More Flyers' "Madness"

Again, from my hockey-knowing friend:

Watch this video of Homer's presser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aAipoOohrSU#at=324

He looks downright depressed.  The implication here is Snider wanted to make the big Bryzalov move and Homer had no option but to make these moves.  Again, I get and accept this with Carter, we assumed he was gone.  But to move Richards, the captain and face of the franchise?  There must be something bigger here.

Im listening to WIP online and reading the Inquirer right now, trying to make sense of this madness.

Flyers' Trades

My Flyers' fan and hockey-guru friend chimes in:

I am completely floored. 

They traded two guys in the prime of their careers. Again, I think this speaks to a fundamental problem with Richards behind the scenes. Giving up this much doesn't add up. There needs to be a story behind this. I'm sure it will come out soon and he won't look good.  I'm fine with Carter leaving 

Only silver lining- major youth movement in Philly: shenn, Giroux, JVR, leino, versteeg etc.  And they're relying on a pretty young goalie.  That sounds good, but no way we're winning it all for a while 

Flyers Overhaul

I get the need to clear cap space but I thought the idea was that bryzgslov was the final piece to a championhip team and not the start of rebuilding. 

Crazy. Richards did wear down over the season and wasn't much of a playoff factor. Last year he was awesome

1 More Year for Reid

Chris Russell, the Redskins beat reporter for DC sports station 106.7 "the fan" FM, says a "source close to Andy Reid" tells him that this will be Reid's last year as Eagles Head Coach. It's an unsubstantiated report but does jibe with top Eagles' executives' pronouncements that the team is "going for it" this season.

Howard

Phil Sheridan dances around the unspoken issue of racism regarding Ryan Howard's unpopularity (particularly in relation to Chase Utley's popularity) among Phillies fans.

More Battle Rattle

Stan Collender says Wall Street is already reacting negatively to the uncertainty of the debt limit vote. He also touches on theme and idea I already mentioned. To wit, that Dems and the administration should rattle the markets to bolster their negotiating position.

Writes Collender:

Try to imagine the virtually immediate impact on the stock price of government contractors if the administration announces on Aug. 2 that money owed to those companies will be paid after 120 days instead of 30, and you start to get a sense of how much the White House rather than Congressional Republicans are in control of the situation.

My point is, why should the administration wait till August 2nd to make such an announcement. Why not do it now, or at least mid July, to increase their leverage and put the heat on Republicans for playing politics with the debt vote and wreaking havoc with the market?

Phillies Fans Best Says Legendary Dodger

Davey Lopes says Phillies fans are the best.

"The fans, I consider the best in baseball."

$100?!

Giovanni Ramirez's alibi involves giving his 9 year old daughter a $100 bill to go buy a soda at a nearby store.

Who gives their child a $100 bill to buy anything without them present?

Still no word on Ramirez's immigration status.

NBA vs. NHL

I have often said that the NBA is a paper tiger as far as popularity and particularly media coverage is concerned. When was the last time you actually paid money out of your own pocket to attend a basketball game? Do you know anybody that in recent years has similarly paid money out of their own pocket to attend a basketball game? Certainly not for a regular season game. Maybe...maybe, a playoff game.

The result of this disproportionate media coverage of the NBA is that the NHL gets incredibly short shrift, as it competes against pro basketball during the regular season and especially in playoff time . (Though the fact that the Stanley Cup playoffs didn't start till June 1st is an NHL travesty.)

The discrepancy is noticeable in newspapers - note the sports page front of the NBA playoff results and the buried coverage of the NHL playoffs, but is most obvious when it comes to the "world wide leader."

Rich Hoffman takes aim at the issue and hits several targets squarely.

ESPN was going to spend a goodly portion of the hourlong show pumping up the start of the NBA Finals, which were to be aired on its corporate sister, ABC, was entirely understandable. ESPN, long ago, acknowledged that its news shows were a promotional vehicle as well as a journalistic enterprise.

Hoffman also highlights some surprising facts:

If you look at the four major leagues, look at them in terms of annual revenue generated, you get this kind of a rough breakdown:
NFL, $9 billion.
MLB, $7 billion.
NBA, $4 billion.
NHL, $3 billion.

Wow, the NBA is only $1 billion ahead of the NHL. Again, given the imbalance in media coverage you would assume the NBA is a much bigger, more popular sport. But it's not.

And then there's this:

But in there somewhere is the notion that the NHL seems more interested in serving its current customers in 2011, more interested in growing revenues by enhancing the experience for people who already love the game - because it already has the most affluent fan base among the four sports...In the meantime, though, it has to settle for pockets of strength, like Philadelphia (where the Flyers on CSN averaged a 2.4 rating this past season while the resurgent Sixers averaged only a 1.6).

Hockey is getting by and doing just fine. Can the same be said for basketball. Sadly, ESPN won't answer the question...or even ask it.