Sportsattitude

There’s been an awful lot going on in my neck o’ the woods these last few days with the pro teams…

The Phillies actually got through April in one piece.  That’s bad news for the rest of the National League.  Especially with Jimmy Rollins injured and Ryan Howard not swinging the bat very well.  Usually, by now the Phils are in last place and almost double-digits out of first place.  My good friends over at In Rare Form have to be equally excited about their Chicago Cubs doing so well.  Readers of this blog know last fall the cities of Philly and Chicago formed an unholy alliance in the hopes we would both make the playoffs.  We did, but then the Baseball Gods corrected that unlikely rooting partnership by having both teams make a quick exit.  You DO know both the Phils and the Cubs were in the playoffs last season, right?  If you blinked, you missed their participation.  In any event, if the Phillies can stagger through the rest of the season with their starters and bullpen not serving up batting practice when the weather gets warm at Citizens Bank Park, they’ll be in the post-season once more.

The Sixers won a couple of games against the Pistons in the post-season before Detroit finally got interested and beat down Philly hard and fast, sending Philly fans into the summer with a more realistic view of how far away the team is from actually being good.  I don’t like this team - they are clumsy in the half-court, can’t shoot from fifteen feet out and really have no reason right now to think next year won’t be another sub-.500 effort.  Mr. Iverson, you’re welcome back any time…the franchise could use some fans filling up those empty seats that freed up when you left town.

Our Eagles’ talk this mini-camp was all about the cornerback position, where it has been widely assumed Lito Sheppard would be traded by now once Asante Samuel had been signed away from the Patriots.  That didn’t happen, and now Philly has a “controversy” because they have too many good players at one position.  Hell, I thought that was called depth.  Sheppard has had some recent injury issues and a valid contract.  I believe he’s trying to get the “last big one” because he knows the life expectancy in the NFL is 3.8 years and his physical ailments have accelerated his aging process.  No problem for me with any player trying to get what he can in the NFL.  If he doesn’t get traded, so what?  Sheldon Brown, Sheppard and Samuel would probably all find their way on the field at the same time in Jim Johnson’s defensive schemes and the Eagles would be better for it.

Tomorrow night, the Keystone Cup begins as the Flyers visit Pittsburgh to face off against the Penguins.  These two teams played numerous times this season and have developed a very nice hatred for one another.  In fact, a number of these fellas played against each other when they were in the minors and are…shall we say…quite familiar with beating the heck out of each other.  After being the flat-out worst team in the league a year ago, the Flyers got off to a rousing start…fizzled down the stretch but righted the ship just as we hit mid-April and have rolled into May playing hockey as well as anyone still in the hunt.  As stated in my prior post, there were some fairly healthy rumors the Pens laid down in their season finale against the Fly-boys so they would not have to face them days later in Round 1, willing to take their chances against a beat-up, staggering Ottawa club.  Well, here we are in Round 3 and they can’t avoid the Flyers any more.  This time of year, people around these parts will combine the suddenly nice weather with their love of the Flyers and drag their TV’s outside with the grills and the kegs and have parties under the stars, grillin’ and chillin’ with the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Sure, hockey has a limited fan base…but in this region the Flyer fan roots are as deep as the 70’s when every kid - and I mean every kid - played street hockey in the summer and ice hockey in the winter.  We’re all ready around here to get “Flyered Up” once more.