“He’s impressive,” interim manager Don Mattingly said Wednesday — before Harper slugged a two-run homer and leaped to make a catch at the right field wall in the first inning of a sweep-averting 6-0 victory over the Mariners. “This section of time has been as good as we’ve seen all year.”
Nine years, actually. Harper hasn’t reached base in 50% of his plate appearances in a month since April 2017 with the Nationals. His best month with the Phillies came in September 2021, when he reached at a .452 clip and sealed his second National League MVP award.
And, now, he’s doing it while readjusting to right field.
But that’s all for another day. The Phillies’ objective in a midweek matinee here was to pocket a victory and move on to Anaheim. Considering they arrived on the rocket fuel of a nine-game winning streak — punctuated by a six-run ninth-inning comeback at home Sunday — and fell pancake-flat in the first two games, it was almost an imperative.
Consider, then, the magnitude of Harper’s first inning.
Bryce Harper is hitting .338 in August.Lindsey Wasson
Not only did he take a vintage swing at a 98-mph heater from Mariners starter Bryan Woo and drive it the other way to left-center field for a two-run homer, but his catch at the wall took extra bases from Julio Rodríguez.
Talk about a tone-setter.
“Haven’t done that in a while,” said Harper, who moved back to right field three weeks ago after not playing the position since 2022. “It’s pretty cool to get back there and do that again. Felt pretty smooth, pretty relaxed on it. So, hopefully I can keep that going and feeling good out there.”
Jesús Luzardo didn’t need much more than a 2-0 lead and Harper’s helping hand. The lefty had no-hit stuff — and didn’t allow one until Jhonny Pereda’s two-out single in the fifth inning. It was the only hit against Luzardo in seven innings.
Don’t look now, but Luzardo has been the Phillies’ best starter since mid-May. In his last 19 starts, he has a 2.11 ERA. And with his fourth-inning strikeout of Cal Raleigh, he reached 200 strikeouts for the second season in a row.
“I like strikeouts, for sure,” Luzardo said. “It’s a nice accomplishment. But at the end of the day, I think the win is nicer.”
The Phillies usually win behind Luzardo. They’re 19-8 overall in his starts, including 5-0 this month and 15-2 in his last 17. And he dominated the Mariners. Riding his fastball and signature sweeping slider, he got 18 swings and misses and racked up nine strikeouts.
Most significantly, he halted the team’s two-game skid and kept the Phillies in possession of the second NL wild card, two games clear of the Padres, and three games clear of the Diamondbacks.
Phillies lefty Jesús Luzardo has a 2.11 ERA in his last 19 starts.Lindsey Wasson
“I think that was kind of the goal today,” Luzardo said. “The offense came out hungry, and my job was to go out and put a stop to the losing. I think that everyone that goes out there has the same mentality, especially after a loss. Everyone wants to be the guy that stops it and puts us back on track.”
But it’s Harper, the Face of the Franchise, who has put the Phillies on his shoulders this month with a laser-focused plate approach. While most of his teammates struggled, especially against tough Mariners starters Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, Harper went 6-for-11 in the series. He has reached base in 29 consecutive games, a career-long streak.
Harper didn’t feel much like talking about it after the game — “I don’t want to get into depth,” he said — in part because he can’t totally explain it.
But Schwarber found a way to put it into stark perspective.
“Every time that he steps up to the plate, we don’t ever feel like there’s going to be a negative result,” he said. “And I feel like that’s a really high compliment. Because whenever that pitcher sees him step in, he knows that, if he makes a mistake, he’s able to do something with that mistake and also just stay locked into what he wants to do.”
No less than Mattingly, himself with a .307 lifetime batting average and “The Hitman” moniker, is slack-jawed by Harper’s month.
“With the on-base, with the swings, and just staying with it — no matter the score, no matter the game, the at-bats are good — it’s been really good,” Mattingly said. “I don’t know how much you guys appreciate what he really does and how long he’s been doing it, but it’s impressive.”
The Phillies are the hottest team in baseball, hotter than they’ve been all year, winners of nine straight for the first time since May of last season and just the second time in the Schwarber Era, which began in 2022.
We’ll call it the Schwarber Era because it was Kyle Schwarber’s 459-foot, two-run, walk-off Schwar-bomb that extended the winning streak Sunday afternoon, and because, with due respect to Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler, Schwarber is the soul of this ballclub.
Everybody always loves Schwarber. Not everybody loves these Phillies.
Maybe you don’t. Who can blame you? Whether it’s collapses against the Diamondbacks or Mets, or an inexplicable bunt or an unforgivable error against the Dodgers, these Phillies have a way of breaking your heart.
Once bitten, twice bitten, thrice bitten … goodbye?
Paul told the Galatians, “Be ye not faint of heart,” but the greatest apostle would be ashamed of Phillies fans today. Why?
Because these Phillies are for real.
They’re beating good teams by playing mature, sound baseball, and they’re doing it generally without the best efforts of their best players.
Nevertheless, they’re 16-5 in their last 21 games and a season-high 15 games over .500 going into Monday’s series opener in Seattle. They were 9½ games behind the Braves in the NL East when the streak began, but now they’re just three games out with 31 games to go, seven of them head-to-head with Atlanta. The Phils held the No. 2 wild-card slot, two games behind the Cubs, two ahead of the Padres, and four games ahead of the Diamondbacks, the first team out.
The Phillies on Monday began a nine-game, 10-day road trip three time zones west. They face the Mariners, then the Angels, two relatively poor American League teams, by the time they get to Arizona.
They swept Miami, St. Louis, and Minnesota, all teams with valid playoff aspirations, at least until they played the Phillies. That’s the biggest reason why you should learn to love again.
Here are four more.
The Phillies are winning despite middling performances of late from their aces, including Cristopher Sánchez.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
2: They’re streaking without good starts from the Big 3
During the streak, top three starters Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, and Jesús Luzardo all left the game while trailing after an ungainly outing. They surrendered a combined 10 earned runs in 17⅔ innings. The Phillies won anyway.
All three are healthy. They just faced decent offensive teams in the dregs of summer. The Mariners have scored the fewest runs in baseball. The Angels have the second-worst OPS. The next seven days should be a feast for the Big Three.
Luis Arraez is an unconventional but productive cleanup hitter for the Phillies.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
3: The Arraez Affect
Since three-time batting champ Luis Arraez, a deadline addition, joined the lineup Aug. 4, the Phillies have mimicked his approach. Their swings are more controlled. The hitters are more on balance.
The result: fewer home runs, but more hits.
They’ve hit nine homers in the nine wins, a rate of 1.0 per game. They’d hit 148 home runs in their first 123 games, a rate of 1.2 homers per game. Sometimes, less is more.
