The Sixers Lose As Everyone But Iguodala Struggles

So Andre Iguodala finally got going a little in game 6 against the Detroit Pistons by scoring 21 points on 8-13 shooting.  The rest of the team shot 37.9%.  That gives you 81 points, and not nearly enough to beat the surging Pistons. 18 turnovers and 13 assists do not a good game make. Iguodala finally gets going (though he did have 6 turnovers) and the rest of the team can’t buy a bucket. Luckily, Mo Cheeks stays positive:

I’ll be back,” Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks said to hecklers as the final seconds ticked off the clock. “I know you don’t believe me.”

You tell ‘em Mo!  Game 7! Game 7! Game 7!

But please win Game 6 first.  Get them out running and don’t let them stop running.  Don’t let the Pistons set up their half-court game.  Make them bring the ball up with pressure in their faces.  Get those long arms poking at passes.  We NEED to run a track meet and get some fastbreak points if the Sixers are going to beat the Pistons in this series. Fire up the troops Mo!  IT’S GO TIME!

Kidd Chris Is Now In Commercials

Cobra and Connie are famous!

Mike Lieberthal To Be A Phillie Again On June 1st

A staple of this franchise for over a decade is going to be coming back June 1st:

Mike Lieberthal, who spent 13 of his 14 major league seasons as a catcher with the Phillies, will retire as a member of the organization on June 1, the Phillies announced today.

Nice little tribute to the man whose hitting I enjoyed watching for some time. People forget that he was an all-star and has several pretty good offensive seasons before his knees just CRUMBLED (and literally just broke in a game in Arizona).

Lieby himself seems excited too:

“Philadelphia has always been a second home to me, so I’m really looking forward to this,” Lieberthal said in a statement. “I spent half my life there and still follow the team closely on television.”

Hope there’s a good celebration at a game.

Boy Meets World Mondays!!!

REMEMBER THE TIME Shawn lived on a billboard to try and win Super Bowl tickets?!?!?!?!!  OMGZ I DO

Ryan Howard Is Taking A Break

Well, he’s off to a blazing start folks:

He is eligible to return to the Brewers on Tuesday. … Philadelphia’s Ryan Howard, batting .181 with four home runs in the first 22 games of the season, was not in the lineup for the first time but entered the game as a pinch hitter in the eighth, striking out and staying in the game to play first base. Manuel said he would likely try to rest Howard again Friday.

He’ll get it together, but it’s tough to watch him right now because of how little contact he’s making and how bad he looks up there at the plate.  Still, his track record shows that the strikeouts don’t matter much as long as he keeps it under a 40% rate.  Take this two day rest off to collect your thoughts Ryan and then come back firing.

The Phillies Climb The Mountain To .500

The Phillies are officially mediocre! Yay! Seriously! The Phillies are now 10-10 after winning tonight against the Colorado Rockies 8-6 and sweeping the two-game mini-series. Take that Rockies! That completely makes up for destroying us in last year’s playoffs. Much love to Pat Burrell and Chase Utley for their continued amazing Aprils. Utley had 2 hits (one a double) , ending his 5 game homer streak. And Burrell hit a 3 run double in 9th inning off Manny Corpas to lift the Phillies to victory. This wiped out a poor start by Brett Myers (7 IP, 11 hits, 2 walks, 6 runs and 2 homers given up) and an off night from Ryan Howard (0-4, BB).

I believe tonight’s game put Burrell and Utley #1 and #2 in the National League in OPS. Not too shabby. Burrell also broke Greg Luzinski’s record for RBI in April (22), with Utley nipping at his heels at 20. These guys are pounding NL pitching thus far. Just imagine if Ryan Howard starts heating up and these three guys are all hitting well at once? And remember that Jimmy Rollins is currently on the disabled list. This offense is going places, again.

So the Phillies have avoided the dreaded ’slow start’, much to the happiness of Phillies fans around the Delaware Valley and the nation, right? Something tells me the fans now want them to start piling onto that W column.

