Ian Laperriere: Hockey player

NEWARK, N.J. — It happened so fast that no one reallyknew what happened until they saw the blood. Even then it took a second for it to register that, yes, it was blood from a man’s face that was dropping onto the ice at the Prudential Center on Thursday night as if it were being released from a squeezie bottle.

We saw the Devils’ player unleash a shot and Ian Laperriere go down to the ice to block it, but no one expected what we saw next.

Interestingly, one of the best ways to remove blood from an article of clothing or fabric is with an ice cube. According to one of those helpful hints web sites, the ice will melt through the fabric and take the blood with it. However, blood stains on the ice require a little more elbow grease to come out, and the trail Laperriere left on his way to the Flyers’ dressing room took a stoppage of the game and the ice crew to skate out with tools to chip it away.

Nevertheless, it only took 60-to-70 stitches over Laperriere’s eye to stop the bleeding. Who knew a piece of vulcanized rubber traveling approximately 100-mph could cause so much damage to a man’s face. Moreover, who knew a man would be so crazy enough to put his face in the way of something traveling so fast all because he felt it would be beneficial to his teammates? Or, after the stitches and the gut reaction that he had lost his right eye, why would the guy boast that he would do it again if needed?

“I do what I do and I don’t think twice about doing it,” Laperriere said. “The next game, if I get a chance to block a shot I’ll go down, because that’s what I do. The day I stop doing that, I’ll retire. Call me dumb, call me stupid, whatever. I block shots.”

Laperriere is a hockey player. There is no reason to delve more deeply into the reason why he endangered his life than that.

“He would have been back on the bench if they could have gotten him stitched up in time,” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said.

Laviolette is speaking with the knowledge of precedent since Laperriere, a hockey player’s role player who thrives on his work in killing penalties, took a puck to the face earlier this season that opened up his mouth as if it were a piñata. In that case he needed more than 100 stitches to close the wound, and since it occurred early in the game, Laperriere was back on the ice by the third period.

Hockey player.

Just don’t equate the term “hockey player,” with “stupid.” Though his eye was stitched back together, swollen and presumably full of anesthetic while blood stains and scratches from past battles were flecked on his face, the hockey player didn’t want to hear about the inanity of his act. In fact, still dressed in his uniform undergarments and soaked with sweat and blood, Laperriere asked a scribe who questioned his mental capacity if he wanted, “to take it outside?”

Then he relented that he will wear a face shield in the future so he doesn’t have to continue to go back home and have his kids see him with his face all chewed up. After all, he’s not going to stop blocking pucks with his face if needed.

Laperriere’s teammates just kind of shrug off his talk. Broken bones, stitches and pucks to the face are just an occupational hazard.

“You’ve got a good-looking guy like Lappy throwing his face in front of one there,” he said. “Sometimes blocking one with your face is what it takes. When guys see that on the bench, that only makes them want to push harder and sacrifice more.”

Said goalie Brian Boucher: “You don't win when guys aren't paying the price. Without him, we're not going to the second round. We'd be dead.”

Hockey players.

Presumably there will be some damage from this style of play in the future. Charming and astute, Laperriere understands this and told us after he the game that he wanted to be able to see his “kids with both eyes.” Similarly, 10 years prior in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Devils, Keith Primeau got into a fight with Randy McKay in his first game back after a concussion sent him to the hospital.

Primeau thought his team needed a spark, he said, noting that his actions were probably stupid in the grander sense.

“I thought our team needed a spark,” Primeau said at the time, noting that he envisioned Lisa sitting in the stands with her head in her hands as he brawled with McKay.

“I realize it may not have been the best thing to do. I’m a father and a husband, but at the same time I’m a hockey player… ”

Ultimately, Primeau’s career was cut short because of too many concussions, and it appears likely that Laperriere will have to undergo some sort of procedure on the orbital bone surrounding his eye. Isn’t that a bit of irony? It took approximately 70 stitches to close up the wound and it will probably just have to be reopened so a surgeon can fish around in there.

Hockey player.

Recycling old posts

Since it's Earth Day and I'm driving my 12-year-old car up the New Jersey Turnpike to Newark this afternoon, I thought it would be a good idea to recycle some old stories here.

Today is the sixth anniversary of the death of Pat Tillman, the NFL player who left two multi-million dollar contracts (maybe $10 million worth) because simply playing football wasn't enough. Shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, Tillman enlisted to become an Army Ranger where he served in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was in Afghanistan where Tillman was killed in a horrible mix-up by another U.S. soldier.

Since his death, Jon Krakauer wrote a book about Tillman's life and notables such as Gary Smith in Sports Illustrated described his death, non-traditional views, zeal for life and the cover-up of all of it by the government.

Note: I'm not sure if all the links below remain active since it's been three years since they were first posted, but if there is a little more insight that can come from it, that's good.

So with that here's this:

Remember His Name

March 24, 2007
In a shameless news dump late Friday evening with the aim at burying a story about a cover up, it was revealed that nine officers, including four generals, were responsible for mistakes in the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman and the way it was handled and disclosed. Tillman, as most know, left the Arizona Cardinals and a multi-million dollar contract to enlist in the U.S. Army shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. As an Army Ranger, Tillman served in Iraq where he was part of the invasion in 2003. Later, Tillman was sent to Afghanistan where he was killed by friendly fire in April of 2004. His death became a national controversy after the Pentagon covered up the real circumstances of his death to, as critics allege, out of a desire to protect their image and tamp down Tillman's anti-war views and other ideologies. So since the story was revealed so late on a Friday so that it would be hidden beneath the avalanche of coverage over Britney's bald head and the very latest up-to-date information regarding Anna Nicole Smith, we'll post a bunch of links to stories on Tillman, including his brother Kevin's essay written last November.

• An article about the struggle to define Tillman by both sides of the debate
• eight minute video highlighting Tillman's life
• Editorial: Facing Up to the Tragedy of War, New York Times, May 24, 2005
• Pat Tillman Foundation
• Tillman's sports page
• Cover up at the highest levels Huffington Post
• Links, Picture, and Biography
• True hero athlete — Day's theme: Challenge yourself. San Francisco Chronicle -- Gwen Knapp
• An Un-American Death. ESPN -- Mike Fish
• Remember His Name Sports Illustrated -- Gary Smith.
• The mysterious death of Pat Tillman

Remember His Name II

March 28, 2007
The death of Pat Tillman and the cover up and lies they gave is enough to drive one insane. It is such a travesty and miscarriage of justice that insanity is the only way to describe it. Heartbreaking, too. It's insane and heartbreaking. As Gary Smith wrote in Sports Illustrated, “…that's a man who lived a life as pure and died a death as muddy as any man ever to walk this rock…”

The mystery of the cover up of Tillman’s death is trying to figure out what they were afraid of. What was it about Tillman that made them burn his clothing, his diary and then lie to his family and the public? Was it that he couldn’t be labeled, ghettoized or slipped into a neat marketing package? Was it because he was intelligent? Was he a threat? What was it?

Tillman’s mother, Mary, appeared on ESPN radio with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann yesterday where she spoke candidly about the the latest story about what occurred to her son and she is seeking a Congressional hearing. Listen here and here. Meanwhile, here is a Google news search of all of the latest published stories regarding the Tillman case.

Mocking the draft

Today is the NFL Draft and I was asked if I was going work on a "mock draft." The quick answer is, "no."

Why should I mock the draft or mock the mock drafters? That's just mean. Besides, there are so many other things to mock. When it comes to mocking things, the draft doesn't rate that high.

Living in the past

Note: This was written last night, but I didn't think it would work as a regular column for sports fans after a hockey game. Rather than scrap it, consider it like the alternate cut or DVD extras.

Wouldn’t it be funny if George Santayana could neverremember where he put his car keys? I’m sure he had a big bowl or hook near the front door to stash his keys and wallet, but always ended up leaving them in his pockets or maybe he took them out of his pants and put them on the desk near his study and went crazy blaming everyone for taking them out of his bowl.

Maybe we should back up a step… the reason why that would be so funny is because Santayana is the author of one of the most famous and quoted sayings ever.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” 

Born in Spain and educated at Harvard, Santayana wasn’t known as a philosopher as much as he was for creating future clichés. Still, if he could have been classified as anything it would have been as an aestheticism. Santayana loved beautiful things so much that he was inspired to put his feelings into words. Lots and lots of words, too, judging from the breadth of his literary legacy.

The guy could write like you can pile up out-of-control credit debt.

Nevertheless, all anyone ever talks about in regard to Santayana is being condemned to repeat the past because of a faulty memory. That has to be like The Clash being known for “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” and “Rock the Casbah” amongst the mainstream listeners when the rest of their catalogue is so much more superior.

They made London Calling and Sandinista for crying out loud.

Yet if I had a nickel for every time I trotted out Santayana in a story about sports, I’d have a handful of nickels. Why not add another one to the pile right now and check with Brian Boucher about what he remembers from the time he was in a playoff series against New Jersey with a 3-1 series lead.

