It did not take long to make the first off-season change for the Phillies. According to multiple reports from the Phillies beat, first base coach Sam Perlozzo will not return for the 2013 season in Philadelphia.

RT @highcheese: Sam Perlozzo will not be back per Phillies

— Macho Row (@Macho_Row) October 3, 2012

On the post game show on ComcastSportsnet analyst Ricky Botallico suggested there were three guys who might not return to the coaching staff next season, ruling out Charlie Manuel and pitching coach Rich Dubee. Botallico went so far as to mention bench coach Pete Mackanin as a questionable name to return. One guy I would keep an eye on is hitting coach Greg Gross. It seems whenever a team struggles offensively the first move is to kick the hitting coach out. We'll see what Manuel and Ruben Amaro have in mind, but Bottalico also brought up another interesting point with staff changes.

They don't make bats the way they used to. They don't make the baseballs the way they used to. They don't play the game the way they used to. And they don't sign autographs the way they used to.

Wait, what?

Philadelphia Phillies legend Mike Schmidt seems disappointed about the way today's players take time to sign autographs, writing in a column for the Associated Press that today's autographs are nearly impossible to identify if not for the addition of a uniform number or something truly identifiable in the signature of a player.

Schmidt has requested for a few autographs from current Phillies players back in spring training for some future charity projects and struggled to identify a few of the autographed items. Schmidt is not upset because players appear to be lazy with their signatures, though. Instead it seems as though Schmidt is more concerned about potential scams and devious attempts to profit on merchandise that can easily be forged.

"The point is this generation and its athletes have allowed the autograph phenomenon to assimilate into a game, of sorts," Schmidt writes. "Who will be where and when, and what scam do seekers need to run to take advantage of the moment? It's a game the fans and players play every day. Collectors using small children and pretty girlfriends to get sellable merchandise, hiding out at various locations with briefcases, planning their attack just to get a scribble.

Maybe he has a point. For example, how many of the following autographs can you identify?

The Phillies did their part in attempting to create some chaos at the end of the regular season, but with the Atlanta Braves falling in Pittsburgh Monday night the Washington Nationals clinched the 2012 NL East crown. The Phillies may have won Monday night's series opener in Washington, but the celebration in the Washington dugout started in the middle of the ninth inning once word was received the Braves had lost, making for an interesting scene in the bottom of the ninth inning in D.C.

Congratulations to the Washington Nationals. Many in Philadelphia scoffed at the notion your team could be considered a real threat to the Phillies but that clearly was proven to be a truth this season with your gritty play, young and rising stars and solid free agent signings over the last couple of years. This franchise has done everything seemingly the right way by taking advantage of high draft pick selections and bringing in key free agents to provide veteran guidance and they have done a number of things to attempt to energize the fan base, with various levels of success.

I surely cannot speak for an entire Phillies fan base, but Macho Row will wish you the best of luck in the postseason in the quest for Washington D.C.'s first World Series championship since 1924.

Hey, it's been a while. Enjoy the run, howevere long it may go.

As the calendar has flipped form September to October the Phillies find themselves in a situation most are not used to right now. Sitting on the outside of postseason play for the first time since 2006, the Phillies now are fighting just to finish the season ith a winning record, needing two out fo three games to guarantee a season above the .500 mark. Despite how this season has turned out for the Phillies, the team still plays a significant role in how the National League playoffs will be set-up.

It all begins with the Phillies' final three-game series in Washington, against the Nationals, starting Monday night. The Nationals enter the final regular season series with a three-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for the NL East crown, making the magic number to clinch just one. For the Nationals to clinch the division at home by beating the Phillies, given all of the story-lines over the past couple of years with Jayson Werth and Take Back The Park and more, this would seem to add a few ingredients to the symbolism of clinching the division in front of the team that has won it the past five years. The odds are pretty good that the Nationals will indeed clinch the division against the Phillies, but we also saw last season that the Phillies have the ability to spoil the party plans on the road in the final games of the season.

The greatest third baseman in baseball history, Mike Schmidt, was born on this day in 1949. He also is the greatest player in franchise history.

Follow Macho Row on Twitter and Facebook.

Remember a few years ago when the Philadelphia Phillies were being accused of stealing signs? You remember bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer using binoculars and being accused of using them to steal signs against their opponents. Well, if you dig through the history of the franchise you will know that being accused of stealing signs is certainly nothing new for the Phillies, who were accused of this violation of the baseball code by the Cincinnati Reds on this date in 1900.

Go ahead and start your road trip planning now. The Phillies have joined the rest of Major League Baseball in unveiling their 2013 schedule, which will commence in Atlanta on April 1, 2013. As previsouly reported, the Phillies will open their home schedule at Citizens Bank Park against the Kansas City Royals on April 5. This year's schedule will feature one inter-league series being played every day of the season thanks to MLB's brilliant idea to create leagues with an odd-number of teams.

April is loaded with NL East games against Atlanta (3), the Mets (6) and Marlins (3) and will end with another inter-league match-up on the road at Cleveland.

