Games 30, 31 & 32: Time For Jamie To Hang ‘em Up?

The Phils lost two of three against the Dodgers this week at Citizens Bank Park. Throughout the series, the Phillies were plagued by a fairly putrid offensive output. Among the culprits, Chase Utley and Shane Victorino have not hit nearly as well as they did earlier in the season. Rollins, however, did have a hit in each game of the series, an encouraging sign that maybe he’s primed to break out of his season-long slump.

Aside from the Jayson Werth’s exciting steal of home in Tuesday night’s game, the biggest story from this series for me was Jamie Moyer’s continued ineffectiveness. Jamie gave up 7 earned runs in 4.1 innings to take the loss in Wednesday night’s game. This follows his last two starts, both against the Mets, in which he gave up a combined 12 earned runs in only 8 innings of work.

When a 46 year old pitcher looks that bad in three consecutive starts, one has to question whether age has something to do with the poor output. Jamie was never a power pitcher, but he thrived on hitting his spots. Maybe that 46-year-old arm isn’t as accurate as it once was. The Phillies better hope Jamie gets it right soon or they will be put in a tough situation. If this rough stretch continues for Jamie, the Phillies will need to face the unenviable task of telling 20 some odd year big leaguer that he just doesn’t have it anymore. As a Jamie Moyer fan, I hope this never comes to fruition, but reality is reality.

Game 27,28, and 29: The Good and the Bad

For the second time this season, Atlanta came into Philly and took two of three from the Phighins. Were there any new developments in this series? Nah. The Phillies confirmed their mediocrity to this point in 2009. Let’s take a quick look at one extremely encouraging and two extremely discouraging players from this weekend’s three-game set.

I guess we’ll start with the lone point of comfort from the weekend:

Cole Hamels: The ace is back. At least, we think he may be back. Hamels secured his first win of the season on Friday by allowing only 2 earned runs on 3 hits and 2 walks over 6.0 solid innings. Even more encouraging, Hamels left the game on his own terms and not via freak injury.

And, of course, the not-so-good:

Jimmy Rollins: Rollins hitting woes continued over the weekend. Rollins managed only 1 hit in 14 plate appearances during the three-game stretch. Although Charlie asserts he has no other option for the lead-off spot, he must consider dropping Rollins down in the order at this point. Rollins can’t ignite an offense with the ice-cold bat he’s had all season.

Brad Lidge: What’s up with the closer? So far this season, I can’t remember a Brad Lidge outing where he did not give up at least 1 run. After entering the game with a 10-3 lead on Friday night, Lidge managed to give up a three-run homer to Casey Kotchman. Then, Lidge gave up another run in Sunday’s loss. Lidge’s ERA has ballooned to 8.53. Unlike last year, Lidge has not been ‘lights out’ so far this year.

Manny Ramirez (wait, nevermind) and the Dodgers roll into Citizen’s Bank Park for the three-game series starting tomorrow night.

Games 23,24,25,26: I guess 2-2 Ain’t Bad

So, here's the quick and dirty rundown of the Phillies week. I'm far too lazy to go into detail right now. All in all, it’s not too bad to split four games on the road against two good teams, the Cards and the Mets. However, it surely would have been nice to grab a win in New York.

The Phillies stormed into St. Louis and took both games against one the best teams in baseball so far this season. Joe Blanton gave the Phils a much-needed quality outing from a starter on Monday when he pitched 6 innings while giving up on one earned run on the way to a 6-1 win. The Phils also benefitted from a Ryan Howard grand slam and a Jayson Werth two-run homer.

In game two of the St. Louis series, the Phils needed far more offense to overcome Brett Myers shaky outing. This time Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth provided the bulk of the offense in the Phils 10-7 win.

Then, the Phils ran into a wall named Johan Santana as they lose 1-0 to the Mets. The encouraging news coming out of this one though was Chan Ho Park’s solid outing. It’s about time this guy put together a decent game. Without it, he probably would have been on his way out of the rotation. He still may just be a shaky start away from assuming a role as long reliever.

