Why We Watch

The best part about all the Phillies games I saw this year (in Philly, at Shea, on TV at the bar, on TV at the bar, on my laptop) was that it was not a total waste of time.

In case you missed it, the Fightin' Phils clinched the National League East on Saturday, putting up win #91 and making the question of what the idiots at Shea were up to totally irrelevant. The Mets, as it turned out, lost their final game to Florida on Sunday, and will not be in the Playoffs.

The temptation to write about the Mets collapse is almost unbearable. After getting kicked out of that game at Shea, my good-natured bellicosity towards the team and fans turned into a justified vigilante renegade jihad shitstorm of fury. But it's almost too hard to really hate Los Mets fans, because... ouch, that's gotta hurt. I feel bad for you Mets nerds, but that's what you get for buying stock in crumbling geezers like Pedro, Moises Alou, Billy Wagner, etc.

But enough about the New York Mess; this is all about Los Filis de Filadelfia. The Phils' final record of 92-70 is their best regular season mark since the magical 1993 season, when they went 97-65 and made it to the World Series. That Phillies squad probably had more consistent starting pitching, with Curt Schilling, Tommy Greene, Danny Jackson, and Terry Mulholland manning the rotation. But the overall talent level on THIS Phillies team, which has now won back-to-back pennants for the 1st time since '80-'81, is considerably higher.

The roster is largely homegrown, with it's core group of stars reaching the peak of their abilities at the same time. Hamels and Myers (when they have their stuff) are as formidable a front-end combo as any in the Majors. Jamie Moyer pitches around the same speed as a pre-pubescent middle school softball player, but he's the man who won the division-clinching game for the Phils 2 years in a row now. In the Playoffs, you need 3 reliable starters to win a series. The Phillies have that.

Below: The 74 year old Moyersaurus


Brade Lidge deserves some Cy Young consideration, after posting a perfect 41-for-41 season saving games. That's amazing! There were many, MANY sticky situations, but Lidge got it done time and time again. The 8th inning proved to be a trouble spot after the All Star break, with the loss of washed up insurance salesman Tom Gordon (probably my favorite scapegoat of all time) proving to be vital. If the starters can eat up at least 6 innings, J.C. Romero and Ryan Madson will be a big part of the bridge to Lidge.

The lineup has many weapson, including an absolute monster named Ryan Howard. The 2-time National League MVP (I'm going to go ahead and award it now) pretty much carried the Phillies through September, hitting bomb after bomb to left center, the upper deck in right, and Camden, NJ.


Howard's September Numbers: .345 Ave. 11 HRs. 32 RBIs. .851 slugging. 1.267 OPS. Ridiculous.

To beat Milwaukee, and beyond, the Phillies need excellence from everyone from Charlie Manuel to Tadohito Iguchi / So Taguchi. It's going to take good at-bats from Pat Burrell, base-stealing from Shane Victorino, and not-striking-out from Howard and Werth. But that's for the next blog post. For now:

THE PHILLIES WIN THE PENNANT, BIOTCH

Cockroaches... Everywhere

They were looking at me funny on the subway this morning, as if they knew I was still wearing the same clothes from last night. Schoolchildren and jobless i-bankers alike stared at me with equal parts curiosity and fear. Maybe it was because my eyes were as bloodshot as the red hat on my head, but it probably had something to do with my t-shirt that read: "Dallas Sucks... T.O. Swallows." (Ask Tony Romo... it's true)

New Yorkers, welcome to the Philadelphia State of Mind.

All the Mets-bashing this summer was just time-wasting. Ladies and gentlemen, the Cockroaches are back. The Dallas Cowgirls barely beat the Eagles at home last night, in front of thousands of nervous fans and the skeletal remains of Jerry Jones. Jessica Simpson accidentally went to the Astros-Cubs game being played in Milwaukee, and was nowhere to be seen. The pressure was squarely on the shoulders of this over-hyped version of "America's Team," and we let them off the hook.

It was a marquee matchup of two NFL powers in an early season showdown for NFC East bragging rights. As the non-funny bald man Tony Kornheiser put it: "These two teams have to be looking around and saying... Who's better than us?