Philly's Own Dynamic Duo

After reading Marcus Hayes’ article in yesterday’s Daily News about Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, it got me wondering whether this city has ever had a duo of this magnitude. I know, I know...I hear you all...these guys have only played 160+ games together. However, it cannot be denied that in their short time together Utley and Howard have been, by far, the best Phils' pairing since Schmidt and Luzinski. They carried last year's team through the Wild Card chase and are doing their darndest this season despite a front office that has tried their best to throw in the towel and hold a two month audition for 2007. The more I think about it, is there any Philly combination that will compare to these guys if they stay at the same pace for the next five years? I think not.

Sure, the Sixers had Doc and Moses for their magnificent ’83 title run, but they only played together for two seasons. The Birds had Reggie White and Jerome Brown on those outstanding Gang Green defenses in the late 80’s and early 90’s, but there were so many more components to that team which made that defense so great. In fact, that defense is likely the best unit of players ever seen in this city. When you throw in Clyde Simmons, Seth Joyner, Eric Allen, Wes Hopkins, Willie T, Dirty Waters and B&E, I can’t think of another group that even comes close to the dominance they showed. (I suppose that is another topic for another day.)

The duo which seems to most rival Chase and Howard is Eric Lindros and John LeClair from the Flyers teams of the mid to late 90’s. After Clarkie traded Mark Recchi for LeClair, Eric Desjardins and Gilbert Dionne, Lindros and LeClair took off as linemates making up 2/3 of the infamous Legion of Doom line. These two played a total of 801 regular season games together between 1995 and 2000 scoring a combined 465 goals, 519 assists and 984 points. They also led the Orange and Black to the Stanley Cup finals in 1997.


However, when all is said and done, I don’t think it is a stretch to believe that Utley and Howard will far surpass the Lindros and LeClair dominance for that time period. Plus, as we all saw after Lindros and Clarkie started their Cold War in 2001, LeClair was totally dependent on Lindros and was never as dominant after he left. Clearly, Utley and Howard are not as parasitic and would stand alone as stars without each other.

Let's not kid ourselves though. As great as Chase and Howard can potentially be, there was one duo that could have been greater. T.O. and D-Mac had the potential to absolutely own this city for the rest of their lives, but as we all know, those two let petty jealousy destroy a partnership which could have led to multiple Super Bowls and unsurpassed adulation. Let’s just hope that Howard and Utley are a little more mature and don’t let something similar derail our viewing enjoyment of watching those two progress together towards a title.

Of course projecting future greatness for these two and comparing them to past greats is all well and fine, but dont' forget...we are at the mercy of Phils' ownership. They have to do their best to surround these two with the kind of talent neccessary for these to be happy with the long term competitive nature of the franchise. If history tells us anything, we should not get too comfy with these studs holding down the right side of the Phils' infield forever. Although, you never know, our luck has to change, right? Right?