Champs' rough start

People here in Pittsburgh tend to root against Philadelphia teams, particularly when the intrastate rivals are battling in an NHL playoff series.

In baseball, while the perennial doormat Pirates are off to a good start, the champion Phillies are struggling. They're 6-8, which certainly could be worse. But the manner in which they've compiled that .429 winning percentage so far is making history.

Philadelphia's opponents have hit at least one home run in every one of those 14 games, which the Elias Sports Bureau has determined to be a record for the beginning of a season.

Giving up the long ball is going to lead to a ton of runs on the other side of the ledger, and it took the Phils to Game 13 to hold the other team to fewer than three runs. They lost that one, 3-1, to Milwaukee, even though Brewers starter Braden Looper failed to strike out a batter in six innings.

That all adds up to a 6.31 team earned-run average and 31 home runs surrendered, which is on pace for 359 on the year. And the weather is just warming up at Citizens Bandbox Park!

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Matt Stairs, who was born during the LBJ administration (albeit in Canada), is doing all right for the Phillies, with two home runs in his first 10 at-bats. That gives him 256 for his 17-year career. And 20 of those came during 2003, his only season in Pittsburgh.

Not bad for a guy who, according to some observers, looks like he should be playing in a beer softball league.

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Another older Phillie, 37-year-old Raul Ibanez, is off to a good start as well, with five home runs and a .345 batting average.

Ibanez is one of those classic late bloomers. He was 30 before he got his first full-time major-league gig, in the Kansas City outfield in 2002. Since then, his driven in 89 or more runs each season. Four times he's topped 100 RBI, including the past three seasons with Seattle.