Put Me In Coach!
During the Eagles game yesterday, versus the Ravens, Donovan McNabb sucked. I’m not gonna sugar coat it. He had numerous picks and just could not seem to do anything right. Was it just him or was it the shitty playcalling coming somewhere from the sidelines (altho today in a press conference, Andy took the blame)? Either way, he could not get anything done.
So, Andy sent in the backup Kevin Kolb. Kolb didn’t do much better and even threw an interception in the endzone that was run back for a touchdown (and set a record for a runback). The kid was thrown into a game in a hostile environment, and let’s face it, the game was already in the shitter. Unless that kid came in and threw for a thousand yards, he wasn’t going to save the game.
But back to Andy Reid. Good lord. He can’t do anything right. Run the ball, throw the ball, put in your backup qb, nothing at the right time and it’s all wrong. He also didn’t even have the nerve to tell Donovan to his face he wasn’t going back in, he had the quarterbacks coach do it. That’s just a dick move. There are obviously other things going on here.
My thoughts on this are clear: this is the end of the road for Andy and Donovan here in town. It’s been 10 long years and it’s just not working anymore. Andy was phoning it in last year and this year is just a complete mess. How many more years is this going to go on? And how many years do we have to listen to Donovan say in the beginning of the year that this is the time for the Eagles?
While in real life I am sure they are lovely people, they need to go.
Who will take over?
I was told by a friend of mine that it was all over sportsradio in Pittsburgh that Bill Cowher has interviewed for the job. Jon Gruden isn’t getting along with management. Steve Spagnuolo could come back from the Giants to run the ship. Who knows.
As far as Quarterbacks go, we have Kolb and Feely. Could Kolb turn into a Matt Ryan or a Joe Flacco? Who knows. The kid is a second year rookie with no playing experience from a little college. He could develop into something cool or he could be Ryan Leaf (haha, ok no one sucks as bad as Ryan Leaf, but you get my point). It’s all a roll of the dice. But you can bet the fans are dreaming of Jeff Garcia under thier Christmas tree this year. And on a side note, has any QB been as disrespected as Garcia has been in thier career? Ridiculous.
Anyway, this season needs to be taken out back behind the shed and shot.
Let’s start on rebuilding asap!
It’s a funny thing:
The Phils are sitting on top.
The Sixers and Flyers are on thier way.
The Eagles…need to catch up.
Fingers crossed.
What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments!
Random Thoughts On A Rainy Election Day
I did go and vote today. I vote at almost every election and it’s kind of annoying me that people are yelling at me to vote. I’m not your target market, people.
It also irritates me when people on both sides are like “the opponent wants to *insert badbadbad ideas here* and it’ll bring down the nation”. First of all, there is a series of checks ad balances here in the states. You can have a ton of ideas but try getting all of them thru the senate and congress exactly how you want them. Not gonna happen. So relax, even if the candidate you are voting for loses, the other guy won’t pass that bill requiring guys named Tom to wear purple tshirts on rotating tuesdays (which will be a relief to guys named Tom but a bummer to the purple shirt company).
You know what I’d like to hear from a candidate? What they’ll do for the single people. Single people get screwed all the time. From less money back on thier taxes to a take out food minimum. A friend of mine is married and has 3 kids and they got enough money back to take a trip (driving but still) to Disneyworld. I got enough back to pay my cable bill (and not the overdue part, just the monthly part. also, not the dirty movie rental part…). There are baby showers and wedding showers, but no “hey! congratulations on not populating the earth and also for apparently not finding a mate!” shower? So unfair. So why doesn’t a candidate ever offer an earned income credit for not reproducing (ie: “congratulations on understanding the role of birth control in your life!”)? Or an IRS tax credit for buying over 45 “Dinner For One” frozen dinners over a year (or Red Baron personal pizzas)? It’s hard being single. There are no extra cheerios to steal off a highchair in our homes, no one to pawn off doing the dishes on. And if the phone rings, we have to screen it *ourselves*! Anyway, they would totally have my vote. Hold on one second while I pop my “lunch for one” in the microwave.
Ok, I’m back, burned tongue and all.
Why are sports talking heads allowed to be on the field when a team wins the World Series? For instance, Howard Eskin (king of all douchebags) was pictured drinking champagne on the field when the Phillies won the World Series. He spent all season (and every season of his entire life) tearing down each and every player and managerial choice (and the manager). King of the negative and bad facial hair, and yet, allowed on the field? He’s like the kid that beats on you at school but when he finds out you have the new Super Mario 3 game, he wants to all the sudden be your BFF. They both should both get the same response: “go find someone else’s underwear to yank on” (and a swift kick to the nuts wouldn’t be so bad either). What is great is that as an adult, you won’t have to hear a lecture about sharing from your drunk dad.
