On The Streets of Philadelphia

Randy Neil
Randy Neil

It was a pretty big week in the world of Philadelphia sports. I have recently moved to the upper-east side of Elkton, Maryland (which makes it sound like a city…. trust me, it is not.) The reason I mention this is because anyone who lives in Maryland gets 0, count em, 0 Philadelphia sports. It’s absolutely horrifying. Literally twenty seconds North, or twenty seconds South, I would be privileged to have all the Sixers, Flyers, Eagles, and Phillies I need…. legally. Now, I have to resort to some alternative methods in order to watch my teams.

Trust me, those methods have been resorted to.

1) The Eagles aren’t as bad off as everyone is saying. They barely beat the Browns, I know, but football is football, man. There are only 16 games in a season, so any team can put up a decent fight on almost any given week. Especially week 1. Everyone is getting up to speed, which is why half of your fantasy players didn’t pan out so well. Are you going to drop Victor Cruz now all of the sudden? Didn’t think so.

That being said…. Michael Vick looked absolutely atrocious. As if the injuries worries weren’t enough, now we need to focus on his actual decision making and talent. This is something we’ve never really had to discuss before. It was clear that his reads were dead wrong in most cases. If not for the dropped interception late in the fourth, we’d be sitting at 0-1 right now. That loss would fall totally on Michael Vick’s shoulders.

Which got me to thinking: How come the emotion after a game like this is caution rather than criticism? Donovan McNabb never, (pans to stat sheet), never threw 4 interceptions in his career. The public opinion, however, for his entire tenure with the Eagles was always to bench him, or trade him. He was a bum, etc, etc. Why is Vick above this sort of ridiculous criticism? Everyone is worried about Vick, but no one is really upset with him. Mark my words: His frail body will not last all season.

2) The Sixers have fired their play-by-play announcer, Tom Lamaine. Thank God. That guy was horrific, and even worse, he followed the best play-by-play announcer the Sixers ever had, Matt Cord. In a quote:

“He told me I gave them exactly what they wanted,” the former CBS 3 meteorologist said. “He’s feeling his way through the NBA, and he did a lot of traveling around to different stadiums. He heard more excitable guys, something I cannot be and don’t want to be.”
-Tom Lamaine, Philly.com

You’re a sports announcer!! Why don’t you want to be exciting? Stick to weather, old man.

There has been no announcement for whether Matt Cord will return this year to fill the position, but it looks pretty unlikely. We can only be so hopeful….

3) Speaking of hope, there’s a shred left for the Philadelphia Phillies. Not much, but it exists. After quietly winning 16 of the last 22 games and sweeping the Rockies, the Phillies are now 5 games back for the second wild-card slot in the NL.

I wonder what the record for the Phillies is since the All-Star Break. I would have to guess it’s top 5. Maybe top 3.

During Saturday’s rain out, I was able to hit Twitter and start rapping with one of the Phillies’ beat writers, Kevin Cooney. The man was spot on responsive….

Pretty cool, lol.

With 21 games left, there’s a good chance that things will get exciting. With a majority of our players finally healthy and back on the roster, there’s finally a good representation of the team would would have been this year. Maybe we still can be…

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