Dusty Baker Is Paid Cash Money To Be Oblivious

This man is paid millions to manage the Chicago Cubs and say things such as the following:

– Reds center fielder Corey Patterson’s hitting stats are in a free fall, but it wasn’t the driving force behind his not starting on Monday night.

Patterson entered the game vs. the Dodgers in a 0-for-21 skid and he’s 1-for-28 over his past 10 games. His batting average dropped from .323 to .186 with four home runs and nine RBIs.

Ryan Freel started in center field for Patterson. Until being informed by a writer after Sunday’s game, manager Dusty Baker wasn’t even aware that Patterson’s slide had gotten that bad.

“We’ve all been there,” Baker said. “It doesn’t seem like that, because he’s not striking out. Most of the time when a guy is 0-for-something, there’s a bunch of punchouts in there.”

Baker cited matchup concerns for using Freel, who was batting .429 (6-for-14) lifetime vs. Dodgers starter Brad Penny entering Monday’s game. Patterson is a .167 (1-for-6) hitter vs. Penny. Right-handed hitters such as Freel also have better numbers than lefty hitters such as Patterson.

What? Has the man checked a boxscore?  Looked at any numbers?  How did he know about the extremely small sample-size 1-6 that Patterson held against Penny, but not the 0-21 he was sporting.  Maybe he should’ve taken notice that Patterson kept walking back to the dugout only 30 seconds after he got to the plate.  Maybe he should employ a bench coach to keep track of current stats on players so he knows which ones are hitting well (besides just ‘eyballing’ it).  Maybe he should be, you know, awake while managing.

Hell, I’m not even asking to look at stats that are known as ‘advanced’.  Batting average would’ve even pointed out Patterson’s ridiculously bad hitting in the past week or so.  But Dusty’s too busy thinking of new ways to burn out pitching arms.

Sickening.  How did he even get this job?  Because of his great track record of using pitchers correctly? Or because he rode the coattails of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent?

Don’t Smoke

courtesy this guy’s deck:

Boy Meets World Mondays!!!

Because having it on Sundays messed up some people’s weeks!

Remember the time they had the Turnaround Dance?!?!?! AND IT WAS FREAKING HILARIOUS?!?!?! I DO I DO

Breaking: Former Comcast Broadcaster John Marzano Dead

Apparently John Marzano, former Phillies Post-Game Live broadcaster, has died:

Marzano, a native of South Philadelphia, was found dead inside his home on Passyunk Avenue.

A family member called police to break down the door shortly before noon, officials said. Marzano apparently fell down the stairs, but it is not known whether he suffered a heart attack or simply fell.

He graduated from Philadelphia’s Central High School. Marzano went on to play college baseball at Temple University, where he was inducted into the Temple’s Hall of Fame.

I may not have liked his baseball analysis, but he seemed like a genuinely good guy.

Pat Burrell Is Man And Machine

Remember during spring training when we all debated whether Pat Burrell is actually man or if he is, in fact, machine? Well, Pat is showing that he’s the best of both as he’s started off the 2008 season with a bang. The left fielder went and jacked his 6th homer of the season in a 10-2 trouncing of the Houston Astros yesterday. After finishing the 2007 season with such a terrific 2nd half, he hasn’t slowed down AT ALL. The man looks confident up there, is laying off junk as usual, and is bashing anything hit over the plate. Just check out his rankings in the National League thus far:

AVG: 373 (6th)
OBP: 484 (3rd)
SLG: 836 (1st)
OPS: 1.296 (1st)

HR: 6 (tied for 1st)
RBI: 17 (1st)
BB: 13 (tied for 3rd)

VORP: 11.2 (4th)
EQA: .392 (1st)

Ho hum. Not too shabby folks.
Keep it up Pat. We may just be crowning our 3rd MVP in a row…ok, I might be jumping the gun just a bit. Still, what a hot start.  And to the haters?  Remember when some of us said Pat wasn’t so bad, and was actually pretty good?  Pat sez check the pic.