In May the Phillies make their first west coast road trip with three games in San Francisco (chilly) and Arizona before returning home for two more games against the Indians. The end of May will be highlighted by a split four game series with the Boston Red Sox, with two games in Boston followed by two games in Philadelphia. This schedule is just a joke and we haven't even hit June.

The Phillies will have a ten game road trip in June, starting in Milwaukee and moving to Minnesota and Colorado. Later in the month the Phillies return to the west coast with three games in San Diego and four more in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. The road trip wraps up with three games in Pittsburgh after a day off in July. The Phillies end the first half of the season with a ten-game home stand against Atlanta, Washington and the Chicago... White Sox. That's right, the Phillies will play four inter-league series before playing the Chicago Cubs. This is what inter-league has done to baseball people.

After the All-Star Game (hosted by the Mets), the Phillies hit the road for ten games (again) with games at the Mets, St. Louis and the Detroit Tigers. The month of August features 16 home games against San Francisco, Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers, Colorado and Arizona. Road games will also be played in Washington, Atlanta, the Mets and the Cubs.

Then we get to September, which appears to be very favorable to the Phillies. Between September 2 and September 22 the Phillies will play 15 home games against the Nationals, Braves, Padres and Marlins. The Phillies end the season with road games at Miami and Atlanta but that September schedule looks to play in favor of the Phillies during what could be a postseason push.

You can check out the full 2013 schedule here.

Follow Macho Row on Twitter and Facebook.

The Phillies hung on for an ugly but huge win last night against the Miami Marlins, assuring themselves they would not lose any ground in the hunt for the final National League Wild Card spot. Catching the Atlanta Braves is probably asking too much so it is all about the last possible playoff spot this September, and things continue to go the way the Phillies have needed.

Last night out on the west coast the Los Angeles Dodgers were shutout by the Arizona Diamondbacks (themselves now five games out of the last wild card spot) 1-0, an the St. Louis Cardinalls were dropped for a second straight day by the San Diego Padres, 6-4. That puts the Phillies, now the hottest team in the National League playoff hunt just four games back.

It is still a lot to ask but with over half of September remaining this has become far from impossible, and if the Phillies can manage to pull off the sweep of Miami Wednesday afternoon this team should feel very good about what they are doing. They are due for a loss though, but if they can find a way to be three or four games back by this time next week, this should be very interesting.

Follow Macho Row on Twitter and Facebook.

The acts that took place on September 11, 2001 rocked our nation and reshaped the way we look at our country, family, friends and more. The nation took time to pause from our every lives to reflect and pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks. The sporting world took a step back to allow the grieving and healing processes take place. Of course, sports were no small party in the eventual healing process.

How many people remember the fact that the Phillies were actually in a playoff chase at the time, with a pivotal series with the Atlanta Braves getting ready to start up in Atlanta. Of course, that series was rescheduled as Major League Baseball postponed a full week's worth of games, but baseball would come back, and the it would return in the city in which this nation's independence was born on that first night back.

Who better to offer the appropriate monologue for Philadelphia than Harry Kalas, in one of his finest moments that will forever be ethced in my memory bank.

The Phillies will pay tribute to the 1990s tonight at Citizens Bank Park, complete with the old maroon pinstripes and hats with that lovable baseball "P." For a franchise that has so many bad baseball seasons, the 1990s certainly had its fair share of forgettable seasons. But that does not mean the 1990s were completely worth forgetting. After all, there were some key moments in Phillies history to take place during the decade.

The 1990s was the decade the franchise decided to return to their traditional look after decades in maroon pinstripes. It was the decade that saw a strike nearly kill the sport. It was a decade full of losses but plenty of happy moments to ensure that a generation of new baseball fans would have something to look back on fondly.

Here are ten worth remembering for happy and sad times, in no particular order.

1. Curt Schilling strikes out 319

Before Curt Schilling went on to win a couple of World Series rings with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox, he started to become an elite pitcher while in Philadelphia. He opened the eyes of the baseball world in 1993 with his performance on the mound and for his towel in the face moments in the postseason, but his 1997 season remains one of the best in franchise history. His 319 strikeouts remains a franchise record for right-handed pitchers and it was not a fluke. The following season Schilling became the fifth major league pitcher to strike out 300+ batters in consecutive seasons.

2. Richie Ashburn dies

In early September 1997 the Phillies family lost one of the true faces of the organization when Richie Ashburn passed away soon after broadcasting a game in New York. Much like his longtime partner Harry Kalas, it seemed as though he died while doing what he loved to do, which was watching and talking about the Phillies. Ashburn of course was a former Phillies, and we'll touch more on that aspect in a moment, and his broadcasting commentary had become so familiar to fans watching on television and listening on the radio. Also like Kalas, there simply was no replacing Ashburn.

3. Steve Carlton inducted to Hall of Fame

The greatest Phillies pitcher of all-time, Steve Carlton, was inducted in to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in the summer of 1994. The crowd was flooded with Phillies fans, but it would be more dominant the following summer...