Tonight, Jamie Moyer couldn’t get out of the third inning as he gives up 7 early runs. The Phils clawed their way back and made the game close. However, they still fell short in a 7-5 loss.

Game 22: Walk This Way

So, today’s Phils-Mets rainout bought me a little more time to write about yesterday’s wild game at Citizen’s Bank Park. I was planted in section 202 for yesterday's game and, to be quite honest, I was far too tired and lazy to post anything last night. Thus, I’m writing now.

Before I get to the game, I will say I had two very pleasant experiences at the ball yard this week. First, I grabbed myself a Charlie Manuel bobblehead on Tuesday night. I also able to get close enough for some pretty good pictures of the World Series trophy that night. I'll post those when I get I can. Then, yesterday, I had the chance to watch the Phils beat the hated Mets in a bizarre, yet extremely exciting game. All in all, a pretty good week for me personally.

You probably know by the now the Phillies beat the Mets 6-5 on a walk-off walk by Shane Victorino. What a marathon. The game clocked in at 3 hours 43 minutes, which could be the longest Phillies game I’ve ever attended. Of course, 18 total walks between the two teams tends to put a drag on the game.

Anyway, this game drives home even further how deep-routed the Phillies pitching problems are this season. The Phils put all sorts of runners on base in the early innings against a ridiculously wild Oliver Perez. In fact, Perez issued six BBs in just 2.1 innings. Yup, six walks.That’s how wild he was. You would think, considering the lackluster Mets pitching, the Phils should have ran away with this one. However, that was not the case as Jamie Moyer allowed 5 runs on 7 hits and 4 walks in 5.2 innings of work. Once again, Charlie had to go to an over-worked bullpen probably about an inning earlier than he wanted. In all, the Phils used 5 relievers over the final 4.1 innngs to finish off the Mets. Like I said before, this bullpen will be fried and utterly useless in a few months unless these starting pitchers can get it together in a hurry. These 4 or 5-inning outing won’t cut it for too much longer.

Well, enough complaining. We did beat the Mets so I shouldn’t dwell on the little things too much. It shouldn’t matter how they do it, but as long as the Phils beat up on the Mets I should remain happy.

Game 21: The Pitching Struggles Resume

It looks like the Phillies fooled us during the last two series. For a few games this week, we forgot about the Phillies horrific start to the season. After a sweep of division leading Florida and a series win against Washington, I thought the Phillies of last year returned and I temporarily forgot about the pitching woes that have plagued this team throughout the early portion of this season.

Then, Chan Ho Park took the ball tonight and I was suddenly reminded of the first two weeks of April.

Park gave up 7 earned runs tonight in 4.2 innings as the Phillies lost to the Mets 7-4. Once again, the bullpen was taxed as it had to clean up the mess Park left by throwing a combined 4.1 innings. At this rate, the bullpen will be dead by mid-July. These short, lackluster outings by the starting pitchers can’t continue much longer, especially from the two biggest culprits, Chan Ho Park and Country Joe Blanton.

The only Phillies player who may have had a worse night than Chan Ho Park was Jimmy Rollins. Rollins took the collar tonight, going 0-4. At what point does Charlie need to shake up the lineup? With Rollins struggling so much in the leadoff spot, shouldn’t Charlie consider moving him down in the order? After all, if your lead off guy isn’t getting on base, he can’t really set the tone for the rest of offense effectively. If I was Charlie, I’d bat Victorino leadoff, followed by Werth, Utley, Howard and Ibanez, Rollins. This way, Rollins can work out his struggles in the lower half of the lineup and wouldn’t prevent the big bats from getting RBI opportunities early in the game. Your leadoff hitter is supposed to get things started. Right now, Jimmy Rollins isn’t the best candidate for that.

Game 13: Hot & Cold

11 runs last night. Only 1 tonight.

