One hundred and 99 days ago, the Phillies introduced Andy MacPhail as their president-in-waiting, the successor to Hall of Fame executive Pat Gillick. MacPhail, a lifelong baseball man who had stepped away from the game for more than three years, sat down that night in a private box at Citizens Bank Park to get a closer look at what he was getting himself into.
The Phillies were beginning a four-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers and even though they owned the worst record in baseball, the Brewers were only two games better in the National League standings.
"We were behind before we got an at-bat in every game," MacPhail, now the team president, recalled Monday afternoon inside his spacious ballpark office at One Citizens Bank Way.