It’s unlikely he wants to repeat that week from nearly a decade ago.

“It’s hard not to think about it,” Boucher said. “Hopefully this time the script is written differently. Ten years is 10 years ago and certainly there are experiences you can learn from—good and bad. If there is one thing I know it’s the series isn’t over until it’s over.”

The Flyers have had two 3-1 series leads against the Devils in the last two times they met in the postseason, and they finished the deal in five games in the 2004 Eastern quarterfinals. However, when Boucher and teammate Simon Gagne were rookies, they came one win away from going to the Stanley Cup Finals.

That one win proved to be so elusive.

Boucher and the Flyers dropped three straight games, including two at the Wachovia Center, as the Devils carried that momentum to win the Cup. Two of those losses—games 6 and 7—were 2-1 defeats in which Boucher matched future Hall-of-Famer Martin Brodeur with a series filled with highlight-reel saves.

That was a long time ago, though.

“My career has been kind of crazy,” Boucher said. “I put all that behind me and I’m not worried about what went wrong or whatever. I’m happy to be back here and grateful to be back here, I signed back here with good vibes and the position I’m in right now is what I remembered and what I hoped for. I’m excited and I’m trying to enjoy the moment.”

So far it’s been perfectly enjoyable for Boucher and the Flyers. Better yet, there are some interesting superlatives to go with the latest playoff run. For instance, Boucher’s last playoff win heading into the series with the Devils was May 20, 2000, a drought that ended after a nine-year and 327 days span. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Boucher’s “streak” between Stanley Cup playoff victories is the third longest in NHL history behind Boston’s Jim “Sugar” Henry (1942-1952) and Sean Burke (1988-1998), whose wins, coincidentally, came for the Devils and Flyers.

Meanwhile, Boucher’s 14 career playoff wins is the third-most in franchise history. To put that into perspective, only Ron Hextall and Bernie Parent have more, which could mean that despite the gap in wins, Boucher could go down as one of the best playoff performers in team history.

Of course that sample size consists of just two years, and of one of those years Boucher is a little reluctant to open up about. Can’t really blame him—after all, how many folks like to talk about the things they did or thoughts they had when they were 23? Truth is, most people would prefer to forget what was going on when they were 23 and just starting out in a career. Boucher is no exception there, though in his line of work people are constantly reminding him of the things he did a long time ago.

“I was a wide-eyed kid and was just trying to enjoy the moment,” he said. “I’m still having fun with it.

“You can’t look ahead and you can’t look behind. You have to live in the moment, and that’s all I can do. Whatever is going to happen will happen.”

That’s usually how it works, though that's probably not what Santayana was talking about. But for the point of argument, let's just see how Boucher's playoffs play out before his legacy is defined. Twice he's been in a playoff series against New Jersey with a 3-1 lead...

He still needs that one elusive win.

PODCAST EPISODE NO. 9

It’s time for the playoffs, which means we have to beready to move at a moment’s notice. Oh sure, the league office sets up a schedule so we know where we have to go and when, but in the playoffs nothing is a given. Just because something is on the schedule it doesn’t mean it’s going to be played.

For instance, a bunch of us spent the last two autumns unsure of which city we would be in the next day. It could have been Philadelphia, Tampa, Los Angeles or somewhere else. Fortunately, the Phillies cooperated with us and ended the playoff rounds in a timely manner. Better yet, thanks to Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth, we even got to spend an extra day in Los Angeles and the sunshine instead of cold and snowy Denver.

We took the act on the road on Tuesday for Episode No. 9 of the Podcast of Awesomeness like we were a rock band on tour. So who better to have in for the show on the road than a guy who tallies more miles and hits more cities in more countries than anyone we know…

Oh yes, we had Chris Wilson back.

Chris and his band mates just finished a tour of the United States in which they hit 25 cities in 30 days. In one stretch they went from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia then back to D.C. all in the name of rockin’. In addition to all those shows, the band appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s show, did a bit for The Onion’s A.V. Club in Chicago, jumped in on a number of radio shows all while traveling in a sprinter van.

And get this, starting on May 4, Chris and the gang hits six countries for 12 dates in 20 days before tearing through Canada and New England.

Think of all that laundry.

Anyway, if you’re planning on taking some trips this summer, check the band’s schedule and see if you cross paths. Better yet, here about some of the first part of the tour—as well as about the Flyers’ playoffs run—here:

PODCAST AWESOME

A few of us writing folks have a few to hit the road, too. In fact, Sarah Baicker and I will go to Newark, N.J. this Thursday to check out Game 5 of the Flyers-Devils series. Game 6, if needed, will be back here on Sunday.

Game 7… we’ll worry about that if it’s necessary.

We are on Facebook

check us out on iTunes, too.

That's just the way it happened

In her book about the human brain called, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: TheSurprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind, author Barbara Strauch writes that most folks actually “get smarter”[1] as they age.

“As we age, certain parts of our memory remain robust. For instance, our autobiographical stuff ... stays with us,” Strauch told Terry Gross during a recent episode of NPR’s Fresh Air. “Other things, like how to ride a bike, how to swing a tennis racket — habits — do not go away.”

However, Strauch wrote, short-term memory tends to wane. For instance, if one puts something in the oven before going off to work on the computer, it’s probably a good idea to set an alarm or write a reminder. That’s the natural part of aging, Strauch wrote.

If Strauch were to hang around the Phillies with the managers over the past decade, the findings in her book might have turned out differently. After all, both Larry Bowa and Charlie Manuel have had the uncanny ability to remember sequences of ballgames as if they were happening directly in front of them. But for actual events that happened to them during their careers as players and managers, well, let’s just say they could get misquoted in their autobiographies.

That’s no knock on either Bowa or Charlie. In fact, the way those guys remember their playing days is kind of humorous. Better yet, it seems as if neither of the managers quite understands that there is this thing called the Internet where information can be retrieved in seconds. Moreover, a short little trip over to Baseball-Reference.com can unfold nearly every single pitch those guys saw in their careers.

In his first big-league plate appearance on April 7, 1970 at Connie Mack Stadium, Bowa popped up to Don Kessinger at short against Fergie Jenkins. On April 8, 1969 in Kansas City, Charlie made his debut as a pinch hitter for Ron Perranoski in the 12^th inning. Moe Drabowsky got him to ground out to Jerry Adair at second base in a game where the Royals beat the Twins, 4-3.

See how detailed and easy to find that was?

Oh, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story because sometimes it seems that old, wizened baseball men remember things just a little bit differently than the way it actually occurred. Take Bowa (yes, please take him)… listening to the way he talked about the game one would think that if he wasn’t bouncing Baltimore chop singles into the hard and unforgiving Veterans Stadium fake turf, he was fouling off pitches and getting on base with incredible patience. The truth is much different from the way it was remembered since Bowa posted a career on-base percentage of .300 and never walked more than 39 times in a season once in his 16 seasons.

Perhaps Bowa’s few critiques of Jimmy Rollins’ acumen as a leadoff man was based on experience since the old-time Phillie got on base at a .287 clip during his career when leading off and .299 when hitting second. Both figures are so far below the league norm that it’s as if they were dropped down into a well.

The best non-memory from Bowa, though, was not from the way he played. It was whom he played with. A favorite came during a series against the Orioles when Gary Matthews Jr. was tearing up the Phillies with big hit after a big hit. So when questions about Matthews led to the inevitable one about Big Sarge and whether or not Bowa played with the Phillies’ fun-time broadcaster, the answer was, “No, I never played with him.”

That seemed like a curious thing so we went and looked it up to find that not only did Bowa play on the same team with Gary Matthews Sr. in Philadelphia, but also they played together for the Cubs, too.

Any one that has ever met Sarge knows he’s hard to forget. Shoot, Sarge even knows the President!

Charlie’s mis-memories aren’t as obvious as the Bowa-Sarge one, but there are many more of them. The reason for that isn’t so much that Charlie has a bad memory, it’s that he just likes to tell stories and talk baseball. He’s great at it and anyone who has ever spent just a little bit of time with ol’ Charlie comes away with a great story or memory.  

Some call Charlie the Casey Stengel of the modern era, which given his perceived nervousness in front of large audiences and TV cameras, is a good comparison. Take away the cameras and put Charlie on the dugout bench three hours before the first pitch and he’s more like Mark Twain of the Shenandoah Valley. And like Mark Twain, once Charlie gets going he doesn’t stop.

The stories from his days playing in Japan, playing for Billy Martin, growing up in Virginia and mingling with Presidents are the best. So too are the stories about his travels across the world. Just like with Chico Esquela, baseball has been very, very good to Chuck. As a result, it’s been pretty good for some of us, too. It doesn’t really matter if the stories are 100 percent accurate because they are so good.

And aren’t the stories the best part of it?