The Phillies offense couldn’t get anything going tonight as they drop the second game of the series 3-1 to Milwaukee tonight. The Phils only run came via a Jayson Werth solo homer in the ninth. The Phillies threatened later that same inning by putting runners on the corners with two outs. However, Chris Coste struck out to end the game.

Posting may be light through the weekend as I attempt a paint job in my house. For most this would probably be a one-day project. However, judging from my last painting exploits, I have a feeling this may turn into an all weekend project.

Game 8: Blanton Can’t Deliver

Joe Blanton’s Goldberg-like Phillies undefeated streak came to an end tonight as he takes a loss in tonight’s game in Washington, 8-2.

In what has been the recurring theme for the Phils this season, they fell behind from the get-go when Adam Dunn hit a three-run homer in the first inning. It seems as if every time I turn on the game this season, the Phils are already down by two or three runs. Yes, this team is one of the best come-from-behind teams in baseball. However, they need to jump out front more often. This team can’t play catch up all season.

The Phillies return home tomorrow night to start a four-game series with the Pads. Of course the highlight of the weekend will be the planned festivities for the great Harry Kalas. Much like the season’s opening series, we are looking at a pretty emotional homestand for the Phightins this time around. Unfortunately, this one won’t be as cheery.

Harry Kalas 1936-2009

The Phillies won today thanks to a Ryan Howard three-run homer in the 7th. However, that was the secondary story of course. Phillies longtime play-by-play man Harry Kalas died today before the game in Washington.

I never met Harry Kalas personally. However, like a lot of people in this area, Harry served as the soundtrack to my summer for years. So, today's news comes as quite a blow. In my 26 years, I listened to Harry call countless games on the radio and TV. It’s hard to imagine a Phillies game without Harry’s presence.

I can’t really say any more than what has already been said and what will be said over the next couple days. So, thanks to Youtube, I’ll post some of my personal favorite Harry moments.

Game Four: Hamels Roughed Up

Whether we want to admit or not, most of us had our qualms about Cole Hamels’ first start this afternoon in Colorado. After all, he didn’t pitch all that much during spring training as a result of the elbow stiffness he experienced in mid-March. Plus, when we last saw Cole in Saturday’s Spring Training finale against Tampa, he didn’t exactly look sharp.

Well, after today, we can draw one fairly obvious conclusion: Cole Hamels is not ready for regular season baseball. In 3.2 innings, Hamels allowed 7 earned runs on 11 hits and a walk. This wasn’t exactly the outing we had hoped for from our World Series MVP. Hamels’ velocity wasn’t where it needs to be for him to dominate a game like he did last postseason. Couple that with the fact he left a good number of pitches in the middle of the plate today, where I could even hit the ball hard and you have all of the elements that lead to that kind of line.

Cole’s struggles today fit perfectly with the subpar starting pitching we’ve seen all week. This team needs to get this starting pitching conundrum solved before it isn’t ‘early’ anymore.

Next up, Brett Myers tries to even his record when he makes his second start of the season against Colorado tomorrow night.

Game Three: The Comeback Phils

If you turned off the TV or radio or left CBP early today, you missed one hell of a game. We’ll look back at this game as one of the highlights of the 2009 season without a doubt.

The Phillies used an eight run 7th inning to beat the Braves 12-11 and save a game from this opening three game series. Most impressive, the Phils proved they can play small ball. They didn’t hit one homerun within that monster inning. In fact, they used a smattering of singles, walks and a hit batsman to churn out those eight runs. An inning likes this gives me confidence this team can find a way to score some runs even if the big bats aren’t clicking.

Three more quick thoughts after today’s big win:

• He still has a ways to go, but Raul Ibanez certainly has started to win over the extremely tough Philly fans. He contributed 2 hits, including a two-run homer, 3 RBIs and scored three runs in the win today. If he can come through like that on a consistent basis, he’ll surely serve as an adequate replacement for Pat the Bat.
  
