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Showing posts from August, 2009
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Patience with Pitchers Needed

Last night rattled plenty of Phillies fans after Brad Lidge blew another save against a terrible Pittsburgh Pirates team. It was especially disheartening because the Phils had come from behind to take the lead in the ninth inning. So, of course, today the phone lines at the sports talk stations are busy with fans proclaiming Lidge is done. Forget last year, it’s all about now, and we need a new closer. These are likely the same general managers in waiting who are convinced Cole Hamels shouldn’t be in the playoff rotation. I’ll admit last night really started to shake my confidence in my theory that the team has to stick with Lidge. It’s pretty clear the closer caught lightning in a bottle last year, and his numbers are a bit frightening right now. I’m not suggesting Lidge should be etched in stone as the guy who comes into every save situation, but there are two factors that I think are being completely overlooked right now. The fact is that Lidge was coming in for the fourth straight

Top 5 Things I Would Change About the Sports World

During a week away from writing my Week-in-Review to recharge my batteries for this blog while officially wrapping up a two-year contract with a non-profit to cross back into freelance country, I noticed a lot of things going on in sports that I didn’t like. So, I decided to kickoff my renewed effort to blog more frequently with a Top 5 list for sports. This list is concerned more with the elements surrounding the games we love as opposed to the on-field issues. I tried to look at some of the less talked about problems instead of the over-evaluated issues of steroids, late starting times of World Series games, and so on. Below is the Top 5 Things I Would Change About the Sports World: Ban Discussions of Off-the-Field Issues. A week-plus of Michael Vick talk has reinforced the growing notion that I simply don’t need to hear another word about a player’s life off the field. With the issue of steroids, guys getting into legal troubles, and the TMZing of the sports world, off-the-field i

Eagles Sign Vick

My first thought was “why?” Why would the Philadelphia Eagles sign Michael Vick? This is a team that jettisoned Terrell Owens, possibly the best receiver in the National Football League at the time, because he was too much of a distraction. It’s an organization that seems to run from players that bring even the remotest hint of controversy since that fiasco. They incessantly talk about signing character guys. Now they have brought in a guy who is coming off a jail term for involvement in a dog fighting ring. Vick arriving in Philadelphia could easily make T.O.’s time as an Eagle look dull. They have likely surrendered their season to controversy, a season that they said they believed was about making a Super Bowl run. On the field, it actually makes sense to me. Vick is clearly being signed to play the now popular “Wildcat” formation. He’s not here to compete with Donovan McNabb at quarterback. It doesn’t change the fact that if McNabb goes down with an injury, the season is basically

Hump Day Sports Review: Bradley, Moyer, Umpires, and more

It’s Hump Day Sports Review time, and I skipped this part last week so there might be some old stuff. But it’s never too late to offer an opinion: The Stewart Bradley overreaction. I was actually chided by a dope on Facebook because I don’t think losing Stewart Bradley for the season is a “huge” loss. I am so sick of Philly fans that claim to be knowledgeable yet merely parrot sports talk radio hosts. When did Bradley become Mike Singletary? I’m not even sure it’s not a blessing in disguise. Omar Gaither now gets a shot at getting out of whatever dog house he seemed to be in, and the guy seemed to be able to make a big play now and then. The bigger loss may be that of rookie tight end Cornelius Ingram. Brent Celek showed flashes of being a good tight end last year, but failing to fill that position with a true stud has been one of the constant mistakes of the Andy Reid era. Guys like Brent Jones and Bubba Franks became household names for football fans because they played tight end in

Reid versus the Media

Leave it to Andy Reid to create an Eagles non-football flap in early August. I basically agree with those who are ripping the Birds’ head coach for having a bit of a hissy fit over Stewart Bradley’s season-ending injury being reported ahead of his schedule. It’s beyond ridiculous for the head coach of a football team (aka, a multi-million dollar corporation) to attempt to scold the media. His refusal to discuss injuries was equally absurd. It’s really just another example of Reid’s inability to adjust – this time to the 20th century. (And, yes, I realize it’s the 21st century. Reporters calling players about injuries started long before the Facebook/Twitter fascination.) But Reid is not alone in creating the latest faux controversy. The cloak that many media members have wrap themselves in suggesting – or in Mike Missanelli’s case yesterday, screaming – that they work for the fans is overdone to say the least. I point out Missanelli only because he practically became enraged by callers