continued success.: September 2011

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Inner Conflict at 7 PM on a Wednesday Night

We sat down at 7:05 PM on Wednesday night, September 28^th in awe of the sports night ahead of us. Exhausted, ready for bed, we were torn. Everybody hates the Braves in Philadelphia. Those smug bastards were on top of the NL East for as long as anybody could remember, and what could be better than knocking them off on the last day? As of Game 162, the Braves were no longer a playoff contender. Fantastic!

But if you all go back to the middle of the paragraph above, you’ll remember that we said we were ‘torn’. Did you stop to wonder why? Well, we can help with that.

By knocking the Braves off, the Phils opened themselves up to playing the Cards in the first round.

We here at ‘continued success’ are not too pleased with that idea.

Sure, in retrospect, we were jacked up about beating those Tomahawking bums. We waited and waited and waited 13 innings to watch everybody’s new favorite motor mouth (along with Shane-0) hit a hot shot at 1^st base (yeah, that was sarcasm) and get us a go-ahead run, and it was PHENOMENAL. Especially when they all hung their heads nice and low and looked as if they had no idea what to do with their newfound free time. Oh, and their fans were mortified. We loved it.

But seriously think about this. Let's just say that we let the Braves win (they clearly can’t do it on their own because we’re so overpowering). They then somehow eek out a win in a one-game playoff with the Cards, and we play the D-backs in the NLDS. The D-backs are garbage. They are in the playoffs because they overtook the mighty San Francisco Giants (who had one offensive player and he was hurt months ago for blocking the plate – you’ll remember him because he then had his agent whine for him about protecting catchers) in the highly competitive NL West (more sarcasm). Who on the Diamondbacks scares you? We were 3-3 against them this year. Not really all that impressive, but how did we fare against the Cards this year you might ask?

3-7

Eh, last time we checked - that’s worse.

They may even still have this guy. We don't even know who it is, but he can't be any good either.

And let’s just say we get past the D-backs (that’s not a stretch), and we end up playing those same Braves in the NLCS. How nice would that be?

We’re 12-6 against them…

Not to mention that they don’t even have Jair Jurrjens. He was their BEST PITCHER. He’s gone. Done. It’s a cakewalk to the World Series…

Another thing to consider about the Cardinals is… THEY HAVE ALBERT PUJOLS. Remember that nickname he has? Oh yeah, it’s the ‘Machine’. You don’t just get that nickname for being mediocre and streaky. At least, we don’t think you do. Not to mention, a revived Lance Berkman, a pretty decent pitching staff including Chris Carpenter and Kyle Lohse (you may laugh, but he dominates the Phils since we dealt him), and an upstart manager by the name of Tony Larussa (more sarcasm). This is a very good, very experienced team.

They DO lack in the bullpen though. Former Phil Ryan Franklin was dominant for them last year as their closer. (This year - not so much) Franklin had already blown four saves by the end of April and lost his closers role that he seemed cemented into. No big deal. They found dominant pitcher Eduardo Sanchez. Doesn’t ring a bell, you say? That’s probably because he then lost the role by the end of May – one month after Franklin lost it. They aren’t settled there. That much is for sure. Literally just type ‘Cardinals Closer’ into ESPN.com and see what you get. Here, we’ll do it for you (CLICK HERE). That’s a lot of talk about one topic. Hm. Interesting.

The mindset for the Phils should be the same as it is for any other point in their season. Get good at-bats. Force their starting pitchers to work and overwork themselves right into the bullpen. We know, we know – that’s the same for any team and any matchup. You’re right. But let’s face it: the Boys like to get anxious and aggressive. They love it. They love being aggressive. They force themselves into streaks of awful at-bats where they can’t score.

Phils, please do us a favor. Relax. Take a deep breath. Make the Cardinals’ pitching staff throw pitches.

We’ve got this.

Now, with all of this circulating around our heads for the entire game last night… Do you see why we were torn?

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

An Improvement for the Eagles?

"I can't see the quarterback behind all of these big linemen."

