Fan commentary on the Philadelphia Eagles and other Philly sports happenings. "Our capacity for hurt is matched only by our capacity for loyalty." -- Bill Lyon.
From a friend who is a Cleveland Indians fan:
“Ben Francisco is a hell of a throw in. I like him and think with Charlie Manuel's teaching, he will be your starting leftfielder one day.
I really like this deal for the Phils. Not so keen on it for the Tribe. Halladay may be better than Lee, but he certainly is not so much better than Lee as to not prefer having Lee and keeping Happ and Drabek.”
OK, wow. The Phils got an AL Cy young winner and didn't give up Happ, Drabek, Brown or Taylor?
Wow! Ruben Amaro pulled off a great deal.
Lee is signed through next year at $8M. So the Phils get him for the same length of time as Halladay at 55% of the cost.
My friend PK does a little dirt digging and finds gold:
“Below is the top 15 all time home run hitters. The asterisk means they were definite PED cheaters. The parentheses next to a player's home-run total means he's an active player and that's his age.
More than a third of the 15 greatest HR hitters of all time are cheats; the verdict seems uncertain on Thome, who I don't think did them but I'm not really certain. If he's ever found guilty, that means half the top 15 are 'roid guys.
It's pretty amazing and stark when you put it into that perspective, i think.
1.Barry Bonds 762 ***
2.Hank Aaron+ 755
3.Babe Ruth+ 714
4.Willie Mays+ 660
5.Ken Griffey 621 (39)
6.Sammy Sosa 609 ****
7.Frank Robinson 586
8.Mark McGwire 583 ***
9.Harmon Killebrew+ 573
10.Alex Rodriguez 572 (33) ***
11.Rafael Palmeiro 569 ***
12.Reggie Jackson+ 563
13.Jim Thome 557 (38)
14.Mike Schmidt+ 548
15.Manny Ramirez 537 (37) ***
A friend writes of the limbo JA Happ finds himself:
Poor JA Happ. Think about this if you're him. He's gotta be thinking that he needs to pinch himself every night when he goes to bed, sitting at 7-0 with the defending world champions, pitching to bonkers sell-out crowds every night, an almost certainty for the club to get into the playoffs with a shot at getting to the World Series and being part of the 4-man starting rotation.
Or. Or. Or…
Getting traded to a Blue Jays team that is practically giving up on competing for the next 2 seasons. In a foreign country, no less.
Peter Gammons thinks that getting Roy Halladay would make the Phillies the favorites to not only repeat but three-peat:
"One could argue that the Phillies have a chance to win three straight World Series (if the Phils acquire Halladay, they would have him under contract for the rest of this season along with the entire 2010 campaign) -- and make Cole Hamels even better. But whether they'll do it is up in the air."
At the very least, Pedro will provide the combativeness that Brett Myers took with him to the DL.
"'It could be my mom standing up there with a bat. And if I have to knock her off the plate, I would. So don't confuse that.'
But Martinez seems to have no doubt that he is going to 'fall in love' with these people, or that he can make them fall in love with him. [writes Jayson Stark]
'I think we'll have a lot of fun,' he said, 'because they seem to be really wild -- and I'm a little out there, too.'"
Thank gosh, the Phillies are still in the hunt for Halladay according to ESPN.
"Adding Martinez isn't expected to prevent the Phillies from pursuing All-Star Roy Halladay. The Toronto Blue Jays are listening to offers for the 2003 AL Cy Young Award winner, and Philadelphia has already expressed strong interest.
'This doesn't preclude us from doing other things with the club,' Amaro said."
Remind me again why my tax money went to paying 100 cents on the dollar for all of Goldman's counterparty trades in the AIG bailout ? From the Times:
"Goldman posted the richest quarterly profit in its 140-year history and, to the envy of its rivals, announced that it had earmarked $11.4 billion so far this year to compensate its workers."
Funny how Peter King doesn't mention the punishment (or non-punishment) of another NFL player who was under contract and killed a person in much the same fashion for which Donte Stallworth is being slapped on the wrist...Leonard Little.
"Stallworth was under contract to an NFL team and took a man's life, and Goodell suspended him indefinitely. I don't see the problem there. The three players you've mentioned are not under contract to any NFL teams now, so Goodell isn't under pressure to make any speedy decisions, particularly on Michael Vick or Plaxico Burress. I would anticipate both would get sanctions, and Burress could be suspended for between four and eight games."So a NY felony that's a mandatory five year prison term is only an 8 game suspension in the NFL? The Donte Stallworth issue poses big problems for the commissioner and the pending decision on Michael Vick's status. Does Goodell really want the league to be seen as imposing harsher penalties on jerks who have scrums over duffel bags of money in strip clubs or overseeing a dog fighting ring (and killling dogs) than a player convicted of manslaughter?
Huge profile of Seaford native Delino DeShields in today's Washington Post about his new coaching life in the minor leagues. One of the very few DeShields articles I've ever read that actually mentions how he chose pro baseball rather than accept a Villanova scholarship to play guard for Rollie Massimino.
I'm one of the dwindling few who probably even remembers the Philadelphia Bulletin. It was the "big city daily" we got at our home out in W. Chester every afternoon. A solid newspaper with a great sports section - Ray Didinger! - most of which got scooped up by the Inquirer.
It was sad to see it go. Sad too, to see its former publisher pass away.
What happened to Cristal being the drink of choice?
Must be the Entourage phenomenon.
Stallworth drank tequila shots prior to fatal wreck
Teams slow to re-sign '05 draft picks - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
Only three players from the 2005 first round have signed extensions, and one of them is Eagle Mike Patterson. Presumably the lack of extensions is because of the looming end to the CBA - and the changes to free agency rules that will entail (i.e., extending the time before a player can become a free agent). But are some owners being short-sighted about these extensions. In another year or two, some of these players will be getting even bigger paydays than they might otherwise now because the salary cap will be lifted by then, while it is still in place now.
Regardless of how depleted the Mets' lineup is, a sweep of a division rival is still an impressive feat. Indeed, it was perhaps more important to sweep the Mets this weekend while they were undermanned. Good teams beat the opponents they are supposed to beat. And taking advantage of the Mets' weakness was in the end not only important but imperative.
My Flyer friend, Big O’s, take on the Chris Pronger trade after I expressed the opinion that giving up Lupul, 2 #1s and a minor leaguer for a 36 year-old defenseman was quite a lot.
We gave up a boatload, no doubt. Lupul is expendable bc we have Giroux coming up full time. We gave up D Luca Sbisa, our #1 pick from last year, but he had years to develop. What really hurts is giving up two more #1s as well.
HOWEVER, we need to realize what Pronger is. The guy is an absolute animal. He turns 35 this year, but still has it. Basically, this shows that Holmgren is in a win now mode. Pronger has about 2-3 more good years in him. Bottom line: we gave up alot, but Pronger immediately upgrades our defense, and gives us a legitimate shot for the Cup. If we win, Homer will look like a genius, if we lose it will go down as a disaster. Im choosing to be optimistic. Look what Leafs GM Brian Burke said about Pronger going to broad street:
"Pronger was "born to wear Orange." He is the "prototypical Flyer," and the fans will love him. He said Philly has great fans, they are "vicious and loyal," and he will fit right in there.
