Throwback Thursday: 2011

We're on the field an hour or so before the Phillies/Mets game at Citi Field on May 27th. 2011. (Above:) Phillies slugger Ryan Howard takes batting practice; (Below:) Manager Charlie Manuels signs a few autographs.

Seven years can zip by in what feels like a minute, but look how much has changed: not one member of that Phillies squad -- on its way to winning its fifth consecutive NL East title -- is still playing for the team. Manuel is now a Phillies "senior advisor," filling the same role held for so many years by the only other man to manage a Phils World Series champion, the late Dallas Green.
Howard, whose career was derailed by a torn achilles in his final at bat of that year's October's NLDS loss to the Cardinals, is out of baseball, after playing 27 minor league games in a failed comeback try last summer.
On this late spring night, the future still looked bright, the team was on track for the post-season. No one would have predicted that within a year, injuries to Howard and Roy Halladay and a farm system stripped bare to "win now," result in the first of six consecutive seasons at a .500 record or worse.
Two of the key figures from the Phillies' last dynasty -- faces destined for the club's Wall of Fame -- but whose heyday was just months away from ending.