• Not to take away from the big win, but for the third straight game the starting pitching turned in a subpar performance. Once again, the Phillies found themselves trailing 2-0 before they even took their first cuts at the plate. These pitchers need to figure out a way to get out of the first inning unscathed. Hopefully, Cole Hamels can jump start the rotation with a solid start Friday in Colorado.


• When did Ryan Howard learn to play defense? He’s played spectacular D through the first three games. Apparently, the Big Boy brought the leather this season.
  
• I might be in the minority here, but I didn’t really understand all of the hype about what the rings looked like. I loved the ceremony and I definitely I wish I was there to see it. However, why do I care how many diamonds the ring has? The Phillies aren’t giving me one. Maybe if the team decided to give me a ring, I’d care.

Now the Phillies head out to Colorado to take on the Rockies in a three game series. Early April baseball in Colorado should be quite the adventure. Colorado shouldn’t play a home game until June.

Game Two: Frozen Bats

Windy and cold. Yup. I love April baseball.

The Phillies left 11 men on base as they lost to the Atlanta Braves 4-0 tonight at CBP. Offensively, the Phillies slugged six hits and created a few opportunities to score. However, as Chris Wheeler pointed out in the telecast, most of those opportunities came with two outs.

In his first start of the year, Jamie Moyer fell behind right from the outset as he let up a leadoff solo homerun to Kelly Johnson in the top of the 1st. From there, Moyer allowed three more earned runs on 8 hits over five innings.

My take: Since it’s only game two, we’ll use the cold as the excuse for the lack of offensive production tonight. However, that excuse will only go so far. The fact is the Phils left 11 men on base tonight. They need to chase some of those runners home.

The Phillies will try to avoid a sweep by the Braves tomorrow in the hyped ring ceremony game.

Game 1: Hands Off the Panic Button

Phillies fans, welcome back to reality.

Brett Myers returned to early 08 form and the offense couldn’t figure out Derek Lowe as the World Champion Phillies dropped their first meaningful game since last October’s World Series 4-1 to division rival Atlanta.

As the radio hosts and bloggers have said all day long, last night’s game was only the first of 162. Clearly, we shouldn’t panic or jump off the bandwagon just yet. Just like one win can’t make a season, one loss won’t kill it either. If you find yourself panicked at this point, relax. This team will be fine.

However, the game turned out to be a letdown coming off the world championship celebration of the past five months. We were amped up and ready to go only to watch Brett Myers let up three homeruns and the Phils offense squeeze out a meager four hits. Perhaps, the Phillies suffered from a bit of a championship ceremony hangover. That’s understandable. As long as it doesn’t extend too far into April, this team will be fine.

Much of the talk today focused on the left-left-left middle of the order the Phils currently feature. This was one of the few concerns a lot of us had coming into this season. Well, it took one game for this potential downfall to rear its ugly head. Braves left-handed closer Mike Gonzalez made Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez look silly in the bottom of the ninth with runners on base. The quick fix is probably to move Jayson Werth down into the 5-hole and move Victorino to the 2-hole. This lineup might not be ideal, but it breaks up those left-handed bats and forces the opposing manager to game plan more instead of sticking with a tough lefty in the late innings.

Problem solved. Now, we must figure a way to get Brett Myers out of the first inning.

The Beer List

About a month ago, I went to the Saint Joe's-Penn game at the Palestra with my buddy, Gary R. Butterworth. (By the way, if you're looking for an enlightening read, you may want to check Gary's post on his blog about how former Jeopardy champion, Ken Jennings, measures up against his favorite game show contestant, Wesley "Two Scoops" Berry from the original American Gladiators. Here's the link. For some reason, I remember toasting "Two Scoops" quite a bit during my Bachelor Party.) After the game, we decided to walk back to 30th St. Station and grab a beer at the bar. This bar had some different stuff on tap so I ordered something off the chalkboard in front of me and Butterworth did the same. As the bartender went to get our beers, Butterworth pulls out a pen and piece of paper from his wallet and starts writing something. Intrigued, I asked him what the hell he was doing. He told me he was writing down the name of the beer he had just ordered because he keeps an excel spreadsheet of all of the beers he's had in his lifetime. Just as I started to make fun of him, I stopped. I realized how genius this was. It's essentially a log of debauchery. I love it.

