Editorial: Are you too busy to care?

It’s not that I don’t care, I just don’t have the time.  Do you?  This holiday season brings with it a million extra things to do, and while I do still find the time to watch a lot of games, it’s not quite the same as those lonely summer days when you can dream about Game 7’s and mini-camp.

This is it for the Eagles.  Win or go home 3 times in a row.  Each game gets significantly more difficult, culminating in the finale at home against the Cowboys.  Can we get a Jeff Garcia repeat and have Donovan wish us a Merry Christmas after he lead his team to victory and possibly the playoffs?  Just thinking about it now is amazing considering everyone thought we were toast just before Thanksgiving.

So we have the potential to have a very exciting December.  The Flyers are playing better and moving up in the standings.  The Sixers are struggling to find their identity but also have some tough games ahead before the New Year begins.  The Eagles are still in the mix for a Wild Card, which is significant considering that last year’s Super Bowl champs came out of our division in the same exact way.  All that is just to say, anything is possible once you get there.  I don’t think anyone in this town has expectations of another title out of any of the other 3 teams.

Speaking of the Phillies, isn’t it great to just sit back and not really care if the “Winter Meetings” (ps – it’s still technically the fall), produce any significant trades or signings?  Sure, there are questions that need to be answered.  Will we resign Moyer?  Who will fill in at left field next year?  What do we do if Utley isn’t ready for opening day?  But really, it’s almost comical now watching the New York teams try to one-up each other by grossly overpaying for “the best available guys”.  In the Yankees case, it means paying $163 million to one of the best starters in the game.  But to those desperate Mets, it means taking their chances on a guy who has lost some velocity, and another one who is coming off an injury and doesn’t want to be a setup man.  Even with all their moves, they still seem to have the same basic team that can’t finish a season by winning when it counts.

And, for now, it seems that no matter what the Phillies do, they can.

Bye week

Since the Eagles are off and the Phillies are waiting to play Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday, I guess I’ll be watching the rest of the Rays/Sox series this weekend.  Who knows, I might even turn on a little college football on Saturday.  I hear Penn State is still undefeated…

Oh wait, didn’t the Flyers season start?  Oh that’s right, they’re 0-3-1.  I guess it could be worse.

Can they come back?

The Flyers are down 0-2 to the Penguins. Can they win at home and tie it up?  Seems like Biron needs to step it up if they are going to have a chance.  Oh yeah, and stop getting hit in the face with pucks.

Flyers move on; Sixers go home

In a stunning upset, the Flyers overtake the Canadiens 4-1 to advance to the semifinals.  The series against the Penguins should be prove equally if not more challenging, so it should be great to watch.  Also, I finally did it!  I sat down and watched Game 6 of the Sharks vs. Stars.  What a game.  Unfortunately, I could not stay up until the end of the 4th overtime, so I didn’t see the final goal.  The first 3 were pretty intense.

The Sixers gave us a chance to “run with them”, and it was a dissapointing end to a suprising season.  Nobody expected them to sniff the playoffs, including whoever was Billy King’s boss.  Looking back, trading Kyle Korver was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to this team, if only for the emergence of rookie Thaddeus Young.  With a legitimate big man, he looks like he could be a dominant player.  It will be interesting to see what Ed Stefanski does in the next two offseasons, particularly with Andre Iguodala.  Maybe in a few weeks, I will have more to reflect on about the Sixers season.  For now, I’m proud of what they did this year and excited about the possibilities in the future.

Oh yeah, about the NBA MVP.  Since he technically grew up around here, I guess it’s relevant to Philly Sports.  Congrats to “you know who” on it taking 12 seasons to win it.  As he put it, he couldn’t win it scoring 40 points a night.  Finally, after running the best center in the league out of town, he acknowledged that he can’t do it all by himself.  There would be nothing worse than a Lakers vs. Celtics finals.  I will not be watching that for sure.