With all the baseball hype going on now (and it is WELL deserved) let’s take a look at the other major sport taking place right now. The Eagles made a move today that many expected and hoped would happen, but did it really fix ANYTHING? The move announced by the Eagles today, took the often-criticized rookie Casey Matthews out of the lineup. This shake up came as no surprise to any fan in the tri-state area, and it was what the fans have been clamoring for. With Casey out of the lineup, the Eagles replaced him with (the vastly better?) Brian Rolle. As you can tell by our use of the question mark there, we question what effect, if any, this will have on the Eagles’ defense. Looking at it a little bit closer, all we did was replace a 4^th round rookie linebacker with a 6^th round rookie linebacker. Matthews is listed at 6’1” weighing in at 231 lbs and Rolle is listed at 5’7” and only 227 lbs. The one thing that it does add is a little bit more speed to a defense, but our problem isn’t defensive team speed. Our problem is our toughness and strength up the middle of the field right now. Taking Casey out of the starting lineup has done essentially three things: make us even less experienced at the position, make us smaller up the middle against the run, and give the defense one more crutch to lean on if things don’t go well. In our opinion, it is worth giving the kid a shot, but at this point, we should not have any more trust in him than we did Casey Matthews to start off the year. He is just as unproven and with all else equal, still leaves our linebacking core questionable at best. We hope he dominates. We hope he comes in and is the clutch performer that Matthews was supposed to be at the beginning of the year, but what if he doesn’t? Is there anything we can do that can improve the linebackers? We think there is one potential move that could help…

"Surprise! Here I am Philly. Christmas come early this year"

You know how we have three all-star cornerbacks that we don’t necessarily need? Remember how there was that one linebacker at the beginning of the year, that wanted to leave the city of Chicago for greener pastures? We smell a match made in heaven. Could it be possible that the Eagles could trade disgruntled cornerback Asante Samuel to the Chicago Bears for Lance Briggs? Problem solved. The contracts are a little comparable, but we would dump some salary since Briggs is making 6 years $36 Million and Samuel making 6 years and $56 Million (Both of which started in 2008). We all know how this would improve the Eagles’ linebackers, but what you don’t know is just how much this would improve the Bears as well. He could easily start over “superstar” Tim Jennings, and the good news is that they both have dreads so the fans wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference. The Bears already have a great corps at linebacker so losing Briggs would only affect them a little bit. As for the Eagles, Briggs would add a bigger, tougher, more experienced run-stopping linebacker. He could settle down the group we already have and hopefully help them all grow, which could help our young “flops” grow into solid starters in the near future. In the trade, lets just say the illustrious Howie Roseman pulls in a 4^th or 5^th round pick as well because he is an evil genius. Then to top that off, he would package that with some other late round pick come draft time to get us a nicer third or fourth round draft pick (WHAT A DRAFT BEAST!). In summation, to end our thesis, this move would substantially improve the Eagles and would be a great answer to help the 2011 Eagles become Super Bowl Contenders instead of Super Bowl Pretenders.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Century Mark

100.

The number in itself is an amazing figure. Not many teams can say they have reached that number in a year. In fact, they are one of only 3 teams in the history of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise who can say they have done that. Those teams were disputably not as talented as this bunch, especially in the starting rotation, but it does not make it any less special. It hasn’t been as easy a ride as it may have seemed for the Phillies though. From day one of the Cliff Lee acquisition, there has been constant pressure on the pitching staff deemed possibly one of the greatest in the history of baseball. As quickly as the pitching was praised, the offense was questioned with its supposed lack of power and consistency. Throughout the season we dealt with injuries, doubts, and in the last week and a half, even worry. However, through it all, we came out as not only one of the greatest baseball teams in the history of the Phillies organization but all of MLB.

Cliff Lee's attitude towards the upcoming postseason.
"Smoke'em if you got'em"

What every member of the Phillies get as a gift
from Big Ruben Amaro.

Does this Phillies team need to win the World Series to be considered successful? We think in order to set their place in history as a true dynasty, they need this World Series, but this team is already a success. With a long month ahead, filled with tense moments and a loss of fingernails all over the tri-state area, enjoy the little things. Enjoy the 100 wins and the celebration of what this season is, because who knows if we will ever see this great of a Phillies team again?

Monday, September 26, 2011

Quick Hits

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Philadelphia 1 - New York 1

On a showdown day when Philadelphia was pinned against its old buddy New York, the games were split 1-1. The Phillies ended their 8 game nauseating skid with a nice 9-4 win over Mike Pelfrey (the crybaby) and an Eagles’ full out collapse versus the New York Giants losing 29-16. We can take a quick look at each of these games.

Phillies 9 Mets 4

The Phanatic wins again. What a character.