Since Arraez’s arrival and his insertion in the No. 4 spot, No. 3 hitter Bryce Harper has a .506 on-base percentage with 25 walks. No. 5 hitter Alec Bohm saved his season: He’s hitting .393 with a 1.015 OPS and 15 RBIs in 17 games. Bryson Stott, who bats sixth, is hitting .295 with 15 walks.
Bryson Stott has been great at third base since his move there following the Arraez trade.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
4: The defense got better
The Phillies chose to play Arraez at second base. This meant Stott had to move from second to third base, Bohm had to move from third to first base, and Harper had to move from first back to right field.
The unintended consequence: This is the best Phillies infield since 2011, when Placido Polanco won a Gold Glove at third base and Jimmy Rollins should have won it at shortstop. Granted, this is a low bar — Phillies infields have been atrocious for 15 years — but Stott, a shortstop by birth, already was an elite second baseman, and his play at third has been otherworldly. Bohm is an unnatural third baseman but a natural first baseman, unlike Harper, who is a very good outfielder. Arraez is a fine second baseman, and even Trea Turner looks better at shortstop.
Aaron Nola has been solid of late after a very slow start to his season.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
5: Andrew Painter and Aaron Nola settled in
Andrew Painter, who is 23, spent all of 2025 in triple A coming back from elbow surgery that cost him all of 2023 and 2024. His big-league debut was March 31. He was inconsistent, and was sent back to triple A in mid-June.
We call this “normal.”
Aaron Nola, who is 33, threw more innings than anyone else from 2018-24. In 2025 he suffered his first significant injury since 2016, which cost him three months in the middle of the season. He struggled the first three months of this season.
Nola’s ERA in his last nine starts is 3.63. He’s had one bad start. He’s learned to lean on his knuckle-curve.
You know what happens when you get 3.6-ish ERAs from fourth and fifth starters? You win divisions, you win pennants, and you win back the hearts of your fans.
Love Hurts
I get it. It’s hard to love a team with a $300 million shortstop hitting .245; a team that had to release $20 million outfielder Nick Castellanos and $18 million starter Taijuan Walker; a team with a bullpen that is injured and ineffective and, with the exception of the closer, utterly maddening.
But in matters of the heart, there are no guarantees. You take a chance, you ride the thrill, and, as fate decides, your devotion is rewarded … or not.
“ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Lord Tennyson was English, and he died in 1892. His grandson, Lionel, became England’s cricket captain, and Tennyson simply wallowed in heartbreak: It took him 17 years to finish the elegy.
In a different time the poet properly known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson — a moderate conservative rashly bearded — surely would have been a baseball fan.
Given his predilection for misery, he probably would have followed the Phillies.
A few short weeks ago, the Phillies struck out looking for a back end starting pitcher at the trade deadline.
Three days prior, out of options for the fifth slot in their rotation, the team recalled top prospect Andrew Painter, who’d struggled through his first go-round in the majors.
On Saturday against the Cardinals, Painter showed exactly why the Phillies and everyone else were so high on him in the first place, striking out eight in a one-run, seven-inning performance in the Phillies’ 12-3 win, the best start of his major league career.
“The whole outing today, he looked like — he was a dog on the mound,” J.T. Realmuto said. “He wanted to get guys out. He wanted to attack the strike zone. He looked really confident out there.”
Painter earned a big standing ovation from the Citizens Bank Park crowd after throwing the last of his 102 pitches.
“The guy we saw today, the ceiling is so high for him,” Realmuto said. “If he has that demeanor and that much confidence on the mound, he can be whatever he wants in this game.”
Painter gave up just one run in the sixth inning, an RBI single from Alec Burleson.
Since his 2024 Tommy John surgery, Painter has been trying to rebuild his fastball, which was identified as his best weapon as a prospect. He threw 32% of his fastballs for either called strikes or whiffs on Saturday.
“It doesn’t look as hittable,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “ … I think one of the things they talked about is him working sideways when he was here. I don’t know. I look at it from a hitter standpoint, guys that are going sideways, they’re dragging the barrel. Pitchers, when they’re going sideways, they’re dragging the arm, and they’re also showing the ball early.”
The Phillies worked with him on getting down the mound, and also on “letting go” and being more aggressive.
After a blow-up first inning in his last start in Minnesota, Painter said he focused on using that first inning against St. Louis to attack and win the at-bats, instead of “falling into the trap” of using it to “feel stuff out.”
He started Saturday’s game with a 1-2-3 inning, including two strikeouts. Painter didn’t walk a single batter and generated 20 whiffs total. He also made heavy use of his new changeup, something he worked on in his stint in triple A. He got six whiffs and averaged 92 mph on the pitch.
Having that changeup in the mix, which he threw 28 times compared to 25 fastballs, could be helping his fastball tick back up where he and the Phillies want it.
Andrew Painter fired off the best start of his career today!
After struggling to find his pre-injury fastball shape, Painter showcased a stupendous 4-Seam which exhibited +2" iVB compared to prior starts. If these traits hold Painter could be a postseason menace for the Phillies pic.twitter.com/4cUDOnpINm
“It tends to widen out the fastball grip, probably a bit less forearm fatigue, but I think it’s harder, and it moves more too,” Painter said. “Being able to play those two pitches off of each other helps a lot.”
Even deep into the seventh inning, Painter threw a 99.6 mph fastball on his 100th pitch.
“There’s a lot of mechanical things that lead to a little bit more gas in the tank later in the games,” Painter said. “ … I know that’s probably my last at-bat. I didn’t want to walk off that mound with anything left in the tank.”
Brandon Marsh (left) greets Kyle Schwarber after Schwarber’s solo home run in the eighth inning.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
But the Phillies didn’t even need a gem from Painter to pick up the win, thanks to their thriving offense. The Phillies have long been a team that relied on the long ball, but by the time Bryce Harper hit the Phillies’ first home run of the game in the sixth inning, they’d already scored eight runs thanks to their small-ball game.
Alec Bohm, who hit the walk-off triple in Friday’s win, stayed hot in the first inning, knocking a single to left to score the Phillies’ first run after Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner walked and singled to get on base. Edmundo Sosa followed with a double to make it 3-0 in the first.
In the third, Bohm, Sosa, and Luis Arraez loaded the bases with singles, then Bryan De La Cruz knocked in two more runs with a single. J.T. Realmuto added a sacrifice fly, and Derek Hill doubled to put the Phillies up by 7-0. Schwarber added another sacrifice fly in the sixth, followed by Harper’s three-run homer. Schwarber homered in the eighth off position player Pedro Páges to cap off the Phillies 12-3 win.
