How Phillies Vs. Goliath Astros World Series Is A Rematch Of Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Like an edgy Netflix reboot of a cult classic show, the 2022 Phillies are bringing the magic of the 2018 Eagles back to Philadelphia. All that's old is new again.

There are plenty of analogues for the 2022 Phillies in their own franchise history. This team is part 1993, with a band of misfits that scraped unlikely wins together from the kindling of years of failure. They're part 2008, with heroic sluggers and superstar power. All three pennant-winning squads were underdogs that got hot at the right moment and stunned the city and the world come Red October.

But no one quite lines up with this final chapter of the 2022 Phillies saga like the 2018 Super Bowl champions do. And a lot of that has to do with the nature of this World Series. A scrappy, underestimated underdog in a title-starved city takes on a hated dynasty with a cheating scandal. Take a look.

Dynastic dullness

There is a wisdom that is winning, but there is a winning that is madness, Herman Melville may have said.

The Houston Astros won 106 games during the 2022 regular season. In the four previous full seasons (notwithstanding the COVID-shortened 2020 season, in which they still progressed to within a game of the World Series), the Astros have won 95, 107, 103, 101 games, respectively. Dating to 2017, they've made six straight American League Championship Series, won four pennants, and won one World Series. Not even the Los Angeles Dodgers have quite that record of success.

But the New England Patriots did. Heading into the 2018 Super Bowl against the Eagles, they had won 2 of the last 3 championships. They were 13-3 in the regular season. While the respect and awe of continued greatness and dominance is justified, it all just felt a little off.

From the archives: 10 Reasons Everyone Should Root For The Eagles In The Super Bowl

As Patch wrote at the time, "not only have the Patriots won five Super Bowl rings in the Brady-Belichik era, they’ve already won once against the Eagles, 13 years ago. Imagine if Donovan McNabb and Andy Reid were still in charge of the Eagles, still leading the franchise to Super Bowls. There’s something unnatural about that imagery."

The Astros have new supporting characters, but the core of the core remains identical: Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Justin Verlander. They're a fixture every October and too many Novembers. The revolution is here and its card is a Gritty-shaped Guy Fawkes mask.

Popping footballs, banging trash cans, and asterisking rings

Those Pats and these Astroisks have much more in common than a string of success and ad-nauseum adoration from analysts. Both franchises come from a tradition of cheating, and became embroiled in scandals at the height of their powers.

Years after Tom Brady and Bill Belichik stabbed footballs and schemed shortcuts to their next championship in the infamous “Deflategate," the Astros were figuring out ways to stain their own legacy.

One of the biggest scandals in baseball history, the Houston Astros were heavily fined and sanctioned after it was revealed they used advanced technology to steal signs during the 2017 regular season, and, particularly, during their run to the World Series championship that fall.

Sign stealing, where a team learns to read the communications between a catcher and pitcher in order to guess an incoming pitch, has long been commonplace in baseball. But the use of advanced technology, including cameras that play footage in clubhouses and then relay intelligence back to players on the field, is not. The Astros reportedly went to great lengths to attempt to communicate pitches to batters, including banging trash can lids together to signal an incoming fastball.

A.J. Hinch, current Detroit Tigers manager, and Astros manager at the time, pulled no punches when describing what players and some front office individuals did. "It was wrong what went on in Houston. I’m embarrassed to talk about it. It’s shameful."

'An underdog is a hungry dog'

On the Art Museum steps one brilliant and cold and blueskied February morning of Philadelphia lore, Jason Kelce roared truth.

That 2017-18 NFL postseason was notorious for how often it repeatedly underestimated the Eagles. Week after week the Eagles were underestimated, most famously in NFC Championship against the Minnesota Vikings, and then again in the Super Bowl.

The Phillies have been broad-consensus underdogs for three straight postseason series now. They won all three. They're underdogs again in the World Series, this time by the biggest margin yet.

The current moneyline for the 2022 World Series is minus 166 in favor of Houston. The Phillies are plus 142. The final moneyline for the 2018 Super Bowl was minus 175 in favor of New England. The Eagles were plus 155.

For those so hopelessly prognosticating about Penas and Presslys and Verlanders and Valdezes, about Bakers and Bregmans and the long since-ended regular season, another pair of numbers are perhaps a better tell than the odds.

41-33.

Catch up on more Phillies coverage from their magic 2022 run to the World Series:

Bryce Harper's Shot Heard Around The World

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Phillies World Series Victory Would Mean A Recession, Forbes And Bloomberg Claim

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From $20 To $20K: The Surreality Of Phillies World Series Ticket Prices

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Phillies Vs. Astros World Series Preview: Schedule, Tickets, Odds

This World Series appearance is perhaps the most stunning and improbable in franchise history.

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As analysts and oddsmakers are all too quick to point out, the Phillies lack the depth of the Astros, Braves, Dodgers. It hasn't mattered.

How Ruben Amaro Jr. Helped Build Phillies World Series Team

Rhys Hoskins. Seranthony Dominguez. Ranger Suarez. And more. The much-maligned former general manager of the Phillies left a profound mark on the 2022 team.

Phillies Return To Houston For World Series, Where They've Won Before

Three weeks ago, the Phillies playoff hopes teetered on a tight rope that wavered in the breeze of every Aaron Nola fastball. The Astros lost, and haven't lost since.

Phillies Go With Aaron Nola For World Series Game 1

The longest tenured Phillie, the most successful high draft pick in recent franchise history, the face of the team's lengthy rebuild. Game 1 is Nola Day.