This game was an overall great sign for the Phillies in what could be the exact lineup in Game 1 of the NLDS. The offense was put together and seemed to click on all cylinders with Hunter Pence in the 3 hole and Victorino giving Howard some protection in the number 5 spot. Obviously with the 9 runs everything seemed to be smooth. There was timely hitting, 2 out run production, and some power shown with Pence’s 2 run homerun in the first inning. It was a huge confidence boost for an offense that looked sluggish and out of sorts as of late with most regulars getting some rest. Defensively, there were no errors and Roy Halladay did what Roy Halladay does best. He was a strike-throwing machine with almost no flaws. He left after 6 innings with only four hits allowed and a shutout still in tact, but Charlie wanted to rest him up for next Saturday. The only thing that was troubling from this game was the bullpen. Worley came in and gave up a run in the 8^th, but Bastardo seemed to come unraveled again, giving up 3 runs in the 7^th. Other than that, it is a pheel good day for the Phillies who hopefully let the Braves sweep them so we can avoid the hoT hOt Hot Cardinals in the first round (We are not kidding).

Eagles 16 Giants 29

"I thought I remembered you guys making some kind of upgrade in the offseason? Must have been mistaken."

This game was awful in more ways than one. Not only did our defense look absolutely atrocious the entire second half and first quarter, but we have more injuries that can do nothing but hurt us moving forward. First, the injuries that are incredibly significant are (obviously) Michael Vick’s broken right hand and Jeremy Maclin’s hurt hamstring. Vick may be done for a couple weeks, which could lead us to a Vince Young/Mike Kafka competition for #1 this week. That could be interesting to see who starts and if we can win with all that talent, but a B lister at quarterback. The severity of Maclin’s injury is not known as of yet, and even though he is an important part of our offense, we can survive without our second number 1 receiver. Now, to the pathetic game by the defense and offense overall. First, the offense was actually pretty effective most of the game, and only looked hindered when Vick got hurt and had to leave the game. The only thing we have to rip on them for is the pitiful short yardage situations. It was something that appeared to have been corrected as of late, but after a performance on the goal line that would have made Reggie White roll over in his grave, fans were left scratching their heads. The inability of the line and the running game to take advantage of those situations will kill a team’s entire season in the long run. The defense, where can we even begin? The linebackers are such a joke that it is hard to put a finger on whether or not they were worse against the run or the pass. Chaney is a better MLB than Matthews, but Matthews still seemed to be a liability on the outside. One prime example is when he looked lost in coverage on the 40 yard passing TD to Brandon Jacobs in the first. Aside from this, the defense needs to learn how to tackle. Due to a lack of tackling, they made VICTOR CRUZ look like an All-Star and helped Bradshaw extended numerous drives in the game. With all the money spent on the defensive side of the ball, the LBs should have been addressed. The thought that strengthening every other position would help hide the weakness at linebacker obviously didn’t work out. This needs to be corrected or else this season is going to be just as bad as these last two weeks have gone.

Philadelphia is still winning.

In the grand scheme of things, we will still unfortunately give New York the win overall seeing as the Mets still took two of three from the Phillies this weekend and the Giants game was a huge surprise. In a 16 game season, a loss to a division rival is far more devastating than a late September win over a terrible opponent in a 162 game season. Even though New York won this battle, by our records, Philadelphia is still dominating in the war about 1,000,000 to 1 so they can go back to sucking their thumbs at night and dreaming of one day being as great as the city of Brotherly Love.

They're not from Philadelphia, so it's OK

This is the first Flyers post on the blog, so it is something to celebrate, but it’s the only thing to celebrate about this story. This is a time to complain and be disgusted about The Media and other fans all over the world.

"We're going to talk about this briefly and not give it the attention it deserves because we can't dump on Philadelphia fans here."

Since the beginning of time, Philadelphia sports fans have been looked at as ravenous, mean, hateful, unforgiving idiots who don’t know what they’re talking about and are a black eye to all of professional sports. That stereotype is really the only one of its kind. We have done some questionable things in the past, but is it as justified as it seems? What have we done that is so wrong? Sure we “booed” Santa Claus, even though people seem to forget that he was drunk when we pelted him with those snowballs. We also threw a battery at JD Drew and cheered when Michael Irvin got carted off the field on a stretcher, but are we the only fans who have had some kind of indiscretion like that in the past? Lets look at some recent happenings of the exact same thing, which seem to have gone unnoticed.

