The only good thing about the final preseason game of the year is it's the final preseason game of the year. The Eagles take the field tonight for one last summer tune-up, but I'd be lying if I said I was as interested in that as I am in the Minnesota Golden Gophers facing the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. Sadly, somebody has to watch this steaming pile of garbage, and that somebody is me.
The Eagles won't play their starters, which under ordinary circumstances would result in an 11-6 final or some other ridiculously boring outcome. Things might be different tonight however, because Michael Vick will get the start at quarterback. Who knows, it might even be fun watching Vick run around with the twos. He should be far and away the best player on the field.
Nick Menta is a Temple student quite excited about Owl football. These are his words.
Are you tired of your job? Do you not want to go to class? Would you rather skip out on one or both, and party on Pattison Avenue all day (barring a potential hurricane, of course)? Well, we have some advice for people like you: call up your friends, ditch whatever gig you've got going on and spend this Friday down at the sports complex.
The guys at Puck Daddy had a great idea to pass some time this summer during hockey's slowest month—asking bloggers from each team to pick the four faces of the franchise and put them on "Mount Puckmore." We had the honor of contributing the Flyers' Puckmore last week, and in gratitude to Wysh and Leahy, we're completely ripping off their idea and applying it to the other Philly sports.
We'll start with the Phillies, and ask all of you to list the four faces of the franchise in your eyes. You can either just put the names down, or give your reasons. The latter will be a bit more fun of course, making for some good-hearted debate. Everyone loved the Lindros pick. (Also, if this is your image, please let me know and I'll toss the credit line in.)
When Joe Paterno waited until almost the last possible day before announcing who would begin the season under center for Penn State, you knew the decision was going to be a surprise. Sure enough, JoePa will do something on Saturday that he hasn't done in nearly 20 years: start a true freshman at quarterback.
It will be Robert Bolden leading the offense against Division I-AA powerhouse Youngstown St. this weekend. The 6'3", 221 lbs. Michigan native is described as a dual threat, so the gameplan should continue to look the way it has under guys like Darryl Clark and Michael Robinson. Despite the announcement, Paterno was hesitant to proclaim Bolden's position is permanent.
No more Five-Hour Energy Drinks for that man. Nationals CF Nyjer Morgan's super-caffienated play as of late--and Nats fans should hope caffiene is all it is--has gotten him in a fair amount of trouble these past few weeks. It started with him throwing a ball into the stands at CBP (suspension), continued with him taking out a Cardinals catcher at the plate for no particular reason (no suspension), and now appears to be climaxing with him responding to getting thrown at twice by the Marlins with a good old-fashioned mound rush (we'll see).
Ryan Howard and the veterans on the bench had quite the laugh at the expense of rookie Dom Brown during Wednesday's 5-1 victory over the Dodgers. Of course, it's a lot easier to laugh at a young teammate when your team is winning in the eighth inning and the kid just ripped a ground-rule double to left.
The goal is to be playing post-season baseball. The way to achieve that goal is by winning series in September. One of the luxuries the Phillies have for them this season is Roy Oswalt pitching in the rubber match of a three game set.
Oswalt (9-13, 3.12) has been fantastic in his first six games with the Phillies, pitching to a 3-1 record with a 2.18 ERA and an ESPY-worthy cameo as an outfielder. He'll be opposed this afternoon by lefty Clayton Kershaw (11-8, 3.01) who is second in the NL in strikeouts this season behind the Doc, but has never registered a victory against the Phillies in five career starts.
After goring ourselves the free agency feeding frenzy, we Flyers fans are starting to get a little impatient for some actual discourse on the upcoming season. Well, the Flyers have obliged by dropping a minnow into our tank. Frank Seravalli reports that Bill Guerin skated with the team today in Voorhees, though all anyone is saying is "skated with." Not "tried out" or "was in discussions" or anything more than a little exercise.
Everybody from Wheels on the television broadcast to Jimmy Ball Scribe in his game story were talking about last night being an Earl Weaver kind of night. This had something to do with both Ryan Howard and Brian Schneider hitting three-run home runs during the 8-4 victory over the Dodgers. But what exactly, I was not sure?
Maybe Ruben knew something we didn't after all. (Probably not.) Cliff Lee, starting pitcher extroardinaire, the One That Got Away for the 2010 Phillies, is starting to look miiiiiighty vulnerable down in the Lone Star State. After a first half of the season for the record books, and one which still sees him threatening to break the all-time record for K/BB ratio (a staggering 13.00 before last night's start), the Phife dog has now given up a combined 30 runs in his last five starts, all of which resulted in Rangers losses.
Last night was more bad times for Clifton, as the Royals (!!) touched him up for seven runs in four and two-thirds--three of them unearned, but only because of Lee's own throwing error.
The clock struck midnight, the calendar flipped to September, and just like that Ryan Howard stepped out of the dugout and bashed a 3-run bomb to deep left center. Okay, so technically the Big Piece's blast came about an hour before we were officially watching September baseball on the East Coast, but the sentiment rings true.
The Phillies bats woke up on Tuesday night to the tune of 8 runs en route to an 8-4 victory over the Dodgers to even the series at one game apiece. Kyle Kendrick was not sharp and failed to get out of the sixth, but with the bats putting up runs and the bullpen filling in their roles nicely, KK didn't have to be. Not when Howard and Schneider find their pitch and Chooch faces Broxton.
There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to seeing your team get no-hit late into a game. Some fans are, for love of the game, cheering for the pitcher even though he's throwing against their team. Others are praying for anything from a bloop single to a lightning strike to end the thing anywhere short of the history books. I'm decidedly in the latter camp, and last night I was begging for somebody to break up Hiroki Kuroda's no-no bid. Maybe it's because we've already seen five of them this season, including two perfect games. Or maybe it's because it seems like a near-weekly experience that we're watching one of the most potent offenses in baseball get retired in order for the first half of a game or longer. Who knows.
What I do know is, if we see it happen again tonight, I'm not sure I can make it through a whole 'nother west coast game of ineptitude at the plate. We need some fireworks at this point in the road trip.
Those who follow the Phillies closely are no doubt familiar with Jamie Moyer's Camp Erin, a bereavement camp for kids who have lost loved ones. But many of us likely took Jamie's amazingly kind work at face value without really knowing what exactly the camp was really about.
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