Arraez was removed from the game with lower body cramps in the third inning. Hill was removed with neck stiffness in the sixth. Both will be evaluated.
Now, his cleats have a new colorway that has already hit retailers — for $140.
The low-top cleats have a camouflage base with highlighter-orange lining on the sock collar, along the top and bottom outlines of the cleat, and outlining his “BH” initials, black shoelaces, and with a cream-colored midsole to separate the camouflage base from the bright orange soleplate.
To pair with his new cleats, which Harper wore on July 20 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Aug. 1 against the Baltimore Orioles, he wore black-and-orange Under Armour gloves and a camouflage sleeve on his right arm.
Bryce Harper’s new cleats have touches of orange and a camo design.Mitchell Leff
In a release, Under Armour says Harper’s new cleats are “inspired by Bryce’s tunnel-fit fashion as he’s often been seen rocking camo on the way to the ballpark, combined with his support for the University of Tennessee.”
Harper’s “All Lines Lead Home” cleats he released last month was part of a Yard Icon collection at Under Armour and released in five colorways representing Philly’s transit lines.
But he’s not the only Phillie with new cleats as Players’ Weekend gets underway.
Bryson Stott wore custom made “Toy Story” cleats on Friday night.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Animated kids movies come to life
Ahead of the Phillies’ Field of Dreams game against the Minnesota Twins in Dyersville, Iowa, Downingtown-based NXT LVL Customs produced an iconic design for Bryson Stott that featured late Phillies legends Harry Kalas, Tug McGraw, Roy Halladay, Darren Daulton, Robin Roberts, and Richie Ashburn emerging from a cornfield. After the game, Stott donated the cleats to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Now, NXT LVL Customs, which is run by father and son Ron and Ryan Stevens, has created custom cleats for more Phillies, including Stott, for Players’ Weekend, which allows players to wear custom gear, share personal stories, or otherwise express themselves.
Stott, for the second straight year, honored his daughter, Braxtyn, after last year’s Elmo-inspired Sesame Street footwear. This time, Stott will sport Nike Toy Story-themed cleats, with the left one rocking a Buzz Lightyear theme, and the right a Woody theme with “Braxtyn’s Story” written on it. He wore the cleats during Friday night’s game.
Stott also will have Toy Story-themed bats from King of Prussia-based Victus Sports. One of them features Jessie the cowgirl, and the other has a green alien from the movie.
The third baseman also had cleats made to honor his son, Jaxson. They’re royal blue, light blue, and white with star designs on the upper part; tiny illustrations of bears, trucks, and dinosaurs; and his son’s name on the back of the left cleat along with his birth date on back of the right cleat.
Cristopher Sánchez, Orion Kerkering, and Edmundo Sosa also received custom cleats from NXT LVL Customs.
Sánchez, who will pitch Sunday afternoon’s series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, will be wearing Adidas cleats in the Phillies’ colors with the team’s pinstripe design on the heel counter, the numbers of his teammates across both cleats, a white Phillies bell logo near the midsole, and blue shoelaces.
Kerkering will be sporting Lilo and Stitch-inspired Adidas cleats, with the left cleat representing Lilo’s red dress with cream-colored flowers white laces, and a pink heel counter. The right cleat mimics Stitch with two-toned blue, Stitch’s face on the toe, and fuzzy light blue shoelaces.
And Sosa, like Stott, payed homage to his daughter, who loves tennis. The base of his New Balance cleat is colored fluorescent yellow with images of tennis balls, a white strap and heel counter, and his daughter’s name, “Naya,” written on the back of the left cleat.
Plenty of other custom bats are being unveiled this weekend. These include Brandon Marsh’s Victus bat that honors his sister, Erin, who won a gold medal in the heptathlon at this year’s USATF national championship, and Harper’s camouflage custom bat that’s also by Victus.
Whether it’s Kobe Bryant mirroring Michael Jordan or Joel Embiid mastering Kobe’s footwork, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (which actually is the case for that aphorism, since Oscar Wilde borrowed it from Charles Caleb Cotton).
The Phillies aren’t exactly mimicking deadline light-hitting addition Luis Arraez, but his arrival on Aug. 3 has meant everything to a team that had the most disappointing offense in baseball through two-thirds of the season.
The Phillies’ on-base percentage on Aug. 3 was .305, which was third-worst in baseball. The Phillies’ on-base percentage since Aug. 3, entering Wednesday night’s game, was .367, which was the best in baseball.
This makes sense — right? — since Arraez won league batting titles in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and he led the National League entering Wednesday, at .317.
However, since his arrival, Arraez has generally slumped. He was hitting .274 with a .292 on-base percentage since arriving from San Francisco. This might be because he’s batting fourth in the order after spending almost all of his career batting first or second. At any rate, it’s OK.
Because this has less to do with Arraez’s production than with Arraez’s presence and how it has affected the hitters around him.
Bryce Harper, the No. 3 batter in front of Arraez, was hitting .255 with an .862 OPS on Aug. 3. Since then, he’s hit .295 with a .939 OPS, fueled largely by his .530 on-base percentage, which includes 22 walks in 14 games.
Alec Bohm, hitting fifth behind Arraez, was hitting .226 on Aug. 3. Since then, he’s hit .396 with a 1.038 OPS and 11 RBIs in 14 games.
Bryson Stott, who bats sixth, was hitting .253 on Aug. 3. Since then, he’s hit .367, has a 10-game hitting streak, and, like Harper, his on-base percentage of .508 has as much to do with his eye as with his hands: Stott has 14 walks in those 14 games.
Harper has begged for protection for two seasons.
“I think it’s a huge impact in the 4 spot. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or Kyle. Because if Schwarbs is hitting there, the same thing is going to happen. So I think 4 spot is a huge impact. I think the numbers in the 4 spot weren’t very good last year, for our whole team. Whoever… pic.twitter.com/Gs1fPp5u7k
“As a lineup, any time you’re able to add somebody like that, obviously, it’s going to be really good for the team,” Harper said. “You know he’s [going] to put the bat on the ball.”
There might be other factors.
The Phillies held a hitters’ meeting just before Arraez arrived, and they talked a lot about being selective-aggressive, as hitting coach Kevin Long has preached since his arrival in 2022.
Long’s a superb hitting coach, but Long doesn’t hit. Long doesn’t set an example. Arraez does both, and his presence seems to have more obviously impacted production.
Between the meeting and Arraez’s arrival, the Phillies’ on-base percentage rose two points.
Between Arraez’s arrival and Wednesday night, the Phillies’ on-base percentage rose 62 points.
