Philadelphia Phillies: Knocking on the Door of the Century Mark in 2011

One hundred wins.

Unless you are the New York Yankees, 100 wins is a difficult and rare accomplishment.

In the 128-year history of the Philadelphia Phillies, the team has only won 100 or more games twice, and that happened in back-to-back seasons in the late 1970s. There are several teams that have never won 100 games, including the Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays, but also including teams like the Washington Nationals, San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers.

Winning 100 games is such an incredibly rare accomplishment that no National League team has managed to do it since the St. Louis Cardinals won exactly 100 games in 2005.

It has happened more frequently in the American League,—thanks to those Damn Yankees—but even so, the only teams other than the New York Yankees to win 100 games in the last 10 seasons were the 2002 Oakland A’s and the 2008 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

We could go on and on, but let’s arrive at the point, shall we?

After Monday night’s lambasting of the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies sit at 82-44, which means the Phillies have officially clinched a winning record for the 2011 season.

But that’s not all.

If the Phillies play .500 ball the rest of the season (and, keep in mind, they have not played “.500 ball” over any significant stretch of the season to this point), they will go 18-18 the rest of the way—and they will finish the season with exactly 100 wins.

Which is ridiculous.

In fact, maybe this is an idea for a motto for the 2011 Phillies season:

2011 Philadelphia Phillies: Where Ridiculous Happens.

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