Working On A Sunday

Rainy Sundays aren't usually good for much. The malls and movie theaters are jammed, the parks in Center City are, shall we say, outdoors, and you can't play baseball.

The latter problem applied to the Phillies and Mets yesterday, whose game at Shea Stadium was rained out. But Phillies GM Pat Gillick made the most of his spare time, trading a bag of money and the famous "player to be named later" for Baltimore Orioles outfielder Jeff Conine.

Conine, like fellow former Oriole Jamie Moyer (though Moyer hasn't been an Oriole since the days when the team actually mattered), is just the kind of veteran the Phillies need as they chase the Wild Card. He was on the Florida Marlins teams that a. pissed Phillies fans off to no end by winning seemingly every game of consequence between the two teams in recent years; and b. won the World Series in 1997 and 2003.

This year with Baltimore, the 40-year-old Conine is playing pretty well. He's batting .265 with 20 doubles, three triples and nine home runs, and his OPS (for you stat freaks, a group with which Phillyist proudly does not associate itself) is .726. Not what it once was, but more than serviceable given the Phillies' lack of outfield depth due to Aaron Rowand's broken ankle.

We're not sure whether Conine will make his Phillies debut this afternoon against the Mets, but if he doesn't, his first game might be Tuesday night at Washington. Phillyist is headed down to D.C. for that game -- you have been warned, DCist -- and will have a report and lots of pictures.

Photo taken by Flickr user ac4lt and used under a Creative Commons license.