I told you that story because I've decided to blatantly steal Butterworth's idea and keep a tab of all the beers I have tried. I don't know why I didn't think of this first. Every time, I walk into Total Wine off of Naaman's Rd. in Claymont, DE, I always think to myself how great it would be to be a real beer connoisseur. That's pretty yuppie, I know, but it's a dream nonetheless. To be perfectly honest, I know nothing about beer. I only know I like it. So, this might be a good way to expand my horizons a little bit.

As far as my current list goes, it's a little pathetic. Right now, I only have 22 official entries. I know I've had a lot more. However, since I started the list well after my beer drinking career began, I know I'm missing quite a few. I included only those I have had since I stared the list about a month ago. Plus, I went back to Maxim's recent 99 Best Bottles (And Cans) On Earth (January 2009, Hilary Duff) and used it as a guide to add those beers I know I have had.

What's the connection to this blog? Well, most of my beer consumption comes while watching sports, so there you go. Plus, to be quite honest (and a bit pompous), I don't really need a connection. This is my blog.

I invite any who reads (if anyone reads) to suggest something they like. I don't know if anything will trump Yuengling as my personal favorite, but like I said I'm willing to branch out a bit. While I'll keep the master list on an excel spreadsheet, I'll periodically post updates here.

So, here's it goes. The Beer List...

Blue Moon
Coors Light
Corona Extra
Dogfish Head - 90 Minute Imperial IPA
Flying Fish - ESP Amber Ale
Flying Fish - HopFish India Pale Ale
Heineken
Heineken Lite
Magic Hat Number 9
Miller Lite
Natural Light
Newcastle Brown Ale
Olde English
Pilsner Urquell
Rolling Rock
Sam Adams - Boston Lager
Sam Adams - Irish Red
Saranac Irish Red
St. Pauli Girl
Stella Artois
Yuengling Light
Yuengling Traditional Lager

Cole Hit the Big Time

I found this on the700level.com today. Forget about curses. That's a pretty nice cover, if you ask me. I'll hit Barnes & Noble tomorrow to pick grab this one. Here's a link to the article.

By the way, I took advantage of the Phillies single game pre-sale last night and bought a pair of tickets for Saturday, May 2nd against Jose "they always say something about us and we don’t even focus on them" Reyes and the Mets. I'm stoked.

Flyered Up!

I watched about two and a half periods of the Flyers this weekend, which is about two periods more than I had watched all season until this point. Apparently, I picked a pretty good weekend to jump back on the Flyers bandwagon, as they took care of the Islanders 5-1 at home on Saturday and then embarrassed the Rangers 5-2 at the Garden on Sunday. That's a combined 10-3 bludgeoning of both New York teams in just over 24 hours. It doesn't get any better than that.

I'm the furthest thing from a hockey analyst. So, I can't really say much more than what's already been said. Marty Biron played exceptionally well in back to back starts. He stopped 38 of 39 shots in Saturday's win against the Isles. He, then, followed that performance by stopping 35 of 37 total shots. Rookie Claude Giroux looked impressive as he chipped in with a total of two goals and two assists over the course of the weekend. Plus, Mike Richards set an NHL record on Sunday by netting his third career three-on-five shorthanded goal. Overall, not a bad weekend.

Maybe now that we're creeping up on March and the playoffs are around the corner, I'll start to get a little more Flyered Up. I just needed to force myself to sit down and watch some hockey to realize how much I've missed the Flyers since last May.

Anyway, I don't think I've posted a decent hockey fight yet on this blog. So, without further ado, here's a pretty nice Arron Asham beatdown from Saturday's game. I guess when you can't think of anything else to say about hockey, you might as well end with a good hockey fight.