Thats all I got right now.
Comments?
Phinally, We Win!
The Philadelphia Phillies are the 2008 World Series Champions.
The last time I was able to say that the Phils were the World Series Champs, I was 5 years old in kindegarten, and I got sent to the principal’s office because I didn’t want to do anything else but talk about that in class. So, yeah, it’s been awhile.
Whenever one of our teams would make it, they would not, could not, seal the deal.
I won’t even bother to list the years of angst.
For years we got shit on by most sports media about our attitude. This is a working class city, and everyone who plays here knows we will cheer you when you do well, when you give 100%. Slack off and you’ll hear it. This is a blue collar town, we all work for our paychecks, don’t insult us by rubbing your huge paychecks in our faces by slacking. Players who get that love this town! If the media thinks we should kiss the asses of our players no matter how they act and perform, they will always be disappointed by Philadelphia Sports Fans.
I don’t think I have to tell anyone out there that things kind of suck here in the country. Philly is no different, we have had cops killed, shootings, schools falling apart, unemployment and all sorts of things of that manner. This win could not have come at a better time. Even before the last pitch was thrown, you could feel the optimism of the city rise 900 percent!
Finally, I couldn’t help but think of people who I wish could have seen this:
My neighbor who died earlier this year. He would have lost his mind and bought every single thing with the Phillies logo on it he could get his hands on.
John Marzano. His passing still makes me sad, as it was so sudden and shocking. He would have been running around like a loon and been hilarious. His enthusiasm was always so contagious. I can’t help but think he was cheering from some Phils bar in the clouds.
John Vukovich. A guy who was on that ’80 team and a great Phils coach. They wouldn’t be where they are without him.
Tug McGraw. One of my favorite memories as a kid is watching him jump on the mound when the Phils won in ’80. He then was always on local tv, making people laugh and being all around awesome. His son Tim scattered some of his ashes on the mound before a WS game and I think he would have loved that.
Richie “Whitey” Ashburn. Most people I know, including me, grew up watching and listening to Ashburn and Kalas do the Phils commentary. I know he would have loved to call that game. Instead, we got Kalas and Wheeler, I’ll settle for that.
Hopefully, Whitey, Tug, Vuk, Johnny, and Adam are somewhere, enjoying this as much as this city is loving it.
The website Phillies Nation has a Thank You list that covers how most of us feel.
Phinally, a Championship is ours!
The October Season
Between job interviews, I have been addicted to playoff baseball. Usually this time of year I am knee deep in NFL news, but since the Phillies are in the playoffs again this year, I am hooked like a cokehead on teethgrinding.
TBS is broadcasting the ALDS & NLDS games this year and has worked on thier lineup of announcers. This is a nice way for me to say they are way less annoying then last year. Dennis Eckersley, former reliever for the Oakland A’s (and the man who pitched Kirk Gibson the home run ball in the ’88 World Series. I called that shot by the way, but that’s another story for another time), is intelligent but accessable. Curtis Granderson is well spoken and knows the game well. Cal Ripken is, well, Cal Ripken: a legend (did his and the team’s quest for him to break the Lou Gehrig “Iron Man” streak hurt the team by having some great players sit on the bench for the sake of the streak? Discuss!). This show is anchored by Ernie Johnson, a man who knows when to talk and when to shut up. That is a skill he must have picked up hosting TNT’s NBA Postgame show with (my favorite goofball) Charles “Chuck” Barkley. Throw in guys like Tony Gwynn, Ron Darling and others, and it seems like TBS is serious about not annoying the crap out of thier viewers. And I, for one, salute that.
Fox, on the other hand, is broadcasting the ALCS & NLCS games. This makes me want to just turn off the tv. Seriously. Joe Buck should be beaten with a sock full of nickels every time he opens his mouth. He is not funny, witty or even entertaining. Tim McCarver, while being another baseball legend, should be shown the door. The other guys I can deal with (well maybe not Mark Grace), but who really makes me want to stick a fork in my ear is Jeanne Zelasko.
Jeanne anchors the Fox Pre and Post Game shows. As a quick aside, I hate slamming other girls who are making thier way in the guy controlled world of sports. It is seriously hard to have a career in such a dominated world. However, Fox Sports should have thier collective heads examined for putting her on the anchor desk. I won’t even get into whatever the hell it is they call that wardrobe they dress her in, or how they give her weird hair. She can’t control that. What she can control is her reporting style and her needlessly aggressive way she approaches everything that comes out of her mouth. Ugh.