Anyway, Charlie’s latest mis-memory came earlier this year when he was asked about Raul Ibanez’s rough spring and early slump. The manager said he wasn’t worried about Ibanez finding his stroke because he remembered the time his old teammate Harmon Killebrew couldn’t buy a hit during spring training but went out and hit three home runs on opening day on his way to clubbing 49 during the season to get the AL MVP Award.

Sure, Killebrew hit 49 homers in 1969 and was the MVP. However, he didn’t hit three homers on opening day. Instead, Killebrew had one three-homer game in his entire career and that came four years before Chuck even cracked a big league roster.

Another good one was when he told us about the time he broke up a no-hitter against Catfish Hunter, which isn’t completely inaccurate. The thing is, no one was on no-hitter watch because Manuel’s hit came when he led off the fifth with a single in a game in Oakland on April 16, 1972. Technically, yes, Chuck broke up the no-hitter. He might have been the only one to notice it.

Regardless, the brain is mysterious thing and the way one person remembers an event can be completely different from the next guy. Everyone is like Bowa and Charlie to some degree, because if you get some time and distance away from even a little league game, the circumstances may have played out more dramatically.

Hell, we all probably broke up a few no-hitters…though if we played on two different teams with Sarge we’d easily remember it.

---

[1] My term, not hers.

Here we go again

So here we go again. Off into the annual rite of the spring and summer where the Philadelphia 76ers attempt to find a new coach. By this point we’re all used to how it works since the team has had seven coaches — seven! — in the past eight years.

Larry Brown turned in six seasons, which, excluding Billy Cunningham’s seven-year run, is the longest tenure since the team moved to Philadelphia from Syracuse. Since then the Sixers have averaged a coach a year, had two seasons in which they had two coaches and two other one-and-done tenures after Eddie Jordan’s quick departure.

In fact, hang around the Wachovia Center on game day and you can see a whole bunch of former head coaches for the Sixers working for the team in one capacity or another. Hell, two of them (Jim Lynam and Randy Ayers) served as assistant coaches, while Tony DiLeo (senior vice president and assistant general manager) and Chris Ford (scout) aren’t too tough to find at a ballgame.

Regardless, if a team has eight coaches in eight years, chances are those guys aren’t the real problem. Maybe the guys selecting the players and the coaches have been victims of bad luck, advice or basketball theories. Either way, Philadelphia is a good place for a coach to start and end a career in a relatively short time.

Aside from that, it’s strange that anyone would want the job after what has occurred since Brown left. Certainly there will be a bunch of guys climbing over each other to get the gig simply because there aren’t too many NBA head coaching jobs out there, but really… what a mess. Baring some sort of miraculous infusion of talent/injection into the current players on the roster, or maybe the free-agent signing (for cheap) of the guy from the movie, Flubber, the Sixers aren’t going to be very good next year, either.

But if there is an interesting caveat, it’s this: Samuel Dalembert will play for his eighth coach. If Dalembert plays for the 76ers next season, it will be nine seasons in the NBA with eight different coaches all for just one team.

How does that happen?

“I tell my friends around the league about it and they laugh at me,” Dalembert told reporters on Thursday.

Then again it could come full circle for Dalembert. Though the Sixers deny all the chatter and rumors, there is a report out there that Brown has been given permission by his boss in Charlotte, Michael Jordan, to talk to the Sixers about running things. Really though, is Larry Brown the answer?

Sure, the Sixers have had just one season above .500 since Brown left, but unless he has cap room and/or a trade partner to take some big contracts off his hands, the team is in a perfect spot to get young and grow. And as we know, youthful, inexperienced ballplayers suffer through a lot of growing pains. Knowing Brown’s track record with young players and for not sticking around in one place for too long, there are better choices.

In other words, a young, up-and-coming coach who is given enough time and patience to push the team in the proverbial right direction is the way to go. Forget about recycling a familiar name, or getting into the cronyism that helped Jordan land the job in the first place—the Sixers really need to think unconventionally.

And then they need to step back and give the guy a chance.

Why not call up Brad Stevens, the 33-year-old coach who took Butler to the NCAA Championship a couple of weeks ago? He probably won’t take the gig, but at least it shows original thought for a change.

Yeah, we could go on and on with names of young and promising coaches in basketball, but it won’t do anything to change the fact that the NBA may as well be a European soccer league the way Philadelphians care about it. Just think about all the kids growing up following every team but the one in their home town.

Seven coaches in eight years makes it tough for anyone to climb on board.

PODCAST EPISODE NO. 8

One of the themes that is repeated often on this site isthe notion that some folks should not have to follow others. For instance, during one tour in the 1960s, The Monkees hired Jimi Hendrix to open for them and, famously, Jimi refused to open for The Who at Monterrey.

Needless to say, fans of The Monkees hated Jimi. Obviously, they weren’t ready for that yet.

Here at The Podcast of Awesomeness, we actually learn from history. We know we better than to go on after Hendrix, especially when we know he’s going to set his guitar on fire and smash it into a Marshall stack.

In this scenario my old friend Beth Shuba is our Jimi Hendrix. We knew we didn’t have the chops to follow her sordid tale about soccer and the female anatomy so we simply went underground for a week. We couldn’t top it, so we just let it go…

Actually, that’s not true. Donovan McNabb got traded and a one-day trip to Washington ended up lasting nearly a week. Moreover, while in D.C. I ran into frequent PoA guest, Chris Wilson, who was there on the tail end of the first leg of the Brutalist Bricks tour with his band Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. The plan to record the show back in Philadelphia at noon was postponed when Chris and I went searching for an all night bingo parlor.

Luck was not on our side since we didn't get to play bingo, but at least we found a place to help us stay hydrated.

Nevertheless, a week on the shelf still hasn’t been enough to erase Beth’s harrowing tale from our memory banks. It’s still burned in there and likely will be for the rest of our lives. Beth is like a rash in that sense.

We forged ahead anyway and acquitted ourselves reasonably well. At least that’s the way it sounded in the moment as we recorded the show. Why don’t you listen for yourself?

Download Awesome No. 8

We must mention that the eighth episode was the very last one we recorded in the office/studio on the penthouse level in the Wachovia Center of the lonely floor we called home for the past couple of years. It seems as if our little space has been earmarked for better use, so we’re homeless.

In other words, if someone has a space we can use for an hour or so in order to record our little dog-and-pony show, send a shout. We’ll be right over.

We are on Facebook

check us out on iTunes, too.

The numbers behind the numbers (or something)

So the other day at the Phillies' home opener we were luckyenough to be graced with the presence of Kevin Roberts, the former baseball writer and columnist for the Camden Courier Post before the folks running the paper lost their minds and started cutting jobs. Anyway, Kevin only gets to do some baseball writing on a freelance basis so if you happen to run into a story with his byline on it, savor it. They don't appear as much as they should.

Though he's not hanging around the ballpark the way he used to, the mind of the ol' ball scribe is tough to reprogram. Writing about baseball on a daily basis for a number of years is not unlike being trapped on a deserted island after the plane went down. If surviving the crash and swimming through shark-invested waters to safety isn't harrowing enough, one then has to live closely with the other scribes, TV boobs, ballplayers, and coaches. You know, the dregs of society.

Though two seasons removed from steady baseball writing, Kevin's mind is still sharp. Better yet, because he is outside of the daily bubble, he has a more well rounded perspective. With that in mind, somehow the topic of Placido Polanco and his intangibles arose and Kevin proceeded to make my brain hurt.

If I were specify one player as a favorite on the Phillies, it would be Placido Polanco. It really isn't for any other reason than Polanco plays baseball by utilizing one of Charlie Manuel's great creedos to the hilt…

Know thyself.

If Polanco were a basketball player he would have been like Dennis Johnson. He would have guarded the opposition’s best player, run the point as steady as a clock, and if needed, he could drop 30. You know… all those clichés that go with one of those workhorse ballplayers that media types love to shower with all those images. That's idea of Dennis Johnson we have all these years removed from the end of the career, but the truth was he rarely scored 30 and let any other guard, he got posted up by Magic Johnson. It's the same thing with Polanco, too.

Hell, at this point it’s as if Polanco shows up to the ballpark every day with a hard hat and one of those lunch pails Jethro had in The Beverly Hillbillies.

“Peskiosity” or “scrappitude,” as Kevin called it.

“There is no metric to measure what Polanco does for a team,” I told Kevin. Actually, that might not be an exact quote, but it sounds like something I said before I launched into something about moving runners or whatever else it is guys like me put out there.

“Really?” Kevin probably said. “You’re going the hit-behind-the-runners route? How about the taking-pitches bit, too?”