It’s not as if Arraez sets an example of selectivity. In fact, he’s seeing just 3.74 pitches per plate appearance this season, well below the big-league average of 4.13. And Arraez doesn’t walk much: he’s averaged 37.2 walks in his five full seasons, and he has 27 this season.
Luis Arraez doesn’t walk much, but he strikes out even less.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
So, has he really affected the middle of the lineup?
“Yeah, for sure,” Stott said. “When you’re the guy behind him, you see him, when he swings the bat, it just feels like he’s going to get a hit.”
Bohm spoke after Tuesday’s win over the Marlins, in which the Phillies collected 10 hits. Nine of them were singles, but, really, Bohm’s double was a single, too, but the Marlins threw to the wrong man, so he stretched it into a double.
The core of the Phillies’ order is swinging at fewer tough strikes, waiting for their pitch, making balanced, controlled swings, keeping the bat in the strike zone longer, and not trying to hit home runs. Harper, Stott, and Bohm struck out just 17 times combined in the last 14 games.
On Tuesday, the Phillies scored at least six runs in a fifth straight game, the first time they’ve done that this season. They scored six on Monday, too, with 10 singles and a double.
They’ve become a fun team to watch by adding a fun player.
“He’s one of those infectious energy guys,” Bohm said. “And you see the ways he plays, the way he takes his at-bats, watching his at-bats — you spend time around good hitters, good hitters can make other hitters better.”
As Philly guys go, the Phanatic is one suave dude. His gyrating belly, chameleonlike tongue, and ability to burn our opponents without uttering a single word have charmed generations of Philadelphians.
Now, this smoothie operator has a smoothie all his own and it tastes like the tears of our rivals — sweet, salty, and delicious.
Kim Rodriguez, Wawa manager, along with the Wawa mascot Wally Goose and the Phillie Phanatic in Philadelphia on Aug. 17, 2026.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Wawa debuted its new, limited-edition Phanatic Caramel Curveball Cream Smoothie during an event at the chain’s Penrose Avenue store Monday that was part news conference, part pep rally, and perfectly preposterous.
Fans packed the store — for what, they weren’t exactly sure — they just knew it would be a chance to “hang with the Phillie Phanatic and Wally Goose,” according to Wawa’s Facebook page for the event.
The two-birds-one-store offer was enough to bring out a flock of more than 75 people dressed in Phillies, Phanatic, and Wawa gear, including sisters Elizabeth and Jennifer Bertolet of Doylestown. They arrived 90 minutes before the event and decided that whatever was about to happen, it was “going to be awesome.”
“Wally is going to be here and the Phanatic is going to be here. Why wouldn’t we be here?” Elizabeth Bertolet said.
Maggie McNulty, who is dressed as Wally Goose, and her father, Glenn McNulty, attend an event at Wawa’s Penrose Avenue store celebrating the partnership between the Phillies and Wawa. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Justin Tichy, chief operations officer for Wawa, announced during his remarks that the smoothie is part of a new partnership between Philly’s hometown baseball team and its hometown convenience store.
Fans at Friday’s Phillies’ game against the St. Louis Cardinals will receive a Wawa Kyle Schwarber bobblehead, samples of the Phanatic smoothie, and a chance to see Wally Goose throw out the first ceremonial pitch.
When asked how he’s feeling about taking the mound, Wally shuddered with nervous energy then practiced his pitching wing.
She Willians, of Job Corps culinary, and the Wawa mascot Wally Goose at Wawa’s Penrose Avenue store Monday. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Perhaps he’ll throw a curveball like Wawa did by not making its Phanatic smoothie green. A source said it’s because the Phanatic is unlikely to put anything green in his smoothie, which 100% tracks. You don’t get that bouncy belly by drinking kale.
When asked what he thought about the new drink bearing his name, the Phanatic raised his arms overhead then circled his belly around in approval.
The smoothie is made with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream, salted caramel syrup, and sea salt pretzel pieces. It comes in a limited-edition cup featuring the Phanatic’s eyes and the tip of his snout and it only comes in one size — phanatically large — clocking in at 970 calories.
Zack Sminkey of Woodstown, N.J., who wore a matching red shirt-and-shorts combo featuring repeating patterns of the Phanatic, brought his 7-year-old daughter Zoe to the event. Both approved of the new smoothie in the big green guy’s honor.
“It’s really good. It’s very ballpark-tasting,” Sminkey said. “I almost feel like it tastes like Cracker Jacks. It’s delicious.”
Jennifer Bertolet described it another way as she and her sister toasted their free samples of smoothie.
“It tastes like World Series win with a sprinkling of Mets tears,” she said.
Phillies ambassador Scott Palmer with a tray of new Wawa limited-edition Phanatic Caramel Curveball Cream Smoothies.Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
When Wawa released a limited-edition Gritty Smoothie in the spring in honor of Philly’s prince of chaos, it was only a matter of time before the OG mascot king got one of his own, too.
The partnership between Wawa and the Phillies solidified Wawa as the team’s official hoagie in June. Wawa hoagies now come wrapped in Phillies-themed paper, and the chain is selling red-and-white striped Phillies doughnuts and Phillies-themed kids meals, which come with stickers of the Phanatic and Wally Goose. A portion of the proceeds from the kids meals go to Philabundance.
In turn, Wawa has an increased presence at Citizens Bank Park with new advertising and ballpark activations.
Wally Goose and the Phillie Phanatic represent Wawa and the Phillies at a news conference on Monday about their recently-announced partnership. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
But the Phillies and Wawa were in a situationship long before they made things official this summer. Whenever the Phillies make the playoffs, Wawa brings back its Kyle Schwarber-themed Schwarberfest, a Hoagiefest spinoff featuring discounted hoagies. And in 2024, Bryce Harper was fined by MLB for showing his love for the chain by wearing custom-made Wawa cleats and a headband during a game.
The Phillies and Wawa collaborations, including the Phanatic smoothie, will be available at stores in the region through Sept. 28.
No word on if the offers will be extended in the event of a Red October.
Today while interviewing a woman inside of a Wawa whose baby was dressed like Wally Goose, I was surprise-attacked from behind by the Phanatic, who put me inside of his shirt.
That is a sentence only a Philly journalist could write – and believe and live through.
DYERSVILLE, Iowa — Long before he was a major league manager, even before all the Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers and MVP awards, Don Mattingly was a kid playing baseball in Indiana.
One of the ballparks he played in with his brothers, growing up in Evansville, was down a dirt road surrounded by cornfields. And he couldn’t help but be reminded of it as the Phillies filed off their bus Thursday afternoon in Dyersville, Iowa, at the site of their Field of Dreams game.