Fox doesn’t get baseball broadcasting in the least little bit anyway. They have always approached it like football, where you find some guys who used to play and some coaches and pundits, stick them in suits and make them chatter behind desks. That works for the NFL (Terry, Howie, Strahan, and the unholy demon himself, Jimmy Jones) but baseball is a more relaxed, laid back kind of sport. Why not have the broadcasters wear polo shirts and have more on the field segments? TBS has seemed to figure this out, why Fox hasn’t, I’ll never know.
Anyway, I’ll be rooting for the Phils to clinch the NLDS tomorrow and bring on the Dodgers for the National League title and onto the World Series!!
New York, Philly and Papelbon
If you have been living under a rock or don’t a rat’s ass about sports or baseball, this week New York City hosted the Major League Baseball All Star Game. They are knocking down Yankee Stadium after this season, so it was a pretty big deal. The All Star trams are made up of what some people call the “best” of the 2 leagues. New York City hates Boston and all their teams, so of course they hate the All Stars from the Red Sox.
This year they had a little parade down 5th Avenue for the All Stars, which is a neat idea, you get to see all the most popular players for free, which is pretty rare. Unfortunately, one pitcher, Jonathan Papelbon and his pregnant wife got the brunt of New Yorkers feelings for Boston, him and, I am sure, his soon to be born kid. They spit at him, screamed at him and yelled stuff that would probably make a trucker blush.
Why? Just because he was a Red Sox pitcher? Well, he also had the gaul to say he should have been put in sooner then another Yankee pitcher. And that was all.
Michael Wilbon on ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption said that Papelbon should not have taken his wife. But he is missing the bigger picture: why is NYC not being held accountable for booing every person who was not a Met or a Yankee? They booed Chase Utley (who amusingly responded to his buddy Dan Uggla “Boo? Fuck you!”), they booed everyone. No one said a word, not the commentators, not the color commentators, not other press, nobody. It seems that New Yorkers get a pass to be nasty, rude, and mean (they were chanting “Heroin! Heroin!” to Josh Hamilton, the Rangers player who came back to major league ball after a huge drug addiction. That’s cold.).
Why does NYC get a pass? Because they are “the best city in the world”? Does having the official scent of your city be urine make it ok to treat people like dogs? If this would have happened anywhere else, and specifically Philly, the papers, the internet, the tv sports news, would be all over it. “Philistines!” they would have called Philadelphia sports fans. There would have been calls for fines, it would have been major talk on sports shows, it would have been in all the papers. BUt since it’s NYC, ohhhh it must be ok.
Let me set the record straight. So we threw snowballs at Santa? So what? Every city has drunken fans who do stupid things. For example: Cleveland Brown fans showered the field and thier quarterback with beer bottles. Nice huh? But it was in the news and in the media. New York City sports fans make what is a really cool event into something really embarrassing and no one says a word.
I am getting really tired of this New York City ass kissing by the media. Yankees this, Mets that and on and on about Eli and the Giants. Even about Eli’s dad Archie. Archie was a bad quarterback on an awful 70′s era Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. Come on! There are quality sports stories all over the world but the leading ones? A-Rod’s divorce. When Chase Utley was batting in the home run challenge, they split screened it and did an interview with giant asshat David Wright. Disrespectful to the highest degree. When did ESPN become the “we heart NYC” channel? Whatever happened to impartiality in news reporting?
New York sports fans should get just as much bad press as everyone else. Just because you live there does not give you a free pass to be giant douchebags on worldwide television.
The Pain Of Being A Philadelphia Sports Fan
There were two headlines today for me that made my eyes bleed.
One was “Giants go to the Super Bowl” and the other one was “Phillies and Howard still 2 Million Apart” (referring to the rumor that Ryan Howard wants 10 Mill and the Phils won’t give it to him).
This makes me crazy on many levels.
First of all, the Giants are not a bad team. The New York press made getting started hard, printing rumors of Tom Coughlin being fired/quitting, and Tiki Barber shooting his mouth off on national television about stuff that really had no business in a fact based football show (ie: keep your boneheaded personal thoughts on your quarterback, coach or whoever to yourself and be impartial for the most part like most other commentators, except for Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman who are ridiculously pro Dallas. I do hate them so.).
However, to say they had not had some breaks this year would be lying. The Eagles basically fell apart right after training camp and the Redskins had the Sean Taylor tragedy. This basically made the Cowboys thier only rival in the NCF East. The two teams boast young and pretty much unproven quarterbacks with some vets on thier teams. As with most unproven qb’s, sometimes things go slightly pear shaped and someone has to lose.