Sixers are even as Flyers go up 1

As I’ve recently mentioned, I am excited about playoff hockey. I actually almost watched a game that the Flyers were not in. I’m not sure if my enthusiasm will continue once the Flyers get eleminated, but I can try.

I am baffled as to why the Sixers lost game 4 at home. Going into halftime, they had a lead that any good team should be able to hold onto.

Out of the 2 teams both playing clearly superior teams (at least in the regular season), I think the Flyers have the best chance to move on to the next round.  As much as I would love to see the Sixers upset the Pistons, I just don’t see it happening.  So go ahead Mo Cheeks – please prove me wrong.  If they sneak past Detroit they might even be able to win another round going against a weaker team then the Pistons.

How are the Phillies over 14-12?  Rollins and Victorino are hurt; every free agent they signed other than Lidge is doing horrible; Ryan Howard is on the bench; Brett Myers has not yet adjusted back to his starter role – and yet, they’ve had the best April this decade of any Phillies team.  I think this year is going to be one of those years.  I love how that can happen in baseball.

Overtime great in hockey, not baseball

The Flyers won an exciting game in double overtime last night 4-3 (that God it didn’t go to a shootout). I have never been extremely interested in hockey because my dad never got me into it growing up. But I have always rooted for the Flyers, even after they burned us in 1998. What that game did for me was get me really excited about watching playoff hockey this year. I might even watch a few games that the Flyers aren’t in.

The way both teams approached the overtime last night was with desperate aggression. It was extremely fast paced and both teams left everything on the ice. In stark contrast, I saw a story online today about the Rockies/Padres going 22 innings, and it made me think about how the MLB handles the tie.

In my opinion, 9 innings should be enough for a team to win or lose a game. What is so wrong with having ties in baseball? The strain that extra innings puts on players, especially pitches (a total of 15 were used in the marathon mentioned above), gives the teams they are playing next an advantage of being more rested. There is a reason other sports allow ties or have a timed “sudden death” period.

As the Mets are coming in for a weekend series, I recall how many of their games have been decided in extra innings already this season. All I can do is watch and hope the games are decided in the first 9 innings. Because regardless of who has more runs after 22 innings that takes over 6 hours to decice, nobody really wins.

Are they likable?

The Phillies are playing the Cubs right now, which made me think of how the “Cubbies” are regarded as “lovable losers”. The “tortured fan” torch has been passed to our city, now that Boston is winning everything imaginable, including Soccer! We get criticized for being critical of our teams and their players, and we take it personally. Do we have the right to be angry? Does a twenty year drought entitle us to complain about every little thing? Some of our fans think we should just be happy we have Donovan, Howard, and the other great players that have played in this town (Iverson, Cunningham, Lindros, Thome, Owens…) and are willing to forget and forget because there is always next year.

The national media only pays attention when someone gets booed (like on draft day), or maybe has snowballs thrown at them (sorry, Santa). Our reputation in other cities is that we are cruel, unforgiving, and relentless towards our players. Often I have wondered if some players (ehem, Pat Burrell) can’t handle the pressure and maybe that’s they leave (Scott Rolen).

A few players are remembered in a positive light be everyone, even though they were never on a championship team. Reggie White comes to mind immediately. He is worshipped here, and most of us became Packers fans for the few years he gave to Green Bay.

I think we so love our teams and our city that we agonize over every loss as if a member of our family has passed away. Sometimes it feels like we got asked to the prom by the hottest girl in school, only to be stood up and have punch thrown in our face (Tampa Bay, 2003).

Right now the Phillies are winning 5-0 in the bottom of the 7th. Ryan Howard finally hit HR #3 on the season to give us a decent lead. The Sixers are down by 12 to the Wizrards, but no one cares because we are finally in the playoff when no one expected anything this year. Yesterday, they lost along with the Flyers in their first playoff game with the Capitals in demoralizing fashion. Why do we keep watching?

To keep hope alive.