Beyond center field of the ballpark where the Phillies took on the Twins, past rows upon rows of corn stalks is the actual set used to film the 1989 movie. The Phillies wandered around the site with their families and friends before the game, exploring the field, bleachers, and house that are all iconic parts of the film.
“Just kind of seeing the house and making sure when I crossed over the chalk line, I didn’t turn into a normal human being,” Bryce Harper said. “Seeing just all of it. Just really cool to be able to be part of it, and be here, and enjoy it.”
Bryson Stott watched the movie with his wife during the Phillies’ last homestand. He’d seen it before, but the latest viewing had a bit more significance knowing the game was on the horizon.
“I paid attention to the little stuff that’s going on, and just trying to see what I would be able to see here, knowing that we’re coming here,” Stott said.
Phillies outfielder Derek Hill, a Des Moines native, takes a photo on the Field of Dreams movie site. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The movie Field of Dreams itself is as much about fathers and sons as it is about baseball. Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella builds the ballpark as a way to connect with his late father’s passion for the game. Their relationship is a main thread throughout, and culminates with Kinsella playing a game of catch with a younger version of his father.
For some players, the logistics of having just one game in Iowa were too complicated to bring their families along for the experience. But not for Mattingly, who shares a workplace with his son Preston, the Phillies general manager. He was also be able to bring along his youngest son, 11-year-old Louie.
The Mattingly trio took a photo together on the field pregame. Don and Louie also played a game of catch, just like Ray and his father did in the movie.
“It’s just been a cool dynamic overall to work alongside of [Preston] and be a part of that,” Don Mattingly said. “And then just my little one just being around. Times have changed for kids and families at ballparks and things like that, during BP. And that change is for the better. Your kids get to hang out in the locker room and just be around the guys. It’s been a good experience.”
The Phillies’ Brandon Marsh walks through the cornfield separating the movie site baseball field with the one they played on Thursday night.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Despite all the fanfare, however, the Phillies are aware that the game isn’t an exhibition. Both teams are in the midst of a wild-card race, and are looking to turn things around after a substandard recent performance.
The Phillies had lost six of their last eight series out of the All-Star break and entered Thursday tied with the Diamondbacks for the final wild-card spot. Since Arizona has the tiebreaker, the Phillies have fallen out of playoff position for the first time since early June.
“We know we have to win games, especially now and coming down the stretch,” Stott said. “It breaks it up in a sense where we’re not in Minnesota for three games, but we’re still playing the Twins three times, and got to win some games. And we’re going to try to enjoy being here, but also the main thing is to win the game.”
Phillies coaches stand on the porch of the farmhouse from “Field of Dreams.” Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Extra bases
The Phillies added outfielder Kameron Misner to the roster as the additional player permitted for Thursday’s Field of Dreams game. Misner was acquired in a July trade with the Kansas City Royals in exchange for cash considerations. In 75 games at the triple-A level across both organizations, the left-handed hitter has a .272/.371/.529 slash line. … Catcher Rafael Marchán (left knee patellar tendinitis) began a rehab assignment for triple-A Lehigh Valley Thursday. … Following Friday’s off day, Jesús Luzardo (10-5, 3.32 ERA) is scheduled to start against Twins left-hander Connor Prielipp (3-5,4.79) at Target Field.
After losing two straight series, the Phillies hope to find a bit of heaven in Iowa.
The Phillies will take on the Minnesota Twins in Dyersville, Iowa Thursday night (7:30 p.m., Netflix) in MLB’s first Field of Dreams game in four years, named after the beloved film starring Kevin Costner.
Costner will be on hand as part of Netflix’s exclusive coverage, with veteran play-by-play announcer Matt Vasgersian calling all the action. He’ll be joined in the booth by CC Sabathia and former Phillies outfielder Hunter Pence, with Lauren Shehadi reporting throughout the game.
Netflix’s pregame coverage will once again be hosted by Elle Duncan and feature Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, and Anthony Rizzo. Bonds and Rizzo worked particularly well together during Netflix’s coverage of the Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park last month.
Despite that, the pregame show felt overstuffed, needlessly shoehorning in Will Ferrell in an attempt to promote his new Netflix show. They took a similar approach during MLB’s opening night in March, drawing widespread criticism for the number of promos.
Gabe Spitzer, Netflix’s VP of sports, signaled on a recent conference call that Thursday night’s approach for the Field of Dreams game might be different, noting the teams and setting make a case for “not overthinking this and not trying to do too much.”
“It’s a game that matters for these two teams in the playoff chase, it’s an iconic venue, and we want to let that do most of the work,” Spitzer said.
As for the Phillies, they’re certainly testing the whole “if you build it” mentality. Since the All-Star break, the team and its $321 million payroll — fourth most in all of baseball, according to Spotrac — has lost six of eight series, and slumping new addition Luis Arráez has just seven hits and one walk in 38 plate appearances with the Phillies (though he did drive in the team’s only run during Wednesday’s loss to the St. Louis Cardinals)
If the season ended today, the Phillies wouldn’t qualify for the playoffs, missing out on the final wild-card spot to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
At least they’ll get to sport cool 1939-inspired throwback jerseys as part of the Field of Dreams game festivities, which even include a centennial patch all teams wore that season.
Bryce Harper sports the 1939-inspired jersey the Phillies will wear Thursday night. Daniel Shirey
Latest weather forecast for Field of Dreams game
They built it, but mother nature was threatening to show up.
Earlier forecasts were seeing chances for heavy rain and thunderstorms around first pitch.
However, it appeared the rains were backing off Thursday afternoon, said Alex Gibbs, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Davenport, Ohio, and weather prospects were brightening considerably.
“We have a pretty good feeling,” said Gibbs (a diehard Milwaukee Brewers fan). “It looks like a good window.” He said the only concern was the potential for thunderstorms — with lightning, of course — later at night. While chances are they would hold off until the game was over, “We have to keep an eye on stuff,” he said. Timing and location of thunderstorms in summer are notoriously unpredictable, as Philadelphians are aware.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch just south of Dyersville through Friday afternoon, but there remains a lot of uncertainty on the timing or exact location of the potential storms.
If the game is rained out Thursday, both teams will take the field Friday, but showers are again possible in the evening, said Gibbs.
Phillies radio announcer Scott Franzke will call all the action on 94.1 WIP. NBC Sports Philadelphia
While Netflix will exclusively stream the game, Phillies fans can still tune into 94.1 WIP to hear Scott Franzke and Kevin Stocker call all the action.
Despite the hyped-up setting and national spotlight, Franzke hasn’t been told what to expect.