Fun New Anti-Lou Barletta Blog

Remember Lou Barletta? You know, this guy?  The guy that dislikes illegal immigrantion so much he made it the number one priority of his local mayoral candidacy and now his congressional race.  Well, apparently not everyone’s a fan of his in the Hazelton area.  stoploubarletta.com

Probably run by communists. Just sayin’.  This blog has style though:

On his website, Lou Barletta talks at length about…nothing.  The section entitled “About Lou” on the site, which promises to explain “where he stands on KEY ISSUES and what he has PLANNED FOR THE FUTURE” does nothing of the sort.  It’s essentially a short biography of Lou and talks more about his life before politics than anything else.  It mentions absolutely nothing about any issue, even illegal immigration.  And as for the future, it says nothing about that, either.

The sad truth of the matter is that Lou Barletta talks more about Hilary Clinton not joining him for pizza, and how broken hearted that he was when he had to eat it cold and by himself, than he does about the War in Iraq, the housing crisis, the economy, rising gas prices, health care, or education.  None of those issues are even mentioned on the website.  Not one.

+1

The Refs Decide 76ers/Cavaliers Result Not To Their Liking, So They Change It

The end of tonight’s Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers game ended with a bang. Or a whistle. Or not. The Sixers were down 89-88 when Lou Williams hit a terrific bucket with 5 seconds left to take the lead. Devin Brown took the Cavs last shot with milliseconds ticking off the clock and missed, with the buzzer going and the red going on to signify game over. As the Sixers started to walk back to the locker room to celebrate their victory, the referees conferred, due to Lebron James and the Cavs’ pleading, and decided that one of them had blown a last second whistle to signify a foul was committed against Brown. Brown went to the line with .2 seconds left and sunk 2 free throws to cement the 91-90 win for Cleveland.

Now, apparently the referees didn’t realize that one of them had called a foul before the Cavs pointed it out for them. None of them realized that they saw a foul and blew their whistle (which no one heard except for Lebron). They just decided it after checking a replay, using this rule:

A foul for which the resulting free throws could affect the outcome of the game is called with no time remaining on the clock (0:00) at the end of the fourth quarter or any overtime period.

Of course, where was the foul called to merit such a viewing?  Who knows? In any event, the Sixers are now locked into the 7 seed and will face the Detroit Pistons in the 1st round of the playoffs. Not the best of matchups.

Colbert Report In Philadelphia: Day 1

TONIGHT: Chris Mathews, John Legend and Mayor Michael Nutter

OH BOY FOLKS! Here we go! Montco man Chris Matthews, terrific performer John Legend, and our main man, the man with the plan, the man with the funny name and even funnier nose, mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter are all going to be going toe-to-toe with one Stephen Colbert.

Tomorrow? America-hating limousine liberal elitist Michell Obama! From the OFFICIAL Indecision 2008 blog:

After you’re done writing off your last pointed tip bolo knife purchase (whoever said being a Laotian hitman would come back to bite you at tax time?) be sure to catch Michelle Obama’s tax night (April 15) appearance on The Colbert Report — part of “The Colbert Report: Doritos Spicy Sweet Pennsylvania Primary Coverage From Chili-Delphia – The City of Brotherly Crunch!”

Will the Colbert bump affect Barack Obama’s candidacy? It certainly helped Mike Huckabee! He’s well on his way to being the vice presidential candidate of the Republicans. The man went from an unknown Southern governor afterthought to #2 in the Republican race. Not bad, and all thanks to the magic that is The Colbert Report.

Tune in 11:30 PM eastern time to Comedy Central for all the truthiness you can handle!

Boy Meets World Sundays!!!

Remember the time in the first season when Cory’s mom was sneaking around behind everyone’s backs to go to a fancy restaurant?!?! AND THERE WUZ CHAOS!!!!!!!!