The700Level.com - Philly Sports & Minutiae

Kimmo to Miss Conference Finals, Maybe More, With Blood Clot

Via ESPN and 15 text messages I got while at the bar tonight:

Flyers All-Star defenseman Kimmo Timonen will likely miss the Eastern Conference finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins because of a blood clot in his left ankle.

Philadelphia general manager Paul Holmgren said Timonen was hit by a shot by Montreal's Andrei Markov late in Game 4 of Philadelphia's second-round victory over the Canadiens. Timonen had an MRI taken Wednesday that didn't show a clot, but a vascular surgeon found a small one Thursday.

Who needs your best defenseman when you're about to square off with arguably the best offensive team in the conference, right? Terrible news for Flyers, but hopefully Timonen recovers quickly and completely.

One characteristic of this year's Flyers squad is that when one man goes down with an injury, another steps up and takes his game to a higher level. Even in these playoffs, when Mike Knuble went down, R.J. Umberger stepped up and now leads the team in goals. Timonen's will be some pretty big skates to fill though.

Phillies End Series in Arizona, Live Blog!

According to Tom Fornelli, the Phillies shouldn't even show up today in Arizona.

If I were a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, I'd probably just skip the trip to Chase Field and go straight to the airport to catch my flight to San Francisco. I mean, Brandon Webb is starting for the Diamondbacks this afternoon, so you already know you're going to lose, why waste your time?

Yeah, the Phillies should just go hit the links today instead, right? Wait just a minute. Mr. Fornelli later contradicts himself a bit.

He hasn't been that good against the Phillies in his career, though, as even though he has a respectable 3.99 ERA against them, he's 2-3 in eight career starts.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Phillies should show up.

It's Friday (Thursday), we ain't got no job (today) and we ain't got shit to do (except imbibe and watch baseball), so we may provide you with a Phillies live blog today.

Sir Charles is a Dumbass

Via Odenized.

James Mirtle's Q&A With The 700 Level and The Pensblog

If you haven't seen his work before, James Mirtle is one of the best in the business when it comes to hockey blogging. He's a journalist who contributes to the Toronto Globe and Mail, as well as numerous other publications, and he keeps a very tight and informative blog at mirtle.blogspot.com. Mirtle mixes SABR-like statsmanship with incisive commentary and Canadian wit, a breed of blogging even Buzz Bissinger would appreciate. For these reasons, it was a pleasure to participate in his Conference Finals Q&A session. Representing the Penguins is, you guessed it—The Pensblog, who even have a clothing line dedicated to "Dr. Mirtle."

Our Q&A can be found here, and you'll likely also be interested to read The Pensblog's responses.

Thanks to James for the invitation.

Shane Vic Got... CoJacked Up!

The Phils stole another one in the desert last night, coming back from two late-inning deficits to take a 2-1 series lead heading into today's finale with the Diamondbacks. After tying it in the 7th, the Phils found themselves down by a run in the 8th. Shane Victorino struck out swinging, but the ball got past D-Backs catcher Chris Snyder, and Vic tore toward first base, where his helmet met Conor Jackson's face, and CoJack's arm clotheslined Vic and sent the Hawaiian, well, you get the point.

Happy birthday, CoJack!

Let the Trash Talking Begin

The upcoming series with the Pittsburgh Penguins should be a great one. With both teams having quite the passionate fan base, the trash talking will surely be at playoff-caliber levels. Let's get it started with this fine work by reader Karen:
 

A Completely Scientific Analysis of Adam Eaton's Penchant for Sucking

As Matt pointed out this morning, Adam Eaton is giving fans and Charlie Manuel agita. But the fine people at Baseball Digest take things to a much deeper, scientific level. They analyze the amazing achievement of throwing four straight balls to Randy Johnson.

Subtract the upper limit (42.7 inches) from the lower limit (21.6 inches) and we get 21.1 inches. Add our rough estimate of The Big Unit’s extra 4 inches to it for 25.1 inches. If we multiply that by the width of the strike zone, 21 inches, we get 527 square inches – the area of Johnson’s strike zone. How did Adam Eaton miss? According to MLB Gameday, Eaton was only close with one pitch:

Heck, even Mayor Nutter coulda thrown a strike.

>>Quite an Achievement for Adam Eaton [Baseball Digest]

Garrett Reid Pleads Guilty to Drug Smuggling Charge

It was originally believed that Garrett was going to plead not guilty but in court today he plead guilty in some sort of plea agreement. I'm sure the Reids can't wait for all of this to go away and start over fresh. [FH]

Fan Report: D-Backs Come Correck With the Hotties, Phanatic Responds Accordingly

Mike, aka MPR529, is our man on the scene in Arizona for the Phillies series this week. Via his flickr photostream, we have some great photos of Ryan Howard striking out (rare capture!) and, perhaps more importantly, some AZ poon that the D-Backs pay to be in attendance. Brilliant!

The Phanatic, hero to us all, was in Arizona, showin' em how a real mascot does, and took the opportunity to be a true ambassador.

Charlie Manuel Feels Your Pain

If you groaned when you saw Adam Eaton revert to his 2007 form last night, you weren't alone. Charlie Manuel's reaction when Eaton walked Randy Johnson (on four pitches) with the bases loaded was a good sign his night would soon be over.

Phillies Fans Are Far and Wide

Seriously guys, awesome job rep'ing the Philadelphia fans all the way across the country.

