Jonathan Broxton can call the Phillies his daddy

There’s always one opponent that just seems to get the best of you. For Jonathan Roy Broxton, that opponent is the Philadelphia Phillies.

His numbers have been outstanding in his short career. Broxton has a 76 career saves to go along with a 3.00 ERA and flirts with 100 mph on the radar gun — one of the reasons why he has an impressive 480 strikeouts in 363 1/3 innings pitched (through Thursday, August 12, 2010). Broxton just has incredible trouble getting out the boys in the red pinstripes.

Three straight years now he’s run into the Fightin’ Phillies and came out wanting. First it was the Matt Stairs home run in Game Four of the 2008 National League Championship Series. Then it was Jimmy Rollins’ walk-off double in Game Four of the 2009 NLCS. (If you’re a Phillies fan and you don’t get goosebumps watching these highlights, you’re not a Phillies fan I’d like to associate with, frankly.)

Yesterday, it was the four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth, capped by Carlos Ruiz’s game-winning double.

While last night’s heroics from the Phillies offense had to feel like salt in an open wound for the L.A. flame thrower, that blown save pales in comparison to Broxton’s NLCS appearances. Each loss came with the Dodgers set to tie the NLCS series at two apiece, and both proved fatal as the Phillies would go on to win Game Five and advance to the World Series two years in a row. You know Broxton’s thinking to himself that those two blown saves cost his team a chance at back-to-back World Series appearances.

Take solace, Broxton, because you’re not alone.

• Michael Jordan had the bad-boy Detroit Pistons
• Wilt Chamberlain had Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics
• Ted Williams (and every great Red Sox player from 1918 until 2004) had the New York Yankees
• Even your team, the Brooklyn Dodgers, couldn’t get past Joe DiMaggio and Micky Mantle’s Yankees
• Just so you know I’m playing fair, the Phillies couldn’t get past the Dodgers in the late ’70s

Even two of the greatest basketball players of all-time were snake-bitten at one point in their illustrious careers. (Of course, when Nike came up with the “Be like Mike” advertising campaign, I don’t think this is what they had in mind.)

Other than Chamberlain, each person on the above list eventually conquered their nemesis. Jordan vanquished the Pistons in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals in the first of his six championship seasons, the Red Sox came back from a three-games-to-none deficit in the 2004 American League Championship Series to beat New York and end the Curse of the Bambino, the Brooklyn Dodgers defeated the Yankees in a seven-game World Series in 1955, and the Phillies overcame NLCS losses in ‘77 and ‘78 with a victory in the ‘83 NLCS as well as the ‘08 and ‘09 NLCS (thanks to Broxton).

Another thing working for Broxton is his age: 26. As good as Broxton’s been –  you know, when he isn’t pitching against Philadelphia — he’s still just approaching the prime of his career. The Dodgers have a young nucleus around him in right fielder Andre Eithier (28), pitcher Chad Billingsley (26), first baseman James Loney (26), center fielder Matt Kemp (25), and ace Clayton Kershaw (22) so they should contend for a title for the next several years — even though this year is beginning to slip away from them.

The law of averages has to catch up to Broxton and the Phillies eventually. The more chances he has against Philadelphia, the more likely it will be for him to succeed. It’s just basic statistics.

As a Philly fan, I can’t help but remember the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their back-to-back losses to the Eagles in the wild card round after the 2000 and 2001 seasons. Then, after the Eagles embarrassed the Bucs during a game in the 2002 regular season, Tampa Bay came in and ruined the last Eagles game ever at Veterans Stadium by thrashing the locals in the NFC Championship Game before rolling over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII. (I intentionally kept this off my above list. I hate the 2002 Buccaneers!)

So, we should be careful when celebrating the misfortunes of Broxton. One day, he might leave us Phillies fans wanting.

(Then again, maybe not!)