Kevin is smart so his response was probably witty and pithy. Kind of like the time he punched me for ordering him a 4 a.m. wakeup call even though we were all up hanging out in his hotel room until about 3 a.m. after Game 1 of the ’08 World Series as a sort of baseball scribe version of the Algonquin Roundtable. I didn’t have to shout, “Ow! What was that for!?” when he delivered the hard right to my brachial plexus. I knew what it was for and couldn’t have come up with a better retort if I surveyed everyone in the ballpark. At least Kevin hit me... all John Gonzalez did was write about how he wanted to punch me.

What a pansy!

But during Monday's outing at the opener, the punch was delivered right between the eyes and it came in the guise of statistics. As if that wasn’t enough, Kevin retreated to the press box to compose a well-thought out argument in 20 seconds and e-mailed me. It was kind of like he was showing me just how smart he was.

Or how dumb I am.

So you think Polanco is scrappy and does all those little things that go unnoticed? Guess what? He’s not exactly the most patient hitter at the plate. For instance, Polanco is hitting .484 through the first week of games and has an on-base percentage of .500, but do you know how many of those times on base have come via a walk?

Try one.

In fact, Polanco walks less than Jimmy Rollins. Measured through 162 games, Polanco averages 35 walks for his career. In 2003 he set his career-high in walks when he got 42 of them. Better yet, throughout his career, the league average for on-base percentage is .340.

Polanco’s career on-base percentage? Try .349.

Of course Polanco strikes out approximately as much as he walks, which is where his brilliance lies. That’s where he shows what happens when a hitter does the most basic thing he can do by simply putting the ball in play.

But when Polanco gets up there, don’t blink—he’s not going to be long. Polanco is one of those see-ball, hit-ball dudes averaging 3.53 pitches per plate appearance when the league average is 3.75. For his career that figure is an impatient 3.37, as Kevin pointed out.

His e-mail read:

This why, when people say, “Stats -- pfft. I watch the games,” It means they are bleeping up. If you watch Polanco every day, because he's little and he's cute, you think he's a scrappy little bugger and the synapses in your brain fire away and tell you that scrappy little buggers foul off pitches and work the count. So you assume that Placido Polanco really knows how to work pitchers ... and right there, you bleeped it up.

What did I tell you about Kevin? He’s smart, right? Moreover, there’s probably an entire jag about stats and baseball and that tired, old argument about crusty baseball men not knowing a thing that short pop up here. But you know what… I’m not going to do it.

OK, here it goes:

I don’t consider myself a stats guy because once we move past basic math, my head starts to hurt and a tiny bit of drool starts to form on the corners of my mouth. I appreciate the innovation and the smart way of looking at the game the numbers presents. However, I’m trotting out the crusty cliché about knowing what my eyes tell me. I can see Polanco hit the ball behind the runner and get on base. I can also look at the box score and see no numbers beneath the strikeout column, which means when he got up there it was all action. The action is the best part.

But I don’t know how to prove that it’s good. I just know it is and maybe that’s why I like it so much.

Or something like that.

How bad does the (injury) bug bite?

When the Phillies showed up for spring training two months ago, it was difficult to imagine the team not winning the NL East for a fourth season in a row. With the core group heading into its athletic and physiological prime and the addition of Roy Halladay to the top of the rotation, the over/under on wins was placed at 95 by the swells in Vegas.

The Phillies will hit unlike no other Phillies team ever and they have a horse that has piled up at least 220 innings the past four years.

Truth is, things are so rosy with the Phillies as its hitters have bludgeoned the Nationals and Astros in the first seven games, that no one wants to jinx anything. Come on… why bring up something like the potential for injuries and be a mush? Why do that when the Phillies have used the schedule to their advantage in order to rush out to the best record in baseball?

Injuries are a tricky thing because no one in sports ever knows how the body is going to respond. Your calf injury recovers at a different rate than someone like Jimmy Rollins. See, as a shortstop whose speed and quickness is what helped get him to the big leagues in the first place, the calf muscle is that much more important. That’s the muscle that is the engine for Rollins. A balky calf means Rollins doesn’t go from first to third when Placido Polanco laces one to right field or goes from first to home when Chase Utley bangs one into the gap.

And without Rollins at the top of the batting order the entire dynamic of the offense gets knocked off kilter a bit.

Oh sure, even if it turns out that Rollins has a Grade 2 sprain of his calf like a source told CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury on Monday and has to serve some time on the disabled list, the Phillies still will win the NL East. The same goes for Jayson Werth, who likely will miss a game or two with a sore hip that “grabbed” him during Monday’s victory over lowly Washington.

Thanks to some wise off-season acquisitions, the Phillies have Juan Castro to play short if Rollins goes out for a bit instead of Eric Bruntlett. The Phils also have Ben Francisco, Greg Dobbs or Ross Gload to play the outfield for Werth if he needs a few games off.

Sure, losing those players will sting a bit, but they only mask the real concern that could cause the 2010 season to blow up like one of those trick cigars in the cartoons.

The concern: what if Brad Lidge doesn’t get it back this year?

No, I’m no doctor and chances are I would have flunked out of medical school within a week of attending a single class. However, a late March cortisone shot into his sore right arm mixed with two rehab outings at Single-A in which he has allowed five runs, five hits, a walk and no strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings is attention grabbing.

Yes, Lidge is coming off yet another surgery—his third since joining the Phillies before the 2008 season—and it probably will take a bit for him to get back his strength. But what happens if he doesn’t get it back? Or let’s say he gets it back and turns in another year like he did in ’09 when he saved 31 games, but allowed 51 runs in 58 2/3 innings?

Then what?

Ryan Madson, the Phillies’ acting closer, says there are no worries on his end. In fact, he pointed out after getting his second save of the year on Monday, talk of a thin bullpen is an annual rite of spring around these parts.

If there is ever one thing guys like me like to pick at as if it’s a mealy old scab, it’s the Phils’ bullpen depth. Madson has noticed.

“Every year I've been here, it’s about the bullpen,” he said. “It’s our weakest link. You're going to have something that’s not like the lineup we've got.”

The thing about injuries is they give guys like Madson a chance. When they hear the chatter or the put-on panic about the team’s chances when a key player goes down it only serves to motivate. Besides, Madson says, the bullpen was another one of those areas where a couple of off-season acquisitions just might pan out. Veteran Jose Contreras is making the transition from starter to reliever and just might have the stuff to close out games if needed. Rule 5 guy Dave Herndon has been impressive in limited action.

So far this season the Phils’ relievers have allowed just three runs with 18 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings. That comes to a 1.33 ERA, which is second-best in the Majors.

“We’ve got plenty of arms out there that have been throwing the ball really well,” Madson said. “It will be nice when they get back, but for now, we've got good arms out there. We’re happy.”

There’s no reason not to be. Not yet, anyway. The Phillies have worked over the lowly Nats and Astros, but that will change soon when they get deeper into the schedule.

That’s when we find out just how costly those aches and pains really are.

Union help prove soccer's viability in U.S.

It’s not something anyone would expect to hear about the sports fans in Philadelphia, but coming from Danny Califf, it’s a high compliment. After all, Califf, the captain of the Philadelphia Union, was not talking about the city’s football or baseball fans, which have a long and infamous reputation. 

No, this was deep. This was significant.

“It was very European,” Califf said, dropping the ultimate compliment of respect on his new hometown fans.

"It's passion," he added. "Passion for the game. It's all about passion."

Indeed, just two games into their existence and following the hometown debut in a “rented” stadium, the Philadelphia Union made such an impression on Califf and his teammates that it was if the home of the football Eagles had been transformed into Nou Camp in Spain or Stamford Bridge in England. With the Sons of Ben leading the charge in the north end stands, nearly 35,000 soccer fans were in full voice for more than 90 minutes.

Yeah, that’s right. Soccer fans. In Philadelphia.

Say what you want about the sport, its fans or its popularity in the United States. Go ahead and say it. Now prepared to be wrong, because you are. Soccer is very much a popular sport in America and in Philadelphia. In fact, MLS commissioner Don Garber told reporters just that at Lincoln Financial Field during the debut home match for the Union. Better yet, Garber said, Philadelphia had exceeded the expectations the league had for the first-year expansion team already.

Just two games into its existence.

“Without the Sons of Ben this team doesn’t get launched,” Garber said.

That’s a pretty significant statement, too, because no one ever hears Bud Selig or Roger Goodell say a team was placed in a city because its fans were really into the sport and the team. Instead, those guys talk about bottom-line type things, market share and economic development. The MLS understands its niche and its fans. More importantly, the league isn’t about to insult the intelligence of the fans.

So don’t expect the MLS to attempt to wedge its way into the American sports gumbo with football, baseball, basketball and NASCAR. That’s just not going to happen. Don’t expect it to fight with other sports to get a piece of the cash flowing from TV deals either with weekly broadcast games of the week in order to be successful. That’s because American soccer has something much more important than anything that can be storyboarded into a flashy gimmick like the major four sports have…

Soccer chooses to go small. It’s just smarter that way.