The first one is a little less serious, but still something that was completely ignored. When Michael Vick got knocked out of the Falcons game with a concussion on Sunday, we don’t think we heard anyone mention that the Falcons’ fans in the building cheered. The whole stadium was cheering because number 7 was laying on the ground, bleeding out of his mouth, but yet, no one seemed to even talk about that. We think we can guess why, since they are “little old” Atlanta, just a bunch of good ole country folk “who don’t mean no harm, they just like to have a good time.” Still, shouldn’t this be just as upsetting as the Michael Irvin – Eagles incident? The Eagles fans started cheering early before they knew it was a serious injury and yet, it’s still talked about 12 years later like we are pariah and animals. Atlanta gets a free pass, because they have Samuel L. Jackson on their side (WHO ISN’T EVEN FROM ATLANTA, GO CHEER FOR YOUR HOMETOWN REDSKINS INSTEAD OF BEING A BANDWAGONER).

The second comparison is much more serious. As you can probably tell with the JD Drew talk that we brought up, we are going to be comparing this to the awful incident that happened to Wayne Simmonds, one of the newest Philadelphia Flyers, in London, ON Thursday night. Let us preface this by saying that JD Drew was a complete bum who deserved the hatred from Philadelphia. He would not sign with us because he knew he was not good enough to turn the team around and we rightfully hated him for it. On August 10, 1999 at Veterans Stadium, Drew had a battery thrown in his direction as a symbol of our hate. It didn’t even hit him, it was just thrown in his direction and there was no damage done other than a possible dent in the lovely Vet Stadium turf. Now fast-forward 12 years later to London, ON. Wayne Simmonds, who is one of only a handful of African American hockey players in the NHL, gets a racially charged banana thrown his way. First off, this is disgusting and should never happen in any way. These couple fans should be banned from ever attending another sports event again as punishment for what they did. The incident did get some media attention, but do you see anyone talking about those terrible Canadians now? A couple of knuckleheads throw a battery in the direction of JD Drew and it reflects on the whole population of Philadelphia, but something much worse happens in London, ON and nothing is even mentioned about the fans. Lets ignore those “sweet Canucks” and just assume it’ll go away in the long run because again, they’re not from that “awful, dirty” city of Philadelphia.

This is something that will probably never change when it comes to Philadelphia sports fans. We will always be looked at as a bunch of low-life, no good Neanderthals who are no better than blood sucking leeches draining the dignity from professional sports, but we are better than The Media gives us credit for. We are Philadelphia, wear it proud. Hopefully the remainder of our Flyers' posts will be about the team's domination.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Kafka to the rescue! ... Maybe

"Have no fear, Kafka is here!" ::Sound of speed::

There have been a lot of reports going back and forth about whether or not Vick will start this weekend versus the once mighty Giants, now reduced to nothing more than ShEli Manning. After his full participation in practice today, it looks as if he has passed all the tests and barring any setbacks, should start on Sunday. Which, don’t get us wrong, is amazing because we have our star quarterback on the field, but would have it been so bad to see young Northwestern grad Mike “The Stunna” Kafka on the field versus a depleted Giants defense? In just about one full quarter of play, Kafka was 7/9 for 72 yards and looked pretty composed considering the high pressure situation. He led the team on a long drive at the end of the game that could have potentially won the game if “that which we will not speak of” hadn’t happened to Jeremy Maclin. On top of that, he looked like a solid starting quarterback that could read a defense and make an accurate throw. Lets just think about how that could benefit us in the long run…

Possible Positives

Mike Kafka starts, has an amazing game, and we beat the Giants on Sunday. His line looks something like 300 yards on 25/35 passing with 2 TDs and an INT.

What could possibly come from this?

1. Mike Vick gets an extra week to rest his head so that we are sure there are no lingering effects and he can continue to have an MVP type season.

2. The second positive that could come from this is our piece of mind knowing that we have a solid backup quarterback for Vick going forward and in the event that he does get hurt in future games, we know that we have a cheap backup that can perform well enough to lead a team to victory.

3. This would be the best possibility that could come from the game. If Kafka has an amazing game, and in some way is needed to play again in the future due to an injury, and has another amazing game, what could this do? Well, to be perfectly honest, with the respect that coaches have for Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg’s ability to develop a QB, what do you think could happen? Also, consider the fact that a solid starting QB in the league is really hard to come by and evaluate. Answer: Kafka could essentially turn into huge trade bait. We could potentially get great value for him in a bad QB draft year. With the intelligent guys that we have running the GM’s office, don’t think they haven’t thought about this already as a possibility to help the Eagles add more pieces in upcoming years. This could be yet another score for Eagles fan based on an Andy Reid underrated draft pick.

