Yes, after taking the trash and recycling out at sunrise this morning, I'm convinced it's not safe out there. Probably best not to even open your door for a few months. Hope you got the canned goods ahead of time. In any case, we thought we'd share some links this morning. Sadly, you can't burn them for heat...
With the aughts coming to a close, there's no shortage of great best-of-the decade lists out this month. You've no doubt read a few already. Here's one I started my day with, a very personalized, Philly-fan-flavored compilation of the five best games of the decade from the Rev over at The House That Glanville Built. Great job keeping the perspective of the fan experiencing the event, rather than just recounting the games themselves. His account of the 5OT game in Pittsburgh had me remembering exactly what I was doing that night, my sophomore year at Temple. Unforgettable.
One of the better posts I read yesterday was AJ Daulerio's account of the best game he saw in person this decade (aside from the 2008 WFCs, which is a gimme). Now I don't know if the short- and long-term outcomes of the game were something I remembered as "great," but if you consider the true meaning of that word, it's hard to think of a single Flyers game that had more magnitude and impact than the time Scott Stevens ended the Lindros Era in Philly, if not his career. Game 7 of the Flyers-Devils series in 2000. We've all seen the youtubes continue to be posted over the years, and even if you're not a big Flyers fan, you probably remember this hit and its sequelae. But AJ's post recounts the separation of Lindros from his stardom from a vantage in the stands, and his prose is rather brilliant.
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Thanks to its mid-afternoon, mid-week, non-holiday start time, I missed every second of my alma mater's bowl game yesterday. However, thanks to the magic of twitter, I was able to follow the rise of the Owls, and unfortunately the fall, in 140-characters-or-less blasts. It's not the ideal way to catch a game, but the tweets from guys like Kevin McGuire and Estebomb kept me in the know of what was going on on the field as well as what it was like to be freezing your ass off in the RFK stands. Thanks, guys.
For those of us who would like to see TU keep building its football program, the wins this season still come with a sobering thought: Al Golden's resume, as John Finger of CSN Philly discusses today. It's the way of the world in the NCAA—more often than not, small program successes lead to the next bigger program head coaches, and Golden's been rumored to be on the move since he got to North Broad. He was interviewed twice to get the gig at UCLA, oddly enough. At least for now, nothing is imminent, and he'll be back in 2010. After that?
Also in the world of local college sports, Jay Wright has been named the Daily News Sportsperson of the Year. I was a little surprised to see Wright grab an award, but then I remembered that no Philly team has won anything so far this "year," plus it's hard to find a more likable guy than Wright in this town. He has me almost rooting for his damn team sometimes. It's weird. Check out Mike Kern's article here on why Wright got the DN's SHOTY. Good thing the winner wasn't decided by a vote of the Eagles players.
Who gets your vote?