Sure, they could have sold more tickets for the Union’s opener at the Linc on Saturday, but 35,000 was where it was capped. The new stadium expected to open next month in Chester will hold just 18,500 fans for soccer built with the sport in mind. That’s the best way to build to strength of the league, the commissioner says, by focusing on its base.

“We think you need a soccer-specific stadium,” Garber said, citing the desire to create an intimate atmosphere at the games with a scarcity of tickets, too. Perhaps if there aren’t as many tickets to be found, more people will want them?

More importantly, soccer has the really small ones—the kids.

Yes, the sport that is ignored by the American viewing public could very well be the most popular sport there is. Better yet, since the 1970s, when Pele, the great Brazilian soccer star came to America to play for the New York Cosmos in the old NASL, kids have been swarming to the fields only to leave the game behind for baseball, football and basketball when they reached adolescence.

But that’s not likely to be the case in the future. With fewer athletic scholarships trickling around, and the physical requirements that other sports carry to simply get a kid noticed, more and more specialization is the rage. Kids are finding their niche at an earlier age and painstakingly honing their craft.

Of course they burn out quicker, and the single-minded focus on one thing isn’t exactly mentally or physically healthy or even the best way to go about getting little Johnny that big scholarship to State U., but that’s a different argument for another day. The point is kids aren’t giving up on soccer for the glamour sports anymore.

Here’s a simple experiment to try out:

Drive by any suburban (and maybe even urban) playground, school athletic complex or grassy field. Once you get there, look for the kids and note what sport they’re playing. Nope, it isn’t hockey or football or even the great American Pastime. It’s soccer.

And it just isn’t at one school or the one little field around the corner. It’s everywhere. And they have sponsorships, too, from the giants like Nike and adidas as well as the local restaurants and car dealerships. Hey, that’s where the kids are. Get ‘em while they’re young.

Certainly, this isn’t anything new. Soccer has always been one of the first participatory sports that kids play just because it’s such a simple sport to learn. All you need is a ball, a net at both ends of a field and some kids to run around. That’s it. In fact, ask anyone from the age of 40 or younger what the first team sport they played as a child was and chances is it was soccer. If it wasn’t the first sport then it was definitely the second one.

Oh, but there’s more. Where I live, within spitting distance from Franklin & Marshall College’s athletic fields, soccer rules. Those fields, which are approximately a mile-and-a-half wide and a half-mile deep, and tucked between a residential neighborhood and a copse of woods, could be the most popular spot on campus. Or at least, the most well visited spot for the community-minded college.

A few years ago, those fields used to hold five soccer pitches, seven baseball diamonds, and a rugby field. There was always a flurry of activity on the weekends with kids and the parents filling up the neighborhood waiting for the chance that team after team could jump on one of the fields for soccer game.

But over time, it seemed as if the fields had become too quaint or maybe it was time to cut down a few trees to expand the grass back to the Conestoga Creek that winds its way through the neighborhood. There were just too many teams and too many kids standing around and not playing. Frustration grew and people started going elsewhere to play.

That is until Franklin & Marshall came up with a better plan.

It got rid of most of the baseball fields.

Now the kids play soccer all year round. Even in the summertime, camps of boys and girls teem from morning to dusk, tearing through the grass doing drill after drill while the summer days just wile away.

Somewhere else they’re playing baseball.

Here's the pitch

We all knew about Giorgio Chinaglia, though I’m not sureif it was because he played for the New York Cosmos, or if he may have been the best player in the world, or if it was because he was on a poster that could be seen (and purchased) in any sporting goods store.

There was Doc, George Gervin sitting on blocks of ice, Darrell “Dr. Dunkenstein” Griffith, and Giorgio.

Of course the Cosmos also had Pelé, the greatest player ever, for a few seasons and attracted a diverse New York glitterati fandom, like Mick Jagger, Stephen Speilberg and Henry Kissinger. It wasn’t just Pelé they all came to see, either. Of course he was the main attraction since we weren’t used to superstars going by just one name in those days — be they Brazilian or not — but the Cosmos were very much like the Yankees.

But Chinaglia was a scoring machine and that’s why he was on a poster. In 213 career games with the Cosmos, Giorgio scored 193 goals. Add in the playoffs and he tallied 242 goals in 254 games.

That’s ridiculous.

So when the Cosmos came to The District to play our Washington Diplomats in a key regular-season NASL matchup in 1980 at RFK Stadium, we had to be there. Calendars were marked, parents were begged, and friends were bragged to about going to the game to see the Cosmos play the Dips.

Now we all know what it’s like when the Yankees or Red Sox show up in another city (or the Phillies go to DC to play the Nats). There’s a tendency for the bandwagon-jumpers and the displaced natives to show up and make a lot of noise in the foreign ballpark. That was always the way for the Yankees since they have always been equally despised as much as beloved.

Needless to say it was a bit different for the burgeoning Cosmos of the NASL. First of all, the league eventually went out of business three seasons later. The reasons for that are myriad, of course, but mostly come down to the fact that it was soccer and the United States. It also was a league filled with guys with funny names and even funnier haircuts and mustaches. That had to count against it, too.

However, the Cosmos were so loaded with talent that no one hated them as much as they were impressed. It wasn’t quite the Globetrotters vs. the Generals when the Cosmos played other teams, but it was close.

Aside from being really good, the Cosmos were the only other team from which we could name the players. Oh sure, we knew all the Diplomats and followed the games very closely. Plus, the Dips did an excellent job of promoting the team to us kids. Just by going to a game we were rewarded with high quality balls and jerseys that we used until they wore out. In fact, the other night in The District I was talking to a guy my age who remembers kicking around a ball while wearing the shirt he got at a Dips game[1].

Yes, we loved the Dips and the NASL brand of soccer. But damn if we weren’t impressed by the Cosmos.

 Needless to say, we couldn’t take our eyes off of Giorgio when he dashed across the turf at RFK that sunny Sunday afternoon in 1980. In fact, he scored that day and the Cosmos won the game. But that wasn’t before an Englishman named Alan Green stole the show.

Green scored two goals for the Dips during the second half to tie the game and whip the old football stadium into a frenzy. Better yet, Green made a ton of fans that day and made a lot of us think that he was as tenacious as Giorgio Chinaglia. That may not have been the case, but thanks to Green we got to stay at RFK for overtime and then a game-deciding shootout, where the Cosmos finally prevailed.

Still, what a perfect day. Kids never want the game to end no matter what, and the fact that the Dips and Cosmos put on a big show that day made it even better. The truth is I went to a bunch of Dips games that year and watched even more on TV (including one from the Vet against the Philadelphia Fury), but the one I remember most vividly was that game where Alan Green and Giorgio Chinaglia got busy.

Maybe the reason why I remember it is because it was the very last pro soccer game I had ever attended… until today. This little story is being written from Lincoln Financial Field where the latest team from Washington (and latest version of the Cosmos?), D.C. United, will play in the home debut for the Philadelphia United of the MLS. The sporting landscape has changed incredibly since 1979 and the NASL was trying to make it with an aging Pelé as the drawing card. Soccer in the U.S. can survive as long as it remains in its niche. Actually, it very well might get better ratings nationally than the NHL.

But yes, it has to know its place.

As for Giorgio Chinaglia, last we heard he had gained his U.S. citizenship and was wanted in Italy on extortion and laundering charges linked to shares of the Lazio soccer team.

Alan Green also became a U.S. citizen and played for the national team for a game in 1984, and Pelé is still Pelé.

Soccer, of course, is doing quite well, too. The sport in this country is even getting its own stadiums, too, and those things are much more difficult to tear down than an entire league .

---

[1] Impressively, I decorated my Diplomats jersey with an authentic patch from the English football club, Arsenal. It was a gift from friends who lived in England and I still wish I had the patch and the shirt… only in my size now.

Piling on (and then some)

WASHINGTON—Initially I came down here to The District to write about baseball, but that all kind of took a back seat as soon as I exited 295 and drove over the bridge crossing the Anacostia. Since then it’s been pretty much all Donovan all the time.

But that’s over now. We’ll pick it back up next September when the Redskins and Eagles face off. It’s sure to be a mind-numbingly tiresome huge deal even though Donovan says playing against the Eagles won’t be any different than going against the Giants or Cowboys.

Yeah, right.

So baseball… the Phillies opened up the season on Monday at Nationals Park and it went quite well. Roy Halladay pitched well and Placido Polanco hit a grand slam and got six RBIs in the 11-1 victory. The President of the United States also showed up, which no matter how many times you see it is always cool.

All in all it was a pretty good day.

But to be fair, it was the Nationals, a team that has a pretty decent lineup but paper-thin pitching. With 18 games a season against Washington, the Phillies should do quite well in padding their stats.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t so much the number of runs the Phillies scored in Monday’s opener as it was the way they were scored. They came like a bolt of lightning and in all sorts of unique ways. Sure, there were two homers that accounted for six of the runs (Ryan Howard hit a two-run BOMB in the five-run fourth), but before Polanco’s slam put the cherry on top there was plenty of manufacturing out there.