“I don’t have any idea about the broadcast conditions. Is it a big booth or a small booth? I imagine it’s pretty small,” Franzke said. “I’m assuming there’s a booth. There wasn’t in London. We just did it from the seats.”
Franzke said as an announcer, these event-style games are a fun diversion. But he’s not sure how the team feels about them.
“It does create a little different wrinkle in the rhythm of the summer and the travel, and it’s not an exhibition game,” Franzke said. “There’s a lot at stake, both for us and the Twins. One game can make all the difference in the world.”
Phillies TV announcers Tom McCarthy and Rubén Amaro Jr. were to travel with the team to Iowa, despite NBC Sports Philadelphia not broadcasting the game. They’ll call the final two games against the Twins Saturday and Sunday at Target Field in Minneapolis, but don’t expect to hear them on Thursday’s radio broadcast.
“I think they’re just going to hang out,” Franzke said.
One big plus is Franzke and his colleagues won’t have to rely on Porta Potties to get through the night, thanks to recent renovations that added amenities like running toilets and sewer lines.
“I always appreciate some good indoor plumbing,” Franzke said.
Phillies NL East standings
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NL wild card standings
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Phillies news
Phillies slugger Bryce Harper. Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
ST. LOUIS — When Bryce Harper volunteered to move back to the outfield, he wasn’t concerned about his knee.
Harper said Tuesday that he “banged up” his left knee in the Phillies’ final series before the All-Star break in Detroit. It happened when he slid into second on a double in the Phillies’ July 11 game against the Tigers.
He was sore. Not enough to miss any time, but Harper said it was bothering him during the Home Run Derby, from which he was eliminated in the first round.
After the All-Star break, it started to improve. But now that Harper is back in right field to open an infield spot for newly acquired second baseman Luis Arraez, his knee is starting to bother him again.
“Just time on feet,” Harper said. “It’s more when I stop than when I run, so it’s more like braking on it. But when I’m at full speed, I feel fine. When I hit, I feel fine. It’s just coming down from it.”
It’s still not bothering him enough that he needs a full day off, but the knee is part of the reason Harper has started at designated hitter twice in the last three days, including Monday’s series-opening 6-5 win against the Cardinals. Kyle Schwarber started at first base both times to allow Harper a half day.
Harper returned to right field on Tuesday, though, with Alec Bohm drawing back in the lineup at first. Interim manager Don Mattingly plans to keep finding opportunities to rest Harper as he builds up as a right fielder. He has removed Harper for a defensive replacement late in games when the Phillies are leading to give him a break, which Harper has said he’s fine with.
But Harper doesn’t expect his DH days to be quite this frequent going forward.
Bryce Harper switched to the outfield after the Phillies acquired Luis Arraez at the trade deadline last week.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
“I didn’t really think [Monday] was that type of day for me. That was more of just like a DH spot. It’s hot, that kind of stuff,” Harper said. “Obviously, it’s bothering me a little bit, but I don’t know. We’ll see. I’ll take a DH anytime I can get it, but I don’t think we’re there at that point yet.”
In fact, it’s important to Harper that he continues to get everyday outfield reps in order to get acclimated.
“I think the more I play, I think it’ll help me just like getting in condition more,” he said. “I feel like I’m in spring training again, trying to get through everything. So I think the more I play, the more I get my body accustomed to playing the outfield. I think it’ll kind of weasel its way out.”
Harper, 33, has started all 120 Phillies games this year. Mattingly said it’s feasible for him to start all 162 — which would be a first in Harper’s career — provided that the knee is manageable and he stays healthy otherwise.
“It just depends if the health stays good, right? That’s all it is. I mean, we’re not going to not have him in there unless he can’t be in there, and he absolutely has to have a day,” Mattingly said. “So I think it’s realistic.”
Harper is looking forward to getting in the outfield on Thursday during the Phillies’ Field of Dreams game against the Minnesota Twins in Dyersville, Iowa. The stadium is located adjacent to the field shown in the 1989 film, with a cornfield in center field that the players walk through at the beginning of the game.
Harper said that he has corn on the cob-related gear that he plans to wear during the game.
“It’ll be cool, the corn behind me, stuff like that. So I’m excited,” Harper said. “It’ll be fun for all of us. I mean, we all grew up watching that movie, so being able to kind of walk through the corn and do some pretty cool stuff with the older generation will be a lot of fun.”
Alex McFarlane was recalled on Tuesday to the Phillies’ bullpen.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
McFarlane back up
The Phillies bullpen got a reinforcement on Tuesday, with righty Alex McFarlane called back up to the major league club. He filled the spot of Alan Rangel, who was optioned after pitching 2⅔ innings in the Phillies’ win on Monday.
Rangel was one of two arms available in relief behind Monday’s starter Andrew Painter, along with Jonathan Bowlan.
Chase Shugart was recalled Monday even though he was unavailable to pitch. To be eligible to return less than 15 days after being optioned, Shugart had to replace an injured player on the 26-man roster. Caleb Kilian’s oblique strain provided that opportunity.
This marks the third stint with the major league club this season for McFarlane. The right-hander had a scoreless appearance against the Dodgers for his major league debut on July 22. With the bullpen still stretched thin, however, it’s possible the Phillies might need to call on him in higher-leverage situations.
“He’s going to have to get big [outs],” Mattingly said. “Bigger ones than before. So we’ll see. We’re looking for him to just throw the ball the way he’s been throwing it, and he’ll be fine.”
Extra bases
Zack Wheeler (10-3, 2.69 ERA) is scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale opposite Cardinals right-hander Kyle Leahy (8-4, 3.45).
Do rich guys have to ruin everything? Apparently so. There came a time about 15 years ago when my soccer obsession got to the point where I felt I needed to pick an English Premier League team to root for, in addition to the U.S. national teams and the Union. Long story, but I went with Liverpool, in a city many consider the Philadelphia of the U.K., and it’s been a good ride, including a couple of trophies. On Monday, it was reported Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos is buying 30% of the team. I’m officially out. Go, Leeds!
When did Trump’s ballroom become a national security fortress? We need answers.
Construction continues on a helipad and the White House ballroom on the South Lawn of the White House on Aug. 5.Tierney L. Cross
Donald Trump’s originally stated 2025 scheme to demolish the East Wing of the White House to make way for an oversized ballroom to hold state dinners and whatnot was bad enough: an unneeded, unwanted, gilded, and presumably tacky callback to Louis XVI, a massive monument to a modern let-them-eat-cake regime.
