The Crimes of the Parent

Kathleen Kane's incarceration and her plea for mercy on behalf of her teenage sons is just another reminder that we punish children for the crimes of the parents all the time in this country.

Timing is Everything

A mere 48 hours after Mike Lombardi explained his concept of the "55 minute" team (a team that competes for 55 minutes but isn't complete and has trouble closing out games) on the Bill Simmons' podcast last week, the Eagles (i.e., Ryan Mathews) coughed up the lead and the game against the Lions in the last 5 minutes. Eearily prescient.

Lombardi explained that at a "45 minute team," like the Cleveland Browns, can be competitive for 3 quarters of a game but ultimately fall short - and fall apart - in the last quarter.

Lombardi was bullish on the Eagles but thought they were still not a complete team. Thus the 55 minute moniker. And he was certainly proven right on Sunday.

Chairwomen

What is it about DNC Chairs that they can't help but support Hillary Clinton in a contested primary (despite their claims to the contrary)?

No one looks good in the latest instance of DNC Chair and CNN pundit Donna Brazile sharing candidate questions with the Clinton campaign in advance of a town hall event. 

She got caught lying. So did Roland Martin, the author of the question in question who first denied sharing the question with "literally" no one, not even his "executive producer," only to have to admit that he did in fact share the question with his producer and several others on his production team. For such an accomplished journalist, Martin clearly doesn't understand the word "literally."

Of course, this is all par for the course for our national media mavens who try to give the appearance of objectivity and working at arms length of the officials they cover. But as the Brazile email makes clear, that simply isn't the case.

NFC East

I don't want to make too much out of it since it's still only a quarter of the way through the season, but it does feel that there was 20 minutes this afternoon upon which the division may have hinged.

In that span, CJ Moseley fumbled what would have been a go ahead TD for the Ravens that ultimately let the Skins eke out a win against Baltimore they easily could have and probably should have lost. 

Shortly after, Ryan Mathews coughed up the football and instead of sealing a great Eagles comeback win, coughed up a loss to the lowly Detroit Lions. The loss basically makes a wash of the great win vs. Pittsburgh.

So instead of the Eagles going to Washington next week undefeated at 4-0 and playing a reeling 2-3 division rival, the standings tightened up considerably and now it will be the 3-1 Eagles vs. the 3-2 Redskins. Ugh.

Debate

Wow, I can't recall a nastier, more contentious, insult-heavy, less policy-oriented presidential debate with more personal animus between the two candidates than what we just saw tonight at Washington University between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Especially given that this was a townhall format with regular citizens on the stage with the candidates while they pummeled each other with personal insults.

A quick couple of thoughts:

* We knew questions about Trump's lewd taped conversations would dominate, but man was it a disgusting topic to cover.

* In some weird way, Trump may have benefited from the low-road talk. At heart, he's a gutter fighter and he dragged Hillary down to his level.

* Trump knows so little about major policy issues it would be comical if it weren't so scary. Obamacare? "You will have great coverage when I'm president" is the extent of Trump's comments about health care reform.

* What was the deal with the fly that landed first on Hillary's forehead and then on her blouse? Was it attracted to her perfume? Was it the same fly? Clinton deftly shooed the fly away on her face by jerking her head. But she didn't notice when it landed (and stayed) on her blouse to the point where CNN had to cut away from its split screen because it was so distracting.

* Tough to admit, but Trump did score points, specifically the "rigged" primary vs. Sanders; the emails, and the Wall Street speeches, especially the Lincoln retort. 

* For as sharp as Clinton was last de

* He may not have expanded his support but he certainly fired up his base.

* Conversely, not sure Clinton expanded her base with tonight's debate performance, but, then again, as the front runner she just needs to solidify her support which she clearly did tonight.

Thank You Ryan Howard

As the Big Piece takes his final at bats for the Phillies - at home appropriately -  I hope appreciation for him continues to grow after he's gone. Isn't that the Philly way? Although it seems like it is already (post-beer bottle throwing incident). Injuries have ruined his career but i never understood the anger at his huge contract. It's not the fans money and if you look at the team, it's not like it has handcuffed them from acquiring players they wanted. 

I'll be curious if he retires at the end of the season or tries to be a DH in the AL on a much smaller salary. As we know, he can still hit righthanded pitching - with power. 

The legacy of the steroid era has made us all underappreciate the accomplishment of  25 homers a season and how few can do it. And to think back on the 58 he hit! 

My goodness.

Thank you, Ryan Howard for being a good ballplayer, a slugger extraordinaire, and a real gentleman.

Ryan Howard

A friend writes:

Through it all, those incredible highs and incredible lows, what's the worst thing that ever happened in his personal life? It was his own family taking advantage of him financially. 
He never even got so much as a DUI, never got caught in a parking lot banging a Perkins waitress, never got busted for drugs (if he really did take the HGH from the al Jazeera report, he should demand his money back!). 
He's really just a pretty good guy. 
I think that fans collectively realized this when that fool threw the beer bottle at Howard earlier this season, from that point on they started cheering for him. I'd like to actually see Howard's season broken down by the pre-beer-bottle throwing and post-beer incident. 
I wonder if an AL team will sign him to be a left-handed DH as a platoon. The guy still has 30-homer power, even if he's just hitting against righties. 
There are 42 players in the NL with 20 or more homers. There are only 7 of those sluggers with less than 400 at bats, and there are only 2 of them with fewer than 370 at bats: Howard, 23 homers in 307 ABs, Tommy Joseph, 21 homers in 304 ABs.