For instance, the Phillies scored runs on a sacrifice fly, and a swinging bunt from Halladay. They drew walks and made the Nats pay for them, got a RBI triple from Jimmy Rollins, and even scored a pair of runs on the old-fashioned single with a man on base.

Sure, the Phillies stranded 11 runners, but a 5-for-14 with runners in scoring position is nothing to scoff at.

“Philly is a tough team to stop once they get the momentum,” said losing pitcher John Lannan of his run-in with the hitters, Monday. “The momentum kept on going, and I couldn't stop it.”

Momentum, as grizzly old baseball guys like to say, is only as good as the next day’s pitcher. For the Phillies that is Cole Hamels on Wednesday night and Kyle Kendrick on Thursday afternoon. Joe Blanton, the regular No. 3 man, is on the DL and 47-year old Jamie Moyer, who spent the off-season having surgery, is the fifth guy.

Lefty J.A. Happ is wedged between Kendrick and Moyer and is starting his second full season in the Majors. Who knows if the hitters have figured him out yet?

Then there is a team’s bullpen that needs some reinforcements with Brad Lidge and J.C. Romero on the shelf. Yes, there are some question marks.

Still, with 18 games scheduled against the Nats and 34 starts penciled in for Halladay, the Phillies have no excuses if they don’t win the NL East for a fourth straight season. In fact, we’re going to ahead and predict that right now.

Here’s how it will shake out without any annoying analysis from some know-it-all.

NL East
Phillies
Braves
Marlins
Mets
Nationals

NL Central
Cardinals
Brewers
Cubs
Reds
Astros
Pirates

NL West
Rockies
Giants
Diamondbacks
Dodgers
Padres

NLDS
Phillies beat Rockies
Cardinals beat Braves

NLCS
Phillies beat Cardinals

MVP: Pedro Martinez

We’ll just leave it at that for the time being. Sure, there’s an American League and all, but it takes way too long to watch those games. It’s a little ridiculous how long it takes those games to complete. But instead of leaving you in the lurch, just go ahead and pick one of the AL East teams (as long as it’s not Baltimore or Toronto) to go to the World Series.

D.C. Donovan says hello to new team

ASHBURN, Va. — It was kind of like seeing an old girlfriendwho unceremoniously dumped you out in public for the first time. Worse, there she was with arm around your best friend.
 
Make that your former best friend.
 
Yes, the Redskins introduced their new starting quarterback, Donovan McNabb, to the D.C. sporting press at the creatively named Redskin Park on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference that could aptly be described as tense or standoffish. Oh sure, there were attempts to put on a happy face and to say the right thing to placate those left behind and those waiting there with outspread arms for a giant, bear-like hug, but the animosity was as thick as the swampy, humid D.C. air.
 
If there were any doubts they are gone now – it’s so over!
 
How’s this for it being so over: the Redskins’ public relations staff informed a few of the folks in the Philly press that McNabb would be unavailable for side interviews with them. Oh, it was cool if the D.C. scribes chatted up the new Redskins quarterback, but the gang from Philadelphia was treated as if they were little rats that escaped from the maze. If not confined they could infest the joint and then what?
 
No, it’s better to keep them in a windowless room with shaky internet access and no beverages.
 
That was the least of where the tension was most palpable. After all, no one cares about how the media is treated… least of all, the media.[1] Instead, McNabb, like Mark McGwire once said during an interview in Washington, was not there to talk about the past. Besides, he said, it wasn’t about him when he was playing for the Eagles. Football is a team game with 11 players on each side of the ball, he explained. The quarterback is just one of those 11 guys, he told us.
 
But in the next breath he told us how great the Eagles became when they smartly took him with the No. 2 pick in the 1999 draft.
 
“I came to a team that was 3-13 and we went 5-11 (his rookie year) and then average nine of 10 wins a year and made it to five NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl, and not many teams can say that,” McNabb said. “Yes, we didn't win it, but it was a good ride. Every time the Eagles stepped on the field, everybody felt confident we could win that one, and I want to bring that here.”
 
Or, more succinctly: you’re welcome, Eagles. It was me that made you guys look better, he seemed to be saying.
 
That’s debatable, of course, and surely the folks in Philly will dive into that fray for as long as the Eagles continue their championship drought that is now in its 50th year. But what is not debatable is the idea that McNabb wanted to stay in Philadelphia. Why wouldn’t he? He was comfortable there and he knew his way around. He knew where all the good restaurants were and where he could go and not be bothered. Most of all, there appears to be a correlation to the specific greatness of a quarterback if he makes it through a career on just one team. Elway did that. So did Marino, Aikman, Staubach and Bradshaw, to name a few Hall-of-Famers whose career stats match up with McNabb’s.
 
“I've always believed in finishing where you start,” McNabb said during the main presser (not the side one with the D.C. guys). “There’s a lot to be said for that. Not a lot of quarterbacks are able to do that these days. But sometimes change is better. Sometimes you're forced into change.”
 
Ah yes. Change. Apparently that was what everyone was looking for when McNabb was dealt away to the Redskins on Easter Sunday night, a mere 16 hours before the Phillies were to open the season in Washington. Sure, McNabb says, he really wanted to finish his career with the Eagles and try to win that elusive championship for the “gold standard” of franchises. But things are different now. The Eagles are going in a different direction. Nothing lasts forever.
 
McNabb says he knew his days with the Eagles were likely numbered when Brian Dawkins was allowed to leave. Sure, coach Andy Reid told anyone who would listen that he saw McNabb quarterbacking his team for the foreseeable future, but McNabb knew otherwise. Reid was creating an oil slick on the surface to try and create a diversion of sorts.
 
“We knew it was going on from the beginning,” McNabb said about the trade talks by the Eagles.
 
Gone are Brian Westbrook, Kevin Curtis, Shawn Andrews, Sheldon Brown and, of course, Dawkins.
 
“For you not to bring Brian Dawkins back, that (says) we're all replaceable," McNabb said. “I'm a part of it this year. They’re rebuilding, and they're going young. I never knew 33 was old, but I guess I'm old.”
 
Old news for sure. Yes, McNabb is with someone new – someone we know all too well. Worse, he’s telling us how great things are going to be now that we’re finally gone.
 
It doesn’t hurt as much as it makes you mad.
 
“You guys from Philly don’t know much about the running game,” he said with one of those grins that makes it seem like a joke, but it’s really a dig. “We will run the ball here.”
 
Yeah, well, good luck with that.

________________________________________
[1] But it is funny. Go ahead and admit that it’s funny. Who doesn’t love to hear press types whine about their jobs? “Oh my goodness they are making me travel to new places and to see new things to write and report about sports. Can you believe that? And they have the nerve to pay me for it.” Yes that was sarcasm, and yes it would have been easier to just to write, “Hey guys, stop whining. If you don’t like traveling around to report on sports, I hear they’re hiring at the post office ”

Talk about timing...

WASHINGTON—If there was ever a spot for a good conspiracy theory, why not start it in Washington, D.C.? After all, this is the city where they eat a good conspiracy theory for breakfast. They invented all that stuff here, for crying out loud.

Better yet, Washington and conspiracy theories are a cottage industry within itself. How many books or movies have been produced about the shadowy elements of our government? Washington and conspiracies go hand in hand.

So while standing in line to wait for the Secret Service to search through my belongings, I broached the subject of the timing of the announcement of the Eagles’ trade of Donovan McNabb to the Redskins with a few employees of the Phillies, who will remain nameless. No, they didn’t believe it was a conspiracy, per se, but the timing was questionable.

Why else would the Eagles announce the biggest trade in their history at 8:30 p.m. on Easter Sunday the day before the Phillies were to begin their season with the pitcher acquired in the biggest trade in recent team history on the mound?

And oh yeah, the President of the United States was also going to be at the Phillies’ game, too.

Still, the idea that the Eagles would release huge news just so it would trump the Phillies seems silly. It’s like a petty stunt a fifth-grader would pull if he found out a classmate had the coolest Power Ranger or something. Besides, don’t the Eagles come out of that situation looking worse if it were the case?

“They’ll say otherwise, but there is no question they did this on purpose,” said a Phillies’ employee.

The Eagles’ brass on declared themselves the, “gold standard” amongst franchises in sports, which is curious thing considering they are now in their 50th season without a championship. To make such a proclamation doesn’t team have to win it all at least once?

Better yet, shouldn’t the so-called “gold standard” be above such petty jealousies?

“It killed them when we won it,” a Phillies employee said. “They thought it was going to be them, but we got it done first.”

Coincidentally, some of the sports fans in D.C. suggested that the timing of the trade was the Redskins’ attempt to steal some of the spotlight away from the Capitals, who had just set the franchise for wins a few hours earlier. The Caps also are running away with the Eastern Conference title and appear to be poised to make a legit run at the Stanley Cup, which is a big deal around these parts.

