In Defense of Greg Dobbs, My Favorite Phillie of 2008 (No Joke!)

There's something to be said, in baseball and in life, for adapting to your role and learning to do it better than anybody else. And there is no better example of that than Gregory Stuart Dobbs circa 2007-2008, the best pinch hitter in Phillies history.

Not only known for hitting .355 as a pinch hitter and shattering Greg Gross' single-season franchise record for pinch hits, Greg Dobbs was also a favorite around the clubhouse, spent more time on his hair than any other Phillie (at least according to one of those scoreboard "ask the players" videos at CBP), and was voted the player Philly women second-most wanted to bang (after Chase Utley). He may not be my type of dude (I'm into lanky left-handed pitchers, personally), but Greg Dobbs is definitely my type of player. Scrappy, adaptable, unexpected. Doing whatever it takes to beat the shit out of everybody at the part of the game he got the chance to play. Tragically, limited roster space and reduced playing time took a lot of those chances away in 2009 and 2010, and Greg Dobbs' glory days were over.

I wonder who on the 2011 squad could possibly fill 2008-Greg-Dobbs' shoes. If anybody can, and especially after Friday's glorious walk-off pinch hit, I hope it's John Mayberry Jr.

Luckily, Philly Gameday got the answer to the question "can the Phillies win without Greg Dobbs?" for us, straight from the source himself:

Hello again fans! Greg Dobbs here doing some pinch-blogging (heh, see what I did there?) about the Phillies’ chances to overcome the loss of Greg Dobbs and continue their run atop the NL East. The Phillies current run of four-straight division titles began back on January 15, 2007, when the Phillies re-affirmed their commitment to winning by claiming Greg Dobbs off waivers from the Seattle Mariners. The rest—as they say—is history.

Greg Dobbs led Philadelphia to its first playoff appearance in 13 years, its first division title in 24 years and its first World Series title in 28 years. Greg Dobbs was enjoying all the success he brought to the team and thought the ride would never end. But Greg Dobbs was wrong.

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