A year later, the project is better describedasan alleged ballroom — another bait-and-switch scam by America’s first grifter president. The fact that the public really doesn’t know how much this project actually costs — estimates have soared from the initial lowball of $300 million to now at least $600 million, but possibly more — or how much of that will be dumped on U.S. taxpayers is just the beginning of the problem.
Nearly 10 months after the president shocked Washington, D.C., and the rest of America by taking a wrecking ball to the history-packed East Wing, Trump has all but stopped talking about a black-tie party venue and instead rebranded the project as essential to national security.
When the D.C. federal appeals court on Friday ordered the White House, which never got congressional approval for either the demolition or the ballroom addition, to halt aboveground construction, Trump took to Truth Social and described the ruling as akin to treason.
“The Military and Secret Service are viewing this horrendous, politically motivated, and unlawful ruling as a National Security threat to our Nation in that the entire Complex is being built for the protection of our Country and, additionally, all future Presidents,” Trump posted, using language that’s probably never previously in human history been used to describe a “ballroom.”
Trump didn’t say in his post anything about crystal chandeliers, or great acoustics, or things you might expect in a world-class ballroom. Instead, he said the facility will have bomb shelters, a state-of-the-art hospital, top-secret military facilities, protective missile-resistant steel, columns, roofs, and beams, drone-proof ceilings and roofs, military-grade venting, and bullet-, ballistic-, and blast-proof glass.
It sounds like somebody is expecting a last tango in Washington.
Trump’s post was alarming — shocking, really — but in case anyone missed the point, or doesn’t know how to read, he also posted some AI-created renderings, which again did not depict waltzing diplomats, but instead showed a rooftop “DronePort” that was packed to thegills with ominous-looking military drones, manned by troops and also with armored vehicles that somehow drove up there. The vibe was Darth Vader’s Death Star, except with “military-grade venting” this time around.
There are two very different ways to look at all of this, and let’s start with the more benign one. Ever since the beginning of his second crack at the presidency, Trump — when he’s not pursuing his main projects of making billions of dollars, punishing his enemies, and staying out of prison — has been obsessed with placing his personalist stamp on Washington. Maybe that’s for his legacy, or maybe he just wants a Mar-a-Lago-by-the-Potomac to comfort his octogenarian mind.
Trump might not be able to crash weddings as he does at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate, but his ballroom idea would be close enough. Although he’s also sought and received donations for the project from the usual suspects of friendly billionaires and favor-seeking corporations, Trump also wants both additional dollars and — more importantly, in light of the appeals court ruling — a stamp of approval from Congress. That’s been a thwarted agenda item for GOP leaders on Capitol Hill for months.
But if Trump can’t sway Congress, he hopes to win over a U.S. Supreme Court where he has appointed three of the nine members. The White House knows that both Congress and the high court tend to fall in line whenever national security is invoked, while there is no constitutional right to foxtrot. So maybe all the military bluster is just political posturing for Trump’s latest real estate development.
But as the project enters its second year, it seems to have morphed into something a lot more disturbing than that. The pictures, descriptions, and accounts of Trump’s game here are sounding a lot more like the impregnable mountain lair of a Bond villain.
This is a man who fomented an attempted coup the first time he was asked to leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and who saw how South Korea’s corrupt right-wing president was ousted after a massive throng of protesters overwhelmed key government buildings. Wasn’t it Chekhov who said you don’t put drones up on the roof unless you intend to deploy them by the third act? The two most likely scenarios for actually using Trump’s bunker — Civil War II, or World War III — are less than optimal.
This national security bunker isn’t the only thing that’s worrisome as Trump looks to the second half of what’s supposed to be his final term. As noted in this space recently, Trump has also extended the presence of National Guard troops in Washington through Jan. 20, 2029, which coincidentally is the scheduled last day of his term.
Since their arrival last year, the Guard troops — many from units in pro-Trump red states, and costing U.S. taxpayers at least $1.4 billion and possibly more — have often been spotted hanging around, or picking up trash as a kind of busywork. But residents and some advocates like Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, are already complaining Trump is “treating [D.C.] like a police state.”
It raises the same questions as the alleged “ballroom.” The president is entitled to state-of-the-art security, and while the public doesn’t need to know all of the operational details, American taxpayers also can’t be expected to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars for these projects without truly knowing what they are for.
Democrats on Capitol Hill need to start demanding answers. On Monday, there was an encouraging report by the New Republic’s Greg Sargent that the opposition party is working to demand communications from the Justice and Interior Departments to explain why several people were wrongly criminally charged with vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool when the actual damage was a botched repainting contract.
Congress can, and should, also flex its muscles over this ballroom fiasco — first by denying any public money for the project, and then by launching a similar investigation into the hasty demolition, the political fundraising, and the sketchy purposes for the project. Someone owes America the truth, and it’s not going to come from the current regime without a fight.
Whatever happens, the woman or man who hopefully succeeds Trump and sends those guard troops back to their own private Idaho in January 2029 is also going to have a giant mess in their backyard. But it’s better to have the ruins from a botched, halted construction project than from the Battle of Armageddon.
Yo, do this!
The California journalist Gil Durán has been paying attention to the political craziness coming out of Silicon Valley years before anyone else was, and now comes the big payoff in the form of a book that is not only incredibly timely but has the best title of the year: The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. Durán explores the strange beliefs of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and their friends, their obsession with building their own private “networked cities,” and their unlikely alliance with Donald Trump. I’ve been waiting on this one for a while.
August is always a great month for books. While Durán drills down on the high-tech enemies of liberty, the great writer Dave Zirin has a new tome about one of democracy’s heroes, the late historian Howard Zinn, his former mentor. Public intellectuals are still arguing about the merits of Zinn’s 1980 masterwork, A People’s History of the United States, but nobody disputes his influence on the national conversation. Zinn rejected American exceptionalism, but also spotlighted everyday heroes like labor leaders or civil rights activists who expanded our freedoms over two centuries. I’m looking forward to reading The People’s Historian: The Outsized Life of Howard Zinn.
Ask me anything
Question: Data centers are the flashpoint but the root problem is the unregulated AI that is sweeping up every keystroke and every written document then repackaging it as if original thought. How do we get a federal government mired in 2020 to begin legislating on AI? — Suzi (@wanderponder.bsky.social) via Bluesky
Answer: Great question, Suzi, and I think we all know the main reason why the body politic — and I’m talking about both Democrats and Republicans — have been so painfully slow to respond to voters’ widespread anxiety not only about noisy, polluting, resource-wasting data centers, but also to artificial intelligence itself. The reason is money. Silicon Valley AI developers have raised an unbelievable $220 million to spend on November’s election, and — while there are some disagreements within Big Tech about policy — most of the cash will go to the politicians least likely to regulatean industry badly in need of it. Cognitive computing is not only stealing our intellectual property, as you noted, but also our jobs, as well as our children’s ability to learn.The good news is that public backlash against AI is so strong that even a quarter-billion dollars may not be able to stop the movement. But it’s way past time to get money out of politics.