Put This One In The Win Column For The Fightin' Phils, originally uploaded by MPR529.

(Wave that flag, wave it wide and high)

Get loud again tonight and help the Phillies take game 2.

Great photo by Flickr user and the700level Group member MPR529. Head over to his photostream for some hilarious pics and captions.

Quotable: Marty Biron on the Upcoming Flyers-Pens Series

Via Tim Panaccio, we have this great quote from Flyers goalie Martin Biron on the battle that is about to go down:

"You look at Washington, you look at Montreal, it took a game and a half to get the emotions involved into the games," Biron said. "I think against Pittsburgh, it will be a half minute and things will get going. They might not want to say that. They might not feel the same way, but that's how things will go."

I can't believe they're making us wait until Friday for that half minute.

The Andy Reid–Philly Media Feud Is Underway

We're one mini-camp into the 2008 season, and Andy Reid and the Philly media already appear to be in a disagreement of sorts.

Some Perspective on Rivalries

With the Flyers-Penguins series set to get underway this weekend, you'll hear the word "rivalry" thrown around quite a bit, and in the buildings housing the games, the comments under the posts here, and everywhere that fans congregate, you'll see why. It gets intense. You start to hate people you don't know. And usually, it can be fun, adding a little spice off the ice.

But there's a line. And unfortunately, that line is being crossed too often these days. Off-the-ice/field events should not be making headlines, and certainly not the obituaries:

Ticked off by an earlier scuffle and taunted by anti-Yankees chants, a 43-year-old mother pulled out of a New Hampshire parking lot last week and rammed into one of the Red Sox fans taunting her, prosecutors said today.

The man who was hit by the car is now dead.

Damn It, Burrell!

Pat Burrell had to ruin the all the fun last night. He was the only Phillies starter to fail to notch a hit in the Phillies win. When asked about Burrell's ineptitude last night, the Everybody Hits Guy said, "Pat just didn't want me 'Woohoooooing!' tonight. He must have forgotten to oil the Machine before the game. We'll give him the night off. He deserves it."

In more serious news, Charlie Manuel thought Jamie Moyer was going to make history. "I thought he was going to go for the cycle there for a while," Manuel said.

Moyer stroked a single to left in the second inning and later added this RBI double in the third:

Phils Head West to Face Rookie Scherzer and the First Place D-Backs

We can't ask for a whole lot more than the Phillies have been giving us lately, with several series wins or ties in a row and some fairly solid play on the whole. Tonight, however, the Phils start a 4-game series against the best team in baseball, the Arizona Diamondbacks. You name it, and this team does it well. They are at the top of their game, and we get to stay up late four nights this week in the hopes the Phils can ride this streak a little longer. It won't be easy.

Tonight, the Phillies will face rookie Max Scherzer, who will be making his cherry start after fanning 7 in his lone Major League appearance, which was some long mop-up duty last week. Before his call-up, Scherzer was the most dominant pitcher in the minors, jumping levels until he inevitably broke into the bigs and subsequently the rotation. However, word is that when Doug Davis returns from thyroid cancer surgery, Scherzer could be headed back to the 'pen, at least in the short term. Not great news to get on the day of your first start, which just happens to be against one of the best hitting teams in the league.

The Phillies Go Green in Big Way

We missed this last week when the Phils wore green hats for a game, but the organization has taken some of the most impressive steps among any franchise in sports in terms of offsetting their carbon footprint.

To offset the carbon footprint created by the team's utility power usage at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies have purchased 20 million kilowatt-hours of Green-e Energy Certified Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). According to the EPA, this is the largest single purchase of 100% renewable energy in professional sports and is equivalent to the planting of 100,000 trees.

Maybe we can get a little more ivy on the bricks around the ball park as well. Look out for beer cups at CBP to be made out of corn instead of plastic. Big ups to the Phils.

>>Phils lead way in clean energy movement [MLB]
>>Phils Unveil New Strategy: Green Power [Inquirer]
Via The Illadelph

The Roots - Rising Down

As a tenaciously independent-minded hip-hop group, the Roots are accustomed to tension in the face of major-label pressure. But as ?uestlove observed moments after the call, the climate has felt especially urgent lately. “I’m not ashamed to say that this is probably the first we’ve ever been afraid: afraid of not being relevant, or afraid of not actually having a record deal after this album, or afraid of failure.” Long pause. “But I think that’s a good thing.”

>>New Album, New Fears, Same Old Attitude [NYTimes]

I haven't heard The Roots latest release Rising Down yet but I did just order it off Amazon. Video of their performance last week on Letterman after the jump.

Don't Hold Your Breath for Gagne

As the playoffs got underway, there was some discussion that Simon Gagne could rejoin the Flyers if they were to make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. When he traveled with the team to Montreal last week, the chatter again stirred, but Ed Moran reports that GM Paul Holmgren has in effect put those talks to an end.

According to Holmgren, there is no chance Gagne will return to play in the postseason.

"He hasn't done anything in terms of fitness," Holmgren said yesterday. "I don't see him being an option no matter how long this thing goes. He's around and he went to Montreal and it's probably eating at him, but it's in his best interest for him to wait.

Like many of you, we think it's best that Simon take his time and get healthy. Sure, a scorer of his caliber would be a great addition, but the Flyers' chemistry is amazing right now, and anyway, we don't want another concussion saga to drag this hot team down. A rejuvenated Gagne in '08-'09 will be far more valuable.