Notable Negatives

Remember when this guy was supposed to be good? We all saw what happened to him.

Mike Kafka comes out and has a pretty bad performance overall. He shows how nervous he can truly be and has an extremely forgettable game with maybe 200 yards passing on 20/45 passing with 1 TD and 2 INTs. Obviously with a performance like this, it would mean a loss to the Giants.

What could possibly come from this?

1. Obviously this would put us in a bit of a hole in the NFC. We would start off 1-2 on the season and 0-1 in the NFC East. Although we would be able to rebound with the kind of talent we have on this team, it wouldn’t be easy. Our strength of schedule is pretty high this year and the end of the year is the worst part of the schedule. We have to face the Patriots and New York Jets, as well as the Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins all in the last 7 weeks of the season. Most of those are at home, but they are still tough games no matter where you play them.

2. Kafka’s confidence is hurt and potentially does not rebound. He goes on to continue performing poorly and is out of the league in the next couple years, not being able to catch on with any team… NOT EVEN THE SEAHAWKS! This would not only suck for Kafka, but also the fans of talented, good looking, quarterbacks everywhere.

As you can see, there are a lot of different positives and negatives that could come from starting Kafka this weekend. It seems at this point like this is just going to be all a bunch of ‘what ifs’ because Vick looks like he is going to play. However, if “The Stunna” comes out and has an amazing game, this could lead to amazing things for the Eagles. No matter what happens though, lets just hope we destroy ShEli and his team of misfit toys.

Brandon Jacobs is the dumb polka dotted elephant incase you were wondering.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Everyone Relax...

Okay, so as you can probably deduct (that also means figure out for some of the slower readers) that this story has to do with the thousands upon thousands of Phillies’ fans who are freaking out about the current stretch the our boys are on. It is true, we are playing like garbage, and the offense is sputtering, but don’t start acting like Yankees' fans when they don’t get Cliff Lee in the offseason (whiny, crying, you get the picture).

Let’s think about this for a second, the Phillies have dominated almost every team in the league (except for the Cardinals) for the entire year and have decided to lose a couple games at the end of the year in a row. These games, also might I add, mean absolutely nothing to the Phillies who have already secured everything you can in the regular season to make their ride through the postseason as easy as possible. Oh, and also, just to throw this in, the Phillies have basically been playing their AAA team on a nightly basis. Most of the reps in the infield have been for Michael Martinez, Pete Orr, and Wilson Valdez. Those names aren’t the WORST that could be back there, but they aren’t every day starters in Major League Baseball either. Ryan “Big Piece” Howard has been out resting his heel so that he has his full power in the playoffs, and as we learned from last night’s game, it is more important to have these guys rest up and lose a couple more regular season games, than to have Pence hurt his knee, Ruiz pull a muscle, or Polanco take a foul ball off the foot and be out when we need them all most. So playing on the side of caution, resting up players, and losing meaningless regular season games isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world.

As all of the talk has heated up about whether or not it is good to do this or not, there was one argument that made the most sense: Does anyone care when the Phillies lose preseason games? It is essentially the exact same thing if you think about it. Everyone wants to start the season off hot, but the players don’t get that much playing time and rarely do teams care about who wins. It is more important that teams leave preseason healthy, not their final record. The other item here is that this is no rookie team. We are a veteran, well-oiled machine that has been here numerous times before (5 in a row to be exact), and they know how to turn it on. This team has shown before that it can perform in the post season and this season is no different.

Yeah, we've done this once or twice before, so back off.

In closing, everyone just relax and watch something else on TV for the next week and a half until the playoffs begin. It will help put you to ease if you don’t even watch what is going on. Find some of those old shows that you have neglected throughout the whole season (Lost is still a relevant show or something isn’t it?), and tune back into the games when they matter. Uncle Charlie doesn’t care, the Phillies don’t care, and neither should you, so sit back, relax, and get ready for the real games in October.

This is what we are all really waiting for. Broad Street Parade... Holla

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Hotlanta

First thing is first. The blogging twins were in Atlanta this weekend for UGA football, a Braves game (don’t ask why) and the Eagles game.

I’m sure you’re saying to yourself, ‘That must have been an INCREDIBLE weekend.’

Then your next question will without a doubt be, ‘WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART?’

Our answer: NO QUESTION. THE HISTORY THAT COMES WITH THE LIVING LEGEND HIMSELF!