What you’re saying about …
I should have guessed that newsletter readers don’t have much more of a clue than Donald Trump about what to do about the giant mess in the Persian Gulf. I did get one thoughtful response from an emailer with a “cbluff” handle (Reminder: Please sign your real name to these responses) who said the Trump regime needs to send skilled negotiators — and be realistic. “I believe the U.S. will have to cede the Strait of Hormuz, allow Iran and Oman to collect protection money, remove sanctions and pay them so we can declare victory and leave,” they wrote. It’s hard to disagree. Once again, the United States has lost a war.
📮 This week’s question: Since the Democratic Senate primary win by Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed last week, the mainstream media has been obsessed with the question of whether this year’s progressive surge, including candidates (although not El-Sayed) tied to the Democratic Socialists of America, is hurting the Democrats. What do you think? Are leftists bringing needed energy to a moribund party, or are they too out there to defeat the GOP in November? Please email me your answer and put the exact phrase “Democrats and the left” in the subject line.
Backstory on the day Trump left his press corps for dead
Catering trucks are parked at Air Force One on the tarmac as the motorcade carrying President Donald Trump arrives to depart following the NATO summit, at Ankara International Airport in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8.Alex Brandon
It was appalling enough back in late July when we watched a room full of some of America’s highest-profile journalists break bread with Donald Trump at the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, where the president got up and hurled crude insults at several of the media members. Many of us were disgusted that some of the nation’s most respected journalists would platform a man who has repeatedly called a free press “the enemies of the people.” But the White House press corps was in the dark about an even more disturbing plot twist.
Just 16 days earlier, Trump had left some of those journalists for dead — at least potentially — as human decoys who might be blown from the skies in a feared Iranian plot.
The stunning story came out late Monday night as I was writing this newsletter, with a scoop by the Washington Post, matched shortly, with some additional details, by the New York Times. The articles revealed a modern-day Air Force One kind of thriller that essentially involved a shell game with three different aircraft. It was triggered by what officials deemed was a credible Iranian assassination threat against the president when he traveled to a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey — just over 700 miles from the border with the U.S. enemy.
This launched a series of events, beginning with a plan to abandon Trump’s new, $400 million gift-from-Qatar iteration of Air Force One for an older version that actually has more advanced defensive capacities. Trump was filmed boarding the replacement Air Force One, followed by the White House press corps and some traveling aides for the departure from Ankara to a U.S. air base in Great Britain. What those passengers could not have imagined was that Trump had somehow been spirited out “via a catering container that had been lifted to the opposite side of the plane,” and switched to a C-32A military plane for the flight to the U.K.
Then they kept the unwitting journalists and aides on the ground for a couple of hours before it was revealed POTUS was safely in Britain and the Iranians had been thwarted and … haha, of course that’s not what really happened. No, the press corps took off as human decoys — the latest sitting ducks in an idiotic war that never should have been launched in the first place. Thankfully, no one was hurt … this time. Journalists wondered why they’d been ordered to keep the airplane’s window blinds closed, which inspired this now ironic exchange between Trump and some journalists when they reunited for the flight from Britain back to the U.S.
Trump lied that he didn’t know of any specific plot against Air Force One, and then added: “I’m No. 1on their list, before you. But if I go, you go. Right?”
Apparently not.
Even as I write this in the middle of the night just hours after the Post and Times scoops, the internet is already flooded with memes depicting Trump crammed into one of those airport serving carts, or pigging out on the adjacent airline food. It’s funny to see that your president isn’t Harrison Ford punching out the terrorists, but, in reality, slinking away in a food truck, leaving other Americans in the line of fire, right?
No, it’s not funny at all. This whole episode is a grand metaphor for a careless president who smashes up things before retreating into his money or whatever keeps him going — not thinking twice about the fate of human beings in a squalid ICE detention camp or an Iranian girls’ school. Or bantering with the gaggle of journalists whom he abandoned after drawing a big target on their backs. The first media question at the next Oval Office event ought to be, “Why did you treat me like cannon fodder?” But I wouldn’t bet on that happening.
What I wrote on this date in 2016
It’s almost funny now, in a dark-comedy kind of way, to look back on the fateful summer of 2016 and remember what it felt like to be stubbornly convinced that something, anything, was bound to happen to stop the obvious insanity of a Donald Trump presidency. It seems so incredibly naive now to read what I believed exactly one decade ago, when I actually thought the success of a diverse and incredibly talented U.S. Olympics team in Brazil would expose the Big Lie of Trump’s racism. I wrote, “The exclamation point is the remarkable women’s gymnastics team led by individual gold medalist Simone Biles — so dominant you will easily forget they also celebrate the kind of diversity that is America’s best feature, not the bug that’s described by the bitter and the disaffected back home.”
The fight for America’s future is waged on many fronts, and I’m trying to keep up. Last week, I wrote about a fascinating political development that’s been largely flying under the radar screen: a movement out west to knock off GOP incumbents by creating one-on-one contests with feisty, populist independents. That means long-shot Democrats need to drop out — which has happened in Nebraska, Idaho, and South Dakota, but not in Montana. It’s both a bold plan to end the Republican majority on Capitol Hill and a sad commentary on the failed Democratic Party brand in the American heartland. This weekend, I wrote about the Trump regime’s latest assault on higher education — denying loans for students who major in fields linked to lower-income jobs — and the increasingly bleak future of a liberal arts education. I wondered why Democrats won’t fight harder to end runaway careerism and preserve college campuses as bastions of critical thinking.
This August feels like the calm before the storm in Philadelphia sports. Some of that is the excitement over the Eagles finally beingback in training camp and looking to regain that Super Bowl mojo as 76ers fans try to process, if that’s the right term, a once-in-a-lifetime offseason rebuilding project. But much of it is angst over the Phillies, who are clinging by their fingernails to a playoff spot despite adding the National League’s batting champ to a lineup that already includes home run king Kyle Schwarber, future Hall of Famer Bryce Harper, and one of baseball’s best pitching rotations. None of that matters when the Phillies don’t have a relief pitcher who can carry a lead past the 7th or 8th inning. The Inquirer’s ace sports columnists like David Murphy and Marcus Hayes have all asked the same question: Can this team be saved? The answers are just over the paywall, and you can leap over it just like Saquon Barkley at the first-down marker; all you need to do is subscribe to The Inquirer.
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