Only 150 More Games!

Last night the Phillies dropped to 3-9 after loosing to the Mets at home. Overshadowing another poor performance is the post game hooplah between 610 WIP-AM's Howard Eskin and Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, but I'll get to this later....

More importantly, prior to the start of the season, MLB analyists and myself included thought the Phillies would be a real contender. Now I am left with the question; are the Phils underachieving or are they just not good? Regardless of the answer, who is to blame? The players, management, coaches, or ownership? As of right now, I believe the team is not that good and most the burden should be put on the players. The coaches are not the ones hitting .200 with runners in scoring position. Ryan Howard alone is hitting 4-19 with RISP with an overall batting average of .238. The same flaws that plagues the team last year are present this season. Specifically, the inability to manufacture runs, unreliable bullpen support, and timely hitting. Our starting pitchers have been adequate this season, but our bullpen is huge liability.

The coaches and players stressed getting out to a good start in April, but the team is off to its worst start since 1997. With Philadelphia salivating for a team to get behind, the Phillies squandered a golden opportunity to give the fans something to embrace and set a tone for the rest of the season. Now the team is almost begging the fans to turn their backs and has cast a dark cloud over the season. The games have become unfun and as they enter a series with the Nationals tonight, the team has entered desperation mode. As opposed to routinely beating a bad team, now the sentiment among fans is that they better beat a bad team!

Now onto the "confrontation" between 610 WIP radio personality Howard Eskin and manager Charlie Manuel. Eskin was asking Manuel whether the team would benefit if he got more fired up? Manuel then seemed to take this personally, and then claimed he does get fired up and challenged Eskin to come in his office to see him fired up. So Eskin took him up and Manuel wanted to fight! See for yourself below.



Eskin is widely known to get be annoying, pompous, even a striking resemblance to the Burger King character,
but he also is a dam good journalist. I've listened to the audio of the exchange and I don't think Eskin was out of line. In fact, initially Manuel and Eskin seemed to be having a light hearted riff. Clearly Manuel snapped, and it almost seems as if Manuel used Eskin as a vehicle for lashing out. Charlie might believe that if he creates a stir anyway possible, the team will respond and play better? Its one thing to be pissed about your team a la Lou Pinella and the Cubs, but don't make an ass of yourself. This team does not seem to have any plan for the future and might be content with just being close each season. I truly hope the Phils can get out of this early slump and right themselves of their flaws.

Ughh...I Feel So Used

It's been some time since I posted and I wanted to restart our blog with a post that I've been contemplating for a while. Members of all four Philadelphia sports teams seem to leave our city and find success in their new homes. Sometimes fans send off players with love, but more often than not, players leave Philly with a sour taste. To add salt to the wound, they either miraculously perform better or even win the elusive championship. What if you were dating a girl, then she leaves you for your friend? Or even worse, that over achieving bastard in the cubicle down the hall! It's bad enough we can't win a stinking championship, and now we have to watch our former players win in another city. Thats life as a Philly sports fan.

I compiled a short list of more memorable stars dating from the 90's to the present:

The 76ers:

• Chris Webber

This schlub wouldn't stop complaining since he arrived in Philly. He barely played this current season due to some mysterious injury. The 76ers finally payed him $36million to just keep his sorry ass away from the team. That's right, $36 million to leave.
Now Webber is playing for the Detroit Piston's and averaging a double double. The Pistons have been surging to the top of the east since his arrival.

• Raja Bell

The "poor man's Bruce Bowen", Bell was a role player on 76ers run to the finals in 2001. He was never a star here or either disliked. However, no one thought he would become a ferocious defender and a self proclaimed "Kobe Stopper". He's playing on the Phoenix Suns and will be playing in the playoffs for many more seasons.

• Charles Barkley
  

Charles Barkley is one of my favorite players of all time and I remember the day he was traded to the Phoenix Suns. He was such a strong presence in Philly and it's a shame things didn't work out. He went on to play in the finals with Suns and the Houston Rockets. Granted he never won a championship with his former teams he still went onto to bigger and better things.

• Larry Brown

Coach Brown rebuilt the 76ers, molded Allen Iverson, and brought some respect to the franchise. He was a extremely important presence in the organization, but the team deteriorated in his last few seasons. The 76ers kept loosing to the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs, and Brown insisted he would never coach for the Pistons despite rampant contradicting rumors. Well what do you know? Larry becomes the Pistons new head coach and leads them to a NBA Championship. Take that!

The Phillies:

• Curt Schilling

He was an amazing pitcher with the Phillies and part of that miracle 93' season. However he always seemed to like hearing himself speak. Schilling was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks and immediately won a world series. Several seasons later he won another with the Red Sock. It's one thing to win after you leave Philly but it really stings when you win with the Diamondbacks and the Sox.

• Scott Rolen

Rolen played third base so well as a Phillie but he couldn't take the pressure of playing in Philly. He turned down a ridiculous amount of money from the Phillies and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. They won the world series last season while we were stuck with David Bell.

The Eagles

• Reggie White

The "Minister of Defense" was an absolute force for the Eagles. He set the teams all time sack record and actually recorded more sacks than the number of games he played with the team. He was beloved here but the ownership was too cheap to resign him. Reggie went on to play for the Green Bay Packers and won a super bowl. R.I.P.

• Derrick Burgess
  

A fan favorite and productive defender when healthy, Burgess had six sacks as a rookie. The Eagles didn't resign him and he signed with the Raiders. What happens next? He leads the NFL with 16 sacks and earns his first Pro Bowl appearance.

The Flyers

• Rod Brind'Amour/Marc Recchi
  

Another fan favorite, Rod was a true warrior. He was captain of the Flyers and had a streak of 484 straight games played. I loved watching him dodge defenders and make crisp passes. Recchi was part of several Flyers teams during the 90's. He always seemed to come back to the Flyers and played very hard. Both ended up being traded to Carolina Hurricanes and won the Stanley Cup last season. The Flyers have great tradition and history, and seeing players win with a crappy expansion team really sucks.


Thanks for help from Scribbs, Iba, Adam Warner