Reuben Amaro…The First 100 Days

I heard on WIP this afternoon that today marks exactly 100 days since Reuben Amaro took over GM responsibilities for our Phils. Apparently, this is some kind of new benchmark as the media has adopted the 100 day mark as the first milestone for our new President. So, I thought we should take the opportunity to look at the progress of our new GM after his first 100 days in office. Overall, I’m pretty impressed.

First of all, I commend Reuben for nailing down deals with both Cole Hamels and Ryan Howard. With brand spankin' new deals, both players can avoid the annual albatross of the arbitration process for the next three years. Nothing good ever comes out of an arbitration hearing, so the Phillies definitely didn’t need that distraction to plague them every offseason for the foreseeable future. Hamels, Howard and the Phillies organization can now worry more about the task at hand than on a pending gruesome arbitration process. With these deals, Reuben was able to prevent a great deal of headache down the road.

Secondly, Reuben was also able to lock down three more important second-tier players as well, by signing Jayson Werth , Ryan Madson and Jaime Moyer. The deal with Moyer was especially important because I think Moyer probably had a lot to do with Cole Hamels development so far. Moyer brings a lot of experience to the table so keeping him around to mentor the young pitchers will pay huge dividends.

As far as the Ibanez deal, the jury is obviously still out on that one. Yes, I think Ibanez serves as an upgrade over Pat Burrell. I don’t think anyone will dispute that fact. However, as I wrote before, I have a problem with the economy of the deal. I’m not convinced the additional output we’ll get from the left field position will be worth the $36 million over three years the Phils spent. Ibanez will be 39 by the end of this deal. Will he still have the numbers at that point to justify his contract? Eh, I’m not sure. I think the better move was to keep Burrell for two more years at the discounted price Burrell accepted with Tampa.

Plus, Burrell would have provided the right-handed bat the Phillies desperately need. Although the numbers show Ibanez can hit lefties, I still don’t feel completely comfortable with the 3-4-5 part of the lineup all hitting from the left side of the plate. This might pose a problem for the Phils in the late innings of a tight game. With the middle of the lineup full of left-handed hitters, they may find themselves on the short end of a matchup war in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. This lack of a solid right-handed bat is my main criticism of the Amaro era this far.

I give Reuben a solid A- for his first offseason in the corner office. He didn’t exactly inherit an easy situation with so many key pieces of a championship team arbitration-eligible. However, he was able to avoid a lot of bitterness and provide some solid peace of mind by lock up some of his biggest talent. With the payroll now north of $130 million this season, the Phillies will surely pay for it though. I guess that’s the price of a champion. Now I know how the Red Sox feel.

The Boring Days of Winter

I've watched very little sports since the Eagles lost in the NFC Championship Game three weeks ago. Sure, I watched the Super Bowl and I even caught a Saint Joe’s basketball game at the Palestra. Other than that, though, I would probably put the over/under on the number of hours Comcast SportsNet has graced my television at 2…and I’d take the under. The Eagles absolutely killed me. The game in Arizona sucked the passion right out of me for a while. Before the Phillies won, I guess I went into all big games with a certain understanding that I would probably be disappointed. But when the Phillies won the World Series, I started to expect to win the big games. That’s probably why this game felt more like a stomach punch than even the Tampa Bay game did in 2002/03. For about three weeks now, I’ve been searching for air and I’ve still yet to find it.

Aside from the tough Eagles loss though, my complete disinterest might be product of the very boring month of February. The sports calandar just doesn't give me anything to keep me watching right now. In the last ten years or so, I’ve become pretty casual about the Flyers and Sixers so I won't get too charged about about either of these teams until playoff time. Also, I don't jump on the NFL draft and fee agency bandwagon like many others. I can't get excited about football when we're about six monthes away from the start of training camp. I like college basketball, but I’m mostly interested in the local teams. Unfortunately, most of their games aren’t even broadcasted. So, here I am, stuck in the sports black hole I like to call February. I try to turn on the TV or WIP, but I can only listen to so much fallout from the Eagles season and I don’t need to psycho-analyze Donovan’s comments about the Eagles defense blowing the game in Arizona. It’s just not that interesting to me at this point. Oddly enough, I find myself much more engaged with President Obama’s economic stimulus that the happenings on Broad and Pattison.