However, the thing about the sports scene in D.C. is that if a player for the Redskins stubs a toe, it’s big news. Still, that doesn’t remove notion that the ‘Skins aren’t above upstaging the other teams in the city. In fact, the day that the Nationals signed top draft pick Stephen Strasburg, the Redskins felt as if that was the perfect time to release some minor quarterback news.

The funny part about it all is that apparently some believe sports fans have the time and appetite for just one sports story a day. Given the landscape of the digital news world, nothing could be further from the truth. Just because the Eagles made a trade with the Redskins it does not mean the Phillies’ Opening Day game will go unnoticed.

Just look at the media landscape as if it were the most opulent buffet in Las Vegas—you can have as much as whatever you want.

Or you could just choose to ignore it all… especially the part about there being some sort of a conspiracy.

Weird, but not unprecedented

WASHINGTON—A normally staid holiday night took an odd turn for the folks driving into The District and listening to WTOP. Usually serving up programming that is reserved for the news that dominates the nation’s capital, the measured and professional tenor of the news anchor shifted almost dramatically.

News on an Easter earthquake on the Baja Peninsula south of Los Angeles and San Diego, as well speculation regarding the retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was pushed back suddenly so that sports news could be reported.

That was strange enough considering Washington isn’t known as a diehard sports town. After all, the city has already lost two baseball teams and is working hard to drive out a third. The Washington Wizards are struggling and though they might have the best team in the NHL, the Washington Capitals don’t get much attention outside of the Beltway.

But the Washington Redskins is the second most passionate pastime in this industry town. Like movies in Hollywood, politics rules in Washington. After that comes the Redskins. Hell, even Nixon followed the Redskins religiously and he had a pretty demanding job.

So maybe it’s understandable that the possible retirement of a Supreme Court Justice could be placed on the backburner so the news on the trade of quarterback Donovan McNabb to the Redskins could be reported.

You should have heard the glee coming from the announcer’s voice. The Washington Redskins had an All-Pro quarterback coming to town with new coach Mike Shanahan and all they had to give up was a couple of draft picks.

Everyone was too excited and/or stunned here in Washington to make a cogent analysis of the fact that McNabb was going to be the quarterback of the Redskins. No one could believe that the trade came down somewhat late on a holiday Sunday the day before President Barack Obama was scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Phillies’ season opener in Washington on Monday afternoon. And oh yeah, it’s also the game where the Phillies’ most-ballyhooed off-season acquisition in generations will make his debut.

Roy Halladay, welcome to Page 2.

A good distance out of the range of Philly sports media, I can only guess that a bunch of folks had the same reaction as me when the trade news started to trickle out. Were the Eagles really trying to sneak this by us, was my first thought. News doesn’t get hidden anymore in the digital world. We have Facebook and Twitter and all sorts of ways to network and multitask. 

Surely the Eagles’ brass wasn’t thinking about slipping it past us, were they?

Maybe after the shock wears off the folks in DC will start to ask questions about what the trade means. For instance, what happens with Jason Campbell? Or, how much will McNabb improve as a quarterback on a team with a coach that’s committed to running the ball. After all, Shanahan won the Super Bowl twice with an aged John Elway thanks largely to the fact that he had Terrell Davis eating up yardage.

Eventually maybe the DC sports fans will ask why the Eagles traded a starting quarterback to a team in their own division. In fact, even Eagles’ receiver DeSean Jackson told ESPN news that the trade to a divisional foe was a head scratcher.

“It's kinda weird him being traded in the same division...” Jackson said on ESPN News.

Weird, but not exactly unprecedented. There were plenty of Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks dealt away from the team they are most known for playing with. Johnny Unitas and Joe Montana ended up with other teams. In fact, in 1964 the Eagles traded Sonny Jurgensen to the Redskins. Once he was out of Philadelphia, Jurgensen solidified his standing as one of the all-time greats and even went to the Super Bowl.

Of course the biggest difference between Jurgensen and McNabb is that Jurgensen won a championship in Philadelphia before he was traded to Washington.

A shot in the dark

Sometimes it feels like we write the same thing over andover again. It’s not quite a Groundhog’s Day thing, but often with sports some of the themes repeat themselves.

Actually, those themes can repeat themselves with the same guy, too. For instance, last April I wrote this:

Lidge, it was revealed after Monday’s game, has inflammation in his right knee and was unavailable to pitch. Though Lidge is listed as day-to-day, the inflammation was severe enough for the closer to undergo an MRI last Monday and then have a cortisone shot last Wednesday. For now the closer and manager Charlie Manuel are hopeful that a trip to the disabled list is not needed.

“We don’t think so yet,” said Manuel striking an ominous tone when asked if Lidge could land on the DL.

Lidge also is optimistic despite the fact that the swelling and soreness is on the same knee that he had operated on twice in 2008. However, Lidge pointed out that his knee hurts when he pushes off the rubber from the stretch.

The good news is that the MRI revealed no structural damage to the knee, but there was excess fluid and swelling, the pitcher said.

“Based on the MRI I’m not overly concerned,” Lidge said, standing in front of his locker with a large ice pack wrapped around his right knee. “It’s something that I’m just dealing with the fluid and inflammation. I’m concerned on a small level because it’s not feeling great and I want to get back there as soon as possible. But I think if we nip it in the bud right now, hopefully it will be something I won’t have to worry about for the rest of the year.”

Sound familiar? Lidge something just like that when he got a cortisone shot the other day, only this time is was for his right arm. So if you’re scoring at home, Lidge has had three cortisone shots in the past 12 months, as well as surgery to remove chips out of his throwing arm. Going back to when he first signed on with the Phillies, Lidge has had three surgeries—two on his knee—and a bunch of MRIs.

Oh yes, Lidge has a pretty good health care plan from playing for the Phillies.

And you know what? It’s a good thing, too. If history is any indication, he’s going to need it. After all, even in his best season Lidge was hurt. Remember that? He started the 2008 season on the disabled list after having two different surgeries on his knee before the season began and went out to close out 48 straight games. Considering that he had been removed from the closer’s role in his last season in Houston, Lidge’s perfect season came out of nowhere.

The oddest part is that even though Lidge was banged up, disabled and pitching with chips in his arm, he still appeared in more games in 2009 (67) than he did in 2007 (66).

Now here’s where it’s all connected… Lidge and the Phillies have said pretty much the same thing throughout. That quote in italics above sounds a lot like what Lidge said when he got the cortisone shot the other day.

“This puts you a couple days behind where you want to be,” Lidge said. “That being said, if it works, like we're hoping it's going to, it's going to speed up things a lot on the other side of that.”

The one word common to both quotes is “hope.” Last season manager Charlie Manuel and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. hoped Lidge would bounce back from the breaks and the shots and find his lost form—you know for as much as a guy pitching with fragments in his elbow could rebound.

This year Lidge and the Phils hope his fastball can top 90-mph and he can get back to saving games a little more efficiently than last year where he set a record for the highest ERA (7.21) by a pitcher with more than 20 saves. But that’s just it—it’s just hope. The only guarantee is that Lidge will get paid the remainder of his $37.5 million deal through the 2011 season (with $1.5 buyout of the option for 2012).

Look, Lidge very well might regain his lost form after another stint on the disabled list. After all, the team physician and the front office say the latest cortisone shot was no big deal. That very well could be the case since Lidge says he feels strong.

“My arm strength is good and my slider was coming around and everything else was going the way it should, but velocity was not going,” Lidge said. “Rather than projecting on when it will, we decided to take action into our own hands, get a cortisone shot and speed the process up.”

Said Amaro: “I think you guys are making a little too much of the cortisone shot. If this helps accelerate him in getting his velocity back, that's more the nature of it.”

However, Lidge very well might be the recipient of the very first cortisone shot that was not a big deal. After all, there’s a reason why cortisone injections are banned in nearly every other professional and amateur sports around the world. According to Brian J. Cole, MD, MBA and H. Ralph Schumacher, Jr, MD in the Journal of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Lidge and the Phillies could be teetering on the edge of some long-term effects.

Physicians do not want to give more than three, but there is not really a specific limit to the number of shots. However, there are some practical limitations. If a cortisone injection wears off quickly or does not help the problem, then repeating it may not be worthwhile. Also, animal studies have shown effects of weakening of tendons and softening of cartilage with cortisone injections. Repeated cortisone injections multiply these effects and increase the risk of potential problems. This is the reason many physicians limit the number of injections they offer to a patient.

So there’s that and we haven’t even discussed the future of the Phillies’ bullpen. Smartly, though, Manuel cut to the chase about Lidge’s return from this injury.

“We’re just speculating,” Manuel said, “and that’s not good.”

Never say never?

Records are made to be broken. Never say never. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

Those are all statements that everyone pretty much accepts as ironclad truth. Actually, those sentences usually act as argument stoppers that are brought out when there is nothing else to say.

