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Garrett Stubbs Says Goodbye to Philly
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Garrett Stubbs has elected free agency after being DFA’d by the Phillies last week, and he made his departure Instagram official on Wednesday with a heartfelt farewell to the fans:
Philly,
You meant more to me than you will ever know.
When I showed up to Philly in ‘22 I had no idea what to expect. I was a west coast kid going to an east coast team whose reputation was throwing snow balls at Santa. And being a Jewish kid from San Diego, neither meant too much to me.
What I found was a city who cares more about their sports teams than any other city in the world. It’s your life and it became mine too.
These past five years we’ve made incredible memories together. From playoff runs, walk offs, music, beer hats, overalls, the shimmy 😉 and most importantly… a shit ton of wins.
What made it all hit different for me was this…
I felt like I fit here.
My whole life I have been told I am too small. Not big enough. Not this, not that. And it never stopped me.
That’s Philly.
Tough. Relentless. A little rough around the edges. And proud of it.
I’ll miss it all…
The October energy at the bank from the best fans in the world (holy shit), the boos (only a little), and the boys in the locker room (a ton). I got married and brought a baby girl into the world with 26 Uncles to protect her. You guys will always be phamily to me. Love y’all.
Thank you to John Middleton for believing in me, the coaches for the trust, the Philly media for always keeping it real and to THE FANS for embracing me and pushing me every single day.
We may not have always seen eye to eye, but I gave you everything I had. And for what it’s worth, boos and all, I loved every one of you crazy phuckers whether you liked me or not.
Cheers Philly. That’s Life. 🍻🕺🏻
That’s a good post there from Stubby. Feels like he put some real thought into writing it instead of just telling ChatGPT “give me a farewell IG caption for an athlete leaving a team,” which is usually how these goodbye posts sound to me. Seems like Stubbs genuinely loved being here, appreciated the fans, and is bummed that his run in Philly has come to an end.
Truth be told, I’m a little bummed too. I wasn’t when I first heard he was DFA’d, of course. Intellectually, I understand this move is for the best. Stubbs just never became much of a hitter (he posted a .212/.292/.300 slash line for a .593 OPS across 189 games as a Phillie from 2022 to 2026). It makes sense for the Phils to move on, and it’s probably a little overdue.
But emotionally, after reading his Instagram post and thinking back on those playoff runs, I can’t help but feel a nostalgic pang, a longing for those good old days. This guy ruled back then. Those ’22 and ’23 Phillies teams were sick. The vibes were out of control. It was so much fun, and Stubbs was a major reason why. Look at the sort of stuff he got up to:
That’s a good guy right there. For vibes reasons alone, I will always remember Stubby as a Very Important Phillie. Farewell, old friend.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com