Yesterday, though, I did see the light at the end of the tunnel. As I was washing my car in the 65 degree weather, the excitement of the upcoming baseball season really hit me. Pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater on Saturday and I count this as one of my favorite events of the year. Everything's fresh during Spring Training. From, here on out, we'll have a game just about every night. Plus, the start of the baseball season signals the arrival of warmer weather, lazy days, BBQs, Harry Kalas and all of the other cliched, sappy things I love about summer. Plus, we're the defending World Champions. How sweet is it this year that the Phillies are being chased and not doing the chasing?

Five days and counting.

Do It For Dawkins

I have to give my buddy Dan credit for finding this video. He sent me this link yesterday afternoon. If this video doesn't pump you up for the Eagles game this Sunday, nothing will. Enjoy.

All In the Meatballs

A lot of sports fans hold certain superstitions when they watch their teams. Some people sit in the same chair for every game. Others, and I include myself in this group, will not wash their game day jersey throughout the entire season if the season happens to be going well. Each fan has their own unique habits, but the motivation is the same. They do whatever is in their power to help their team win. Like I said, I can’t say I’m above these routines. In fact, in the last three weeks, I have developed a new one and it revolves around meatballs and homemade sauce.

In our year and a half of marriage, my wife has used Sundays as her day to experiment in the kitchen. During this time, she tries all sorts of recipes and 99% of the time they end up tasting pretty good. The week of the Dallas-Eagles “win and in” game, she took a stab at homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs. The meatballs and sauce turned out pretty well and, more importantly, the Eagles won and somehow snuck into the playoffs.

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but the sauce and meatballs may be the key to the Eagles pretty incredible run over the last three weeks. These delightful Italian staples continue to serve as game day food of choice in the Maiese household throughout the playoffs. Each time we’ve indulged, the Eagles find a way to win a must-win game. During Wildcard Weekend, we had meatball sandwiches; the Eagles beat Minnesota. This past Sunday, we ate leftover baked ziti drizzled with more homemade sauce and a few more meatball; the Eagles beat the Giants. You see the common denominator here?

Am I crazy? Absolutely. However, I can guarantee you that at about 3PM this Sunday, I’ll be gnawing at a meatball while I’m watching my Birds beat up on that fraud of a playoff team, the Arizona Cardinals.

Now that I’m finished with the meatball and sauce story, let me run through some thoughts on our revitalized Birds:

• I don’t mean to belabor the point, but who saw this turnaround coming after the Cincinnati and Baltimore game? Honestly, after the Ravens game, I started to count down the days until Spring Training. I never imagined I would write about the Birds in the NFC Championship game.
  
• This will mark the fifth time in eight years the Eagles will play in the NFC Championship game. When you think about it, that stat is really remarkable. During the rough patch in midseason when we were calling for Andy Reid’s head, I think we lost sight of just good of a track record this guy has. Sure, we Philly fans subscribe to the ‘what have you done for me lately?’ philosophy. However, you can’t argue with wins and, as evidenced by the above stat, Andy Reid wins.
  
• I love to watch this defense right now. They are all over the field on every play. Of course, you can’t talk about the defense without singling out the heart and soul of that squad, Brian Dawkins. He looks like he turned back his internal clock about six years. He’s all over the field on every play. Plus, that guy can hit.
  
• I really didn’t see the big deal with Donovan picking up the phone on the Giants’ sideline at the end of the fourth quarter on Sunday. The move showed Donovan is loose and I like that. Surely though, I wish the play didn’t result in a 15 yard penalty, but sometime’s a little fun is worth it.
  