God, even he makes a Braves’ uniform look suave and classy.

Anyway, capping our weekend off with the Eagles-Falcons game Sunday night was an incredible experience and a terrible experience all in one.

The Georgia Dome is incredibly underrated as a stadium that consumes the players with noise. That place was loud, it was bumping, and there were dancing fans everywhere (that was actually really funny). Not to mention, we're sure you saw it – a screaming Samuel L. Jackson (that was really annoying).

(We really wish this surprise ending really happened. SAMUEL L. DIDN'T EVEN GROW UP IN ATLANTA, HE JUST WENT TO COLLEGE THERE. DAMMIT.)

Before we get to the real situation that we want to discuss, a few thoughts about the game itself that everyone is clearly whining about.

The Eagles’ defense did a fantastic job. The Falcons have an incredibly talented offense and 3 of their scoring drives in the first half were less than 50 yards (one under 25 yds). Out of those drives, two touchdowns were on fantastic catches after we had completely stuffed the run game on short-yardage situations. Yes, they gave up points, but the offense and turnovers weren’t really helping the cause. Not to mention that aside from one big run from Michael Turner in the 4^th quarter, the Falcons’ run game had become essentially non-existent after the first few drives. Oh, and while we’re at it – they are still creating turnovers. Before you all start crying about the score, think about the whole game and situation – relax.

Now to the real situation that we want to talk about – why the Falcons’ fans don’t get crucified for cheering when Michael Vick came off of the field hurt. The Philadelphia fans are America’s most hated fans in a lot of respects for booing too much and criticizing too much, but no one says anything for the Atlanta fans’ reaction to Mike Vick’s injury?

Not to mention, there are questions about how ‘mature’ Vick is after he pointed to the scoreboard on his way off the field. It was his way of saying, ‘I’m leaving, but we’re still winning.’ We obviously understand it wasn’t the CLASSIEST thing to do, but really? He’s getting booed for getting injured? And you’re worried about him pointing at the scoreboard?

Most of the Atlanta fans were great, but we just weren’t happy that they can get away with that and Philadelphia is supposedly the worst fan base in the world.

Either way, don’t panic (as usual) after the Atlanta game. At lot of things didn’t go our way, but a lot of crazy things happened too.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

How Sweet it is...

Well another season, another playoff appearance for those Fightin’ Phils. Not really a big deal, its expected at this point, in fact, if we don’t get there, it is a disappointment. So, who really cares? WRONG… Think about how lucky this city is to have the Philadelphia Phillies for a second. About 5 seasons ago, we were just about the lowest of the low in terms of sports franchises in America, maybe in all of professional sports. We were the first sports franchise to lose 1,000 games and that just seemed to set the laughing hyenas off even more. Then, came this group. This young, talented, Phillies group that had the core makeup of a championship caliber team. We had to suffer little by little by taking one step back to then we took one BIG step forward.

The step forward…

It all started with Jimmy Rollins coming in as a kid in 2001 (his rookie year) and really starting the culture change in Philadelphia from a perennial loser to a playoff lock. Some of the steps back involved Jimmy enduring a lot of losing seasons where we were sellers at the trade deadline (Bobby Abreu for example) and not really seeming to make any progress. But as trade deadlines passed, and drafts kept going, the supporting talent finally began to surround Jimmy. A big part of this was some of the more risky moves that our GMs made, moves that paid off. In 2003, a little known UCLA talent came up from the minors to fill in for an ailing Placido Polanco and shined from the very beginning, leading off his career with a grand slam in his first major league start. Management made the tough call and eventually shipped out Polanco to the Tigers so that the young Bruin could continue to grow and develop. During the continuing growth of the team, management also started using the term “you gotta spend money to make money” in their philosophy. They signed Jim Thome in 2003 to a 6 year $85 million deal, which started to peak interests in Philadelphia with a fan base who was dying for a winner. He brought a lot of fans to the park, but when he got hurt in 2005, another piece came into play, you might even call him the BIG piece. Howard was called up to fill in for Jim in 2005 and he would never look back. Howard preceded to win NL ROY honors, and that left management with another tough decision. Of course, we all know they eventually made the right call by sending Thome to the White Sox and letting Ryan come out of his shell in 2006 where he won the NL MVP and adding another dynamic piece of the core to this Phillies lineup. Another decision that the Phillies’ brass made that paid off big was the Rule 5 selection of a young Hawaiian native from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Flyin’ Hawaiian, or Shane for short, burst on to the scene with his speed and athleticism and never looked back to Los Angeles as he became an East coast kid for good. He became one of the biggest components of this young core that was heading for great things. And finally, the major addition to this team came in 2006 when the young south paw, Cole Hamels, came into existence. From his first day in the majors, the fans knew he would be something special almost every day out. His fastball was electric and his changeup proved to be almost unhittable. Through all of this, there were the mainstays who had to deal with a lot of losing. The most important was Pat Burrell. He got booed plenty in his career, but stuck with it throughout his entire career here. He deserved the winning seasons almost more than any of the others for the awful times he went through for most of his career. All of these little pieces made up something special, something that would forever be talked about in the homes of Philadelphia.

