a no-trade clause to boot. The catcher position is in shambles. Brett Myers loses his head every time David Bell or gold-glover Bobby Abreu commits an error, which is at least once a game. Jon Lieber is in no rush to get back from the disabled list. Ryan Howard gets consistently lost running between first and third.

The team is reaching to its best pitching prospect from Double-A Reading for a spot start on Saturday, mostly because there's nobody at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre that is in a position to help. (I'm lookin' squarely at you, Gavin "Fraud" Floyd).

And the astute manager, who, last I checked, was responsible for coaching the players, has analyzed the situation and came up with a brilliant strategy to turn this debacle around.

He thinks the team is playing well, but it needs to play better, hit better and catch better. Play the game better as a whole.

That's the kind of insight a fan can only get from the skipper of the ship himself. Brilliant!

Sarcasm aside, it's not news that Charlie Manuel is a backwater buffoon.

But what can the organization do?

Firing Manuel won't do anything for the long term. Besides, everyone seems pretty concerned that the manager be popular among the players in the locker room. That rules out the Lou Piniella and Dallas Green types. Otherwise, they'll bitch and moan for 162 games, and who really wants to listen to that?

The front office isn't willing to overpay for a No. 1 starter (i.e, Dontrelle Willis). Ownership isn't changing anytime this decade. The lineup is built for the three-run homer, but since no one gets on base, most are just solo shots.

Jimmy Rollins pops-out once a game like Willie Mays Hayes in Major League. And the Fightin's strike out so often, you'd think they'd be sponsored by Circle K.

It's become so apathetic, Citizens Bank Park has become a destination spot where fans from other teams can come to completely take over the stadium. Mets and Red Sox fans have made our ball yard their home away from home and, for the first time in my life, Philadelphians are welcoming them with open arms like they were in town for the Greek Picnic.

Instead of rooting for the Phillies to actually win, perhaps Phillies' fans should start embracing the losing like the organization has.

Think about it this way: no one can stop the March to 10,000 losses. The best news is that the Phils will get there before anyone in American Sports History, and no one can EVER take that away.

Steve Lienert can be reached at stevelienert@hotmail.com or at stevel@phillysportsline.com