I heard an interesting little tidbit on mid-day show on WIP. Before the Phillies won this year, the last time they won it all was ’80. Rotate that year 180° and you get ’08. Now, take the last time the Eagles won the NFL Championship, ’60 and rotate that number 180°. Amazing.


Sunday can’t come fast enough.

Pat…It’s been fun

We officially reached the end of an era in Phillies baseball today. Pat Burrell (and Elvis the dog) has left the building.

Burrell signed a two-year deal reportedly worth about $16 million today with the Tampa Bay Rays. I can’t blame Burrell for inking the deal. He needed to move to an American League city where he could find his niche as a full time DH. He fits the DH role perfectly – a marginal, at best, defensive player with bad wheels who processes the ability to provide a little pop in the middle of the order. I think he’ll do well down in Tampa. Good luck to him.

I have my reservations about how the Phillies handled the Burrell situation. I can’t help but feel the Phillies bowed out of the Burrell race much sooner than they should have. Obviously, Burrell’s initial asking price of 2 years $22 million (or something along those lines) was a little steeper than the Phillies were willing go. However, I think they made a huge mistake by passing on Burrell so quickly and jumping on aging outfield Raul Ibanez. The Phils could have put forth a little more effort in the negotiation process to see if they could secure Burrell at the much more economical price Tampa paid. On paper, Ibanez might be an upgrade. However, I think I'd much rather have a 32 year old Burrell on the books for two more years versus a 36 year old Ibanez for three years.

Either way, I’ll miss Burrell next season. Despite his knack for looking at third strikes, Burrell stood as the consistent force in the lineup for the Phils over the past nine seasons. I’ll find it extremely weird to look at the Phils starting lineup without Pat the Bat penciled into the No. 5 slot.

Still Not Sure How We Got Here

Ummm…I still don’t fully understand how they got to this point. Why am I writing about an Eagles playoff game? This time two weeks ago, we had pretty much written the post-mortem on the 2008 Philadelphia Eagles. I thought Reggie Brown’s catch one yard shy of the end zone sealed this season’s fate. Then, the inexplicable happened. Every piece fell into place ever so perfectly. The Texans found a way to beat the Bears and, more surprisingly, the lowly Raiders found a way to beat the Bucs on the road. From there, the Birds took care of business against the Cowboys and, somehow, in miraculous fashion, the Eagles found themselves in the playoffs.

“Playoffs?!?!?!?!”

Yes, Coach Mora. Playoffs.

Even more surprising, the Eagles found a way to win a game in said playoffs today in Minnesota. It surely wasn’t pretty, but I’ll take it. I’ll take everything I can get at this point, considering where this team was six weeks ago.

I haven’t watched any highlights, listened to any postgame or looked at any stats yet, so I’m writing this completely blind. However, here are the two main thoughts running through my head right now after the win.

First of all, the defense played pretty well today. Again, I haven’t looked at the stats yet so I don’t know if it translated statistically. Of course, Adrian Peterson was going to get his. He’ll light up just about any defense in the league. However, the Eagles were able to get at TAR-varis (as Barkann likes to call him) Jackson. Moreover, Asante Samuel had that key interception return for a touchdown, which stood as the Eagles only TD until the fourth quarter. With the inconsistent offense the Eagles throw out there every week, the defense continues to be the consistent driving force for Eagles’ success over the last few weeks.

Speaking of the inconsistent offense, the Eagles certainly struggled to put the ball in the end zone today. Clearly, one offensive touchdown won’t get it done against the Giants next week. Before the Westbrook touchdown, I had serious reservations about weather this team even deserved to move on to the divisional round, considering the putrid offensive output. The touchdown helped, but I’m still a little stressed about that heading into next week’s Giants game.

So, I guess it’s time for a third go-round with the Giants next Sunday. Winnable? Sure. Will a win require a just about perfect effort in all facets of the game? Most definitely. Let the countdown begin.