Phillies Deserve Scrutiny

After years of cultivating a trustworthy reputation, the franchise is acting cagey toward reporters. What are they hiding from the fans?

It’s a good thing that Major League Baseball allows teams to announce game attendance figures in terms of tickets sold, rather than backsides in the seats, because the Phillies wouldn’t be able to crow about their streak of packed houses were the latter practice in vogue. Anybody who chose to attend Sunday’s desultory 5-1 loss to the Red Sox experienced a bland afternoon at the ballpark. The Phils seemed uninspired, and the fans certainly had no juice, something that happens when the hometown club tumbles into a 5-0 third-inning hole. Even the Phanatic’s set piece, which involved cavemen and Bob Seger’s...

3 Ways to Save Football

With more evidence that the game is prematurely killing players, it’s time for football to evolve.

In a 1905 article in McClure’s Magazine, investigative reporter Henry Beach Needham, wrote a sensational article detailing the excesses of college athletics. Among them were a win-at-all-costs attitude, payments made to players, institutional profiteering and a cavalier attitude toward rules that resulted in the serious injury and sometimes death of its participants.

Wait. The Sixers Are Winning and the Flyers Aren’t?

This weekend’s bizarro Philly sports recap.

Late in Sunday’s game-four Sixers’ dispatching of the wounded Bulls, fans had to be screaming, “Jinx!” as ABC ran a graphic listing the four eight seeds that defeated number ones in NBA playoff history. It was, obviously, a bit premature, but the network was letting fans know that your town’s team was on the brink of something historic. Granted, that history dates only back to 1984, when the playoffs were extended from 12 to 16 teams, but it would still be a pretty big accomplishment if the Sixers pull off the upset.

All Hail Andy Reid!

He nailed this year’s Draft.

For a total of six hours Thursday and Friday nights on 97.5 The Fanatic, Tom Byrne and I tried to get Eagles fans to react passionately to their team’s draft choices. No matter what questions we asked of them, or how we tried to couch the topic, fervor and zeal were in short supply. It was odd, but everybody seemed, surprisingly, content.

The 2012 Draft Preview: Andy Reid Won’t Shock

Don’t expect the Eagles to walk away from this week’s draft with big-name players. The team needs depth to win games.

When it comes to making a lot out of a little, no one can touch the NFL. We’re not quite talking loaves and fishes here, but any organization that can get people to tune in to three hours of programming surrounding the release of its 2012 schedule has some serious magical powers.

Flyers Fun Won’t Last

If they win the Penguins series, the Broad Street Bullies need to tighten up if they’re going to advance.

Flyers fans might derive more satisfaction from winning a playoff series from New York or Boston–might–but it is certainly fun watching the locals smack around Pittsburgh in their first-round series. The three games have had just about everything, from scads of goals, unlikely heroes (hello, Sean Couturier), fights and abject failure by Evgeni Malkin. It has been a gas. It’s hard to choose just one highlight from the three victories. It might be watching Freddie Mercury, er, Sidney Crosby continue his rat-like whining and cheap play, at the expense of productive offensive contributions. Perhaps it was Couturier’s hat trick in Game Two. Or the Penguins’ replacing Marc-Andre Fleury with Brent Johnson in Game Three. Of course, the OT goal by Jakub Voracek in the opener was sweet, too. Best of all is the knowledge that those odious Pittsburghers were on the verge of having a plate of pierogies jammed down their throats. It has all been great. And if the Flyers keep playing this way, they can forget about winning the Cup.

Dwight Howard Isn’t the First NBA Star to Make Crazy Demands

By letting star players turn whole franchises upside down, the league is making basketball unbearable.

Back when the NBA trade deadline was approaching, and ridiculous rumors were circulating throughout the media like so many wishful thoughts, someone floated the idea that the Sixers might be able to acquire Orlando’s Dwight Howard for a package that perhaps included Andre Iguodala and an autographed Dr. J jersey. It’s too bad it didn’t happen, even if it was all crazy speculation. Howard may be at the forefront of the league’s toxic new trend, in which star players who have never won anything of note hold franchises hostage, demand the ouster of coaches and generally wreak havoc with the whole operation, but it’s better to have a marketable player whining like a little kid than a bunch of marginally talented players bitching about the coach–and sinking ever deeper into mediocrity.

This Is the Phillies Last Hurrah

Enjoy the wins this year, because 2013 isn’t going to be good for baseball in Philadelphia.

The conventional wisdom regarding 2012 National League supremacy holds that the significant talent drain that has been taking place the past couple years has weakened the Senior Circuit to the point where even if the Phillies have to field a lineup that includes enough MLB senior citizens to force a change in the start of home games to 5 p.m., they still have enough to reach the World Series. That’s probably true, what with the Cardinals and Brewers weakened by the defections of Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder to DH Land, the Giants still figuring out how to score more than two runs a game, and the Marlins poised to become the baseball equivalent of an MTV reality series train wreck. The Phils are the favorites. Enjoy it, folks, because this is the last hurrah for this bunch. The Phillies could well reach the Series this year–provided they make some pretty drastic offensive personality changes. But thanks to the team’s age, contract situation and dearth of promising young talent on the horizon, the future appears hazy, at best.

Phillies Shouldn’t Have Banked on Chase Utley

He’ll probably play this season, but knee problems will prevent him from being second baseman slugger we know and love.

The latest chapter in what has become an all-too-familiar saga unfolded Sunday, when Phillies second baseman Chase Utley finally decided to speak to the media about his cranky knees. For a guy who usually says as much as Hickory High standout Jimmy Chitwood, the 17 minutes Utley spent in front of the microphones and tape recorders had to be excruciating for him.