The game last nite in Green Bay? Both teams played well, but NY could not seem to catch the football when it really counted, altho it’s alot to do with the cold, even tho they do have a bad record of dropped passes. Smart play calling got the Giants down to the field goal zone and the bad snap sent them into overtime. Brett Favre is a legend, a Hall of Fame qb, but even geniuses have bad days. He threw one pick and one good snap later, the Giants go to the Super Bowl.
Do they have a shot at winning against New England? No. New England has been on a roll this year, breaking the ’72 Dolphins unbeaten record and are one win away from a perfect 19-0 season. They have previous SB experience, which means a lot, and Belichick, while I hate him (cheater!), is a crafty guy. It might be close, but in the third quarter, like in all NE games, they will turn on the afterburner and smoke the Giants.
Now about Ryan Howard and The Phillies.
No one seems to know who exactly owns the Phillies. Apparently the Daily News ran a series of articles awhile back asking the question “who owns the Phils and who is behind some of these boneheaded moves?” (ie: signing Mike Leiberthal to a multiyear contract because he is a fan favorite but has the knees of a 85 year old french hooker).
The Phils are owned by a bunch of people:
Claire Betz: widow of John D. Betz, who owned Betz Labs. Thought to be the biggest investor.
Bill Giles: When the Carpenter’s sold the team, Giles was the face of the buyers, and usually thought to be the owner. However he is not even thought to be a big investor.
Dave Montgomery: Current Phils President but no one knows if he has a stake in the team. Grew up in Philly, and worked his way up from working in the ticket office when Giles took over the team.
The Buck Brothers: Three venture capilatists who’s father was the president of Smith, Kline and French.
John S. Middleton: Owner of the McIntosh Inn chain and is on the Board of Trustees at Penn Medicine.
As you can see, none of these people are baseball people. Now I can hear you saying “yo, genius, rarely are teams owned by anyone with a clue as to how to run a team”. And I say, yes, you are right. However, there are a lot of very smart and crafty people working in the front office of the Phils. Pat Gillick, while not a rocket scientist, is no dope.
However, I have been a Phils fan for my entire life. I remember how excited I was the day after the Phils won the World Series in 1980, my kindergarten teacher thought it was hilarious and made me go tell the Principal (like she didn’t know?). And of course the heartbreak, HEARTBREAK of the ’93 series. I still have trouble looking at Mitch Williams on Comcast Sportsnet Post Game reports. What I know the most tho, is that they will never, NEVER spend money on people who they need (hello, Curt Schilling).
Now common sense tells us that if you have smart people in charge, then smart things will get done unless someone is gumming up the works. The front office people the Phils have always had were not idiots. So who is gumming up the works then? Who is saying “let’s give Mike Leiberthal a huge contract because he is a fan favorite!”? And why has no one said anything about this!
My theory is that the problem lies with the owners. Or, specifically, I have the sneaking suspicion that the problem lies directly with Claire Betz. Now, obviously I have no proof here that what I am saying is true. It is complete speculation. But it all makes sense (damn you insessant Murder, She Wrote reruns): bozo moves and not spending money on things that make sense in a baseball view (ie: not signing, say, Schilling to a multiyear contract but signing Leiberthal because he is a fan favorite). Giles and Montgomery are baseball guys, The Buck Brothers are venture capitalists. VC guys are used to spending money to make money.That leaves Claire Betz and John Middelto. I doubt the guy who owns a hotel chain is going to be very loud about spending money. This brings us to dear Claire. What are her ideas on how to run a team? How long does it take before you see how you run things does not work? Even Ed Snider has started to open the coffers to lure better talent here, and keep the talent we have (let’s keep the Sixers out of this). Perhaps she thought a spiffy new stadium would make the players just want to stay?
When Aaron Rowand signed elsewhere, everyone I knew wanted to scream. Let’s sign Wes Helms? There was a collective “WTF?” on that one. And now the ULTIMATE SPIT IN YOUR FACE TO THE FANS, the jackass front office guys are not giving Ryan Howard the money he rightly deserves. Yes, he had a weird year last year but he’s a kid in baseball years, and he has the talent and the drive to do very well. Not to mention he is a dream for the PR department! (I’m not looking at you, wifebeating Brett Myers). What next? Giving away Jimmy Rollins? Personally, I think they should have held onto the movers and shakers of last year’s NL East winning team. Is that not COMMON SENSE?
I don’t even think they have a plan “b” if he wants to walk. And while I am hoping and praying they sign him, and I think they will, I cannot help but wonder how many more years Philly sports fans will have to hold thier breath and hope that the next great player won’t be traded for a can of Coke and a bag of Munchos.
Will we have to wait until the team is sold?
If so, bring on a new owner.
I hear Pat Croce is kinda bored these days.