Fast Forward a little…

Well, we all know how this goes. For the first time in a long time, after a historic collapse by the Mets, the Phillies made the playoffs in 2007 only to be swept out by the Colorado Rockies in the first round of the playoffs. This wouldn’t be the end of the boys of summer though, as the next year they would return, and return in the biggest way possible. This team finally had so much hype around it and so much excitement surrounding it, that something had to break through, and it did. The Phillies won the first professional sports championship for the City of Brotherly Love since the Sixers won the NBA championship in 1983. Hamels emerged as one of the most dominant young pitchers in baseball, Jimmy Rollins was of course one of the best SS in all of Major League Baseball, Howard was the biggest homerun hitter in the league, Shane was finding his grove and starting to become known as the best center fielder in baseball and Chase… what can be said about Chase except, he was quickly being known as one of the best all around players in the game.

Fast Forward to the present…

Another year, another trip to the postseason, business as usual

Its now 2011 and we are on our way to our fifth straight postseason appearance. We are one of the teams expected to make a run at the postseason every year. We have actual starts that WANT to come to play baseball for the Phillies and have in big ways: Doc Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and we also have a couple who have left: Jayson Werth, and Pat Burrell. Every year at the trade deadline, we are no longer sellers, but buyers. But through all of this, the major core has stayed and continued to change the winning culture in Philadelphia. The fans can’t get enough of this team as proof of our 208 straight sellouts (and going), and have made this team into one of the most profitable in professional sports. This year we have won 96 games already and are aiming our sites on our 3^rd EVER 100 win season. It hasn’t happened since ’77 and if we win 102 this year, it would be the most ever by a Phillies team. If you think about this group of core guys, it should feel good to know that they didn’t give up on this city or this team, even though no one would have blamed them if they did, after all, we were a “lost cause”. We continue to climb out of the hole to be one of the best in baseball, but considering where we came from, it is well deserved and its about time.

This team isn’t done yet, and in a couple months, there will be another chapter to write about in the great history of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Sunday's Recap

Site #1: Domination, Next Site: Hotlanta

As September rolls around, a couple things become certain in the City of Brotherly Love: 1. The leaves will start to fall , 2. The EAGLES will start to dominate at the Linc and 3. Merril Hoge will pick against the Eagles because he hates us. (We don’t care because he is a clueless commentator anyway). With that being said, lets take a look at what we learned about the Birds in their first full game of the “Super Bowl Season”.

1. We can be THAT good.

After all the hype that surrounded the Eagles on the opening week of the NFL season, there were a lot of doubters that thought the Eagles wouldn’t be ready to play. In fact, it even led one former great RB, Mr. Marshall Faulk, to claim that the Rams would put up a 40 spot on us. Through all of the problems to lead the game off and all the hype, we ended up being a much-improved St. Louis Rams team 31-13. On some drives, we looked like a well-oiled machine that could either pass for 15 yards or run for 20 on any given play at will. We also showed our explosive playmaking ability whether it was a big Desean Jackson catch in the first quarter, to a 49 yd TD run by Lesean McCoy to cap off the game in the 4^th quarter, we showed we have it all. After an awful opening play for the defense, they sured things up and looked pretty competent the rest of the way, even having some impressive three and outs of their own. Through all of the bad, we still had a blowout victory and showed flashes of greatness that can be expected a lot more in future months and games (hopefully).