Every dog has its day.

But you know what? Some records will never be broken. That’s right, I’m saying never. And that horse… get me an IV drip. That’s because it’s quite fair to add one record to the untouchable file along with Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Wilt’s 100-point game, Cal Ripken’s consecutive games streak or Wayne Gretzky's 2,857 career NHL points.

The record? How about the 9-73 record by the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers?

That Sixers’ club that was so locked in that they snapped a 20-game losing streak with a stretch in which they won five times in seven games, only to lose the last 13 games of the season. Those two stretches were just the tip of the ice berg, they helped those Sixers destroy the previous record set just two years before by the Cavaliers and the 1968 San Diego Rockets. To that point in NBA history, no team crashed any deeper than the 1972-73 Sixers.

In other words, those Sixers were like Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. The difference in this case is that NASA hasn’t sent up any ships that have duplicated the feat or even come close. The closest any NBA team has come to the Sixers’ record was the 1993 Mavericks and the 1998 Nuggets with just 11 wins. The Mavericks actually had a shot at beating the record, but they won three of their last six games, including the final two to get 11 wins.

The ’98 Nuggets were a lot less dramatic by securing win No. 10 in game 77. Strangely, that’s three games later than the 2010 New Jersey Nets wrapped up their 10th win to ensure the sanctity of the holy grail of losing seasons.

Stranger still, the fact that the record was safe for the 37th year in a row was not disappointing for the leading scorer of the ’73 Sixers. He looked at it the way Pete Rose would if another player got close to his all-time hit record and then had a career-ending injury.

Oh yes, Fred “Mad Dog” Carter is quite pleased that the Nets got that magical 10th win.

“Every now and then, a team shows all the signs of perhaps breaking our record,” Carte told Phil Jasner. “That forces me to go to church and light candles to preserve our record. You can achieve immortality so many ways; if our record is broken, people might not [remember] that I played in the NBA. We would be forgotten souls.

“[Teammate] Kevin [Loughery] and I had played in the Finals for the Baltimore Bullets against the Milwaukee Bucks [in 1971]. We had beaten New York in the Eastern Finals, winning in seven games after falling behind, 0-2. We won Game 7 in New York. I made the jump shot that [sealed] the game. We had gone from the penthouse to the outhouse. We had played with Gus Johnson, Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld in Baltimore. We knew they weren't walking into our locker room.”

So Carter looks at it as his small sliver of history. He was the MVP and leading scorer for that Sixers team, which makes him the best player on the worst team ever. He’s the anti-Michael Jordan or Bill Russell in that regard, which is rather dubious but it’s something.

You see, fame is a fleeting thing and the cheers/boos only last for so long. For folks as competitive as pro athletes, hanging onto any achievement or record can be a personal issue. Remember how little-known pitcher Brian Kingman traveled around from ballpark to ballpark when another hurler had a chance to supplant him as the last guy to lose 20 games in a season? He was hanging onto his legacy—his tiny niche in history.

Carter is similar in that sense only he didn’t bounce around the country to watch the Nets lose.

“I'm really happy for the Nets and for myself,” Carter told the Jasner. “I was really concerned about the Nets not getting there. The last thing they needed was to have to carry that with them. That could have cost a couple of guys their careers.”

See guys like Kingman and Carter have a sense of humor about it. They get it. Sure, they likely would have loved to have played for good teams like Carter for the ’68 Sixers or Kingman for the ’73 A’s, but even there they just sort of blend in. Carter wasn’t going to be the MVP or lead an NBA champion in scoring, and Kingman wasn’t getting the ball in Game 1 of the World Series. Carter came out of Mount St. Mary’s College and was a role player on the ’71 Bullets that featured Hall-of-Famers Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld.

So being the best player on the worst-ever team is quite something. At the time it wasn’t so fun, especially since the Sixers were the team that opponents used as slump-busters. But with some time it was as if Carter and his teammates survived a sinking ship or something.

Everyone loves a survivor.

PODCAST EPISODE NO. 7

I like competitive running because there are no façades.The phrase, “This may hurt a little,” belongs exclusively to the circle of freaks who enjoy running marathons. In that sense it’s the ultimate “rub some dirt” on it sport and that often can be taken literally.

The fact is distance running is one of those things where if a participant has to take a rest stop, all normal societal norms and customs are abandoned. Have to go… then just go. No one is judging you.

The first time I ran the Boston Marathon was back in 1996, which was the 100^th anniversary of the great race. Needless to say the Boston Marathon is one of those sporting events that gets a little bit of attention. Make it the 100^th running of the race and there will be a few extra thousand set of eyes on the jaunt from the hamlet Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay. Toss in the fact that the race had the largest number of folks competing in a marathon (at that point in history), and the newsworthiness of it increases even more.

I remember that April day in 1996 as a sun-soaked but temperate one with gentle sea breezes blowing in our faces as we made our way to Boston. Couple all of this with the fact that the course starts with a pretty steep downhill portion and it made it easy to start out way too quickly. You know what they say about something being a marathon and not a sprint? Well, that’s especially true in marathons. You kind of need to pace yourself a bit.

Anyway, not far from my vantage point during the early portion of the race were the top women runners. Tegla Loroupe, a future word-record holder in the distance, was up there in the lead. So too was arguably the best women’s runner in the world in Uta Pippig. The problem was that by the halfway point Tegla was putting some distance between her and Uta to the point where it appeared as if it was going to end up as a cakewalk. Uta was fading badly and no one really knew why.

But oh boy oh boy did they ever find out. By overcoming a seemingly insurmountable 30-second deficit with a few miles to go, we learned very quickly what the problem was for Uta Pippig that sunny April day. It seemed as if it was Uta’s day in more ways than one.

Here, let this account of the race from Lorie Conway paint the picture:

On April 15 of this year, during the running of the 100th Marathon, Uta Pippig, the first woman to cross the finish line, had menstrual blood and diarrhea running down her legs.

While the crowd gathered in Copley Square roared their support, male commentators on radio and TV were, uncharacteristically, tongue-tied. Ironically, the only person to graphically describe what was happening on live TV was commentator Katherine Switzer. "Look, there's been a history of diarrhea in marathons, for any world class competitor knows it happens," Switzer said. "You just don't worry about it. You've got a race to run." There was no mention of bleeding. It was "diarrhea" that surprised people and that announcers picked up on. ...

I have to say that Uta showed an incredible amount of toughness that day that superseded her ability to win the Boston Marathon for the third year in a row. Certainly it was a toughness that I would never understand, even though just two years later on another sunny day in Washington, D.C., I could be found retching on the 14^th Street Bridge more than 22 miles into the Marine Corps Marathon. It wasn’t the bile and Clif Bar remnants that had me down that day—it was the fact that it took me just 1:55 to run the first 21 miles of that race and 1:02 to run the last five.

Things like what happened to Uta Pippig don’t really happen in too many other sports. At least they don’t happen in a setting that other people find out about it. However, that wasn’t the case with my friend Elizabeth Haralam Shuba. Actually, people would not have heard about it if she hadn’t written about it, which is what she did. Hey, Beth has something to say, and needs to put her feelings into words. I dig that and can relate a bit.

See, I’ve known Beth ever since my family moved to Lancaster in 1981. She lived on Marietta Avenue and I lived on Woods. From James Buchanan Elementary, to Wheatland Junior High and on to McCaskey High, we were in the same vicinity for all those years. In fact, her dad was our family’s dentist (and a great dentist at that). So I had the knowledge that Beth could tell a story or two. She has that gift.

She also has no façades, which is something we all love about her. Check out this story she wrote for her site, “The Joy of Being a Monkey Wrench.” After you’ve read it, listen here:

Podcast No. 7

Look, Beth is no Uta Pippig dashing over Heartbreak Hill looking like she’d taken on sniper fire to win the Boston Marathon. But there is something to be said for an athlete who preserves and fights through injury, nature or biology. That’s especially the case in soccer, where the Seattle club in the MLS looked as if they were being beaten by an angry mob during last week's debut for the Philadelphia Union. Those Seattle guys were rolling around on the grass and crying for the stretcher if a Philly guy even looked at them cross-eyed. It made me ashamed to be a man.

No one wants to see that kind of behavior. If there is going to be blood, at least it should be earned. That's what Uta and Beth have taught us.

Also on the seventh episode of the show, we talk about baseball with Curt Gill of the great podcast, Atlanta Baseball Talk. Curt breaks down the upcoming season for the Phillies' top competition in the NL East for us and explains why Atlantans might not be the most rabid of sports fans.

He also says to expect the Braves in the playoffs this year. The Braves and Phillies... together again.

We are on Facebook

check us out on iTunes, too.

Uh-oh...

I don't believe in superstitions because it's bad luck to do so, but just take a gander at the latest cover of Sports Illustrated and ask yourself this one question:

Why is Roy Halladay pitching out of the stretch? Is he already pitching out of a jam?