2. Our defense needs a little help stopping the run.

As you could see by the Rams’ first offensive play, we definitely have some deficiencies stopping the run. On only two rushes, Steven Jackson compiled 56 yards rushing and 1 TD. This is good enough for some RBs in an entire game, but it only took Steven two rushes to put up that total. After that, good old Cadillac decided to put up a modest 91 rushing yards on 19 carries. Throw in a couple other players, and the Rams finished with a total of 26 carries for 154 yds, which is not the start that this team wanted. Now, just to put it into perspective, a Jim Washburn defensive line will at times look vulnerable because of all the up-field, backfield play that is expected of them, but that leaves our young linebacking corps to make the plays. If they’re not up for the task, then this will continue to get worse as the competition gets better. Our linebackers are fast and intelligent, but we need to get off the blocks, take better pursuit angles, and get more physical at the point of attack. Look for this to improve in the near future because Juan Castillo won’t stand for it, and will force everyone to improve as the season continues.

3. SHOW ME THE MONEY

"Yes, the rumors are true, I am the worst thing to happen to professional football since Mike Mamula."

This took place in a couple big ways in the opening game of the season. First and foremost, Desean Jackson needs more money. You can say all you want about how small he is, but the kid cannot flat out play football. With a severely underpaid salary worth about $560,000 the Eagles need to find a way to sign him in the next month or so. The more he plays this season, the higher the price tag goes up for his services and the more he can wait it out. Right now he deserves salary in the Miles Austin ($9.01 million) or Roddy White ($8.54 million) range, but if he keeps playing like that, he can get much closer to the area of ($16 million) range. Now, not exactly that close, but closer to it, as long as some dead beat overpriced agent doesn't mess things up again. Desean was dazzling and was even making the tough catches in tight spaces that he may have dropped in the past. He caught a mere 6 balls for 102 yards and one TD. The contract situation is fueling him to have a chip on his shoulder that could mean great things for the Eagles on their run to the Super Bowl. The second big way it showed in this game was through Michael Vick. He came out and showed everyone that he is focused, ready to play, and worth the $100 million dollars the Eagles paid him at the beginning of the year. There are just so many facets to this guys’ game, that he can make any team a winner at any time (which we hope is right now). He was only 14 of 32 for 187 yards, but he threw 2 TDs and was extremely efficient. He led a lot of long, tough drives and completed a lot of difficult passes in big spots. Aside from that, his legs looked like they were working yet again. He rushed for just under the century mark (98 yards) and he lost two of those yards on kneels at the end of the game. He looked electric and brought the term ”Greatest show on turf” back in a big way. Either way you look at it, both of these guys are worth the big money that they got/should get.

4. The offensive line showed a lot of potential

Everyone of the naysayers out there can say what they want about the offensive line looking confused or overmatched, but they actually did a pretty solid job. Having the rookie center Kelce in there was the reason that everything looked so bad to begin with, not to mention it was in a loud dome in a hostile environment. After everything got settled and the game got moving, the line did an outstanding job of keeping Mike clean and upright. He had plenty of time to survey the field, make the correct read, and then the correct throw. The only time they really got through was when the Rams brought too many to block, and that is on the QB to get the ball out of his hands quicker. Aside from the pass game, as you could tell by LeSean’s McCoy’s stats just how good they looked in the running game. With a typical Howard Mudd center, Kelce showed his athleticism by doing a lot of pulling and leading on outside runs. The offensive line showed a good base for what is to come, and say what you want, but they have a bright future moving forward.

5. Lesean McCoy is a SUPERSTAR

Not much needs to be said here, you all saw his amazing play he was a one man wrecking crew who can only be described as “Brian Westbrook-esque” (Trademark phrase of the continued success blog). His 15 carries for 122 yds and 1 TD spoke enough for themselves so all we can say is, enjoy:

6. The Defensive line is going to be GOOD

We went over this in the preseason, but in its first full game, the defensive line looked every bit as impressive as it had in the beginning of the preseason. Under Jim Washburn’s new scheme, it was like the Birds D-line unleashed their inner beast. They racked up 5 sacks, 11 QB hits and backup defensive end Daryl Tapp caused a fumble that OTHER backup defensive end Jacqua Parker picked up and returned for the score. Whether it was just getting upfield or making the big play in the backfield, there is not much more that can be said here. They are more aggressive than ever and Trent Cole finally has the talent around him to succeed no matter the game situation or opponent.

What should you take from all of this? The Eagles played a semi-sloppy, but completely successful first game. There were some dumb penalties and time clock management (as usual), but it was the first game of the year and there were shortened training camps. The talent is all there, and with some more on the job training, this team will continue to play better and improve in some areas that didn’t work for them previously. If this team can look sloppy and still win by 18 points, we cannot wait to see what happens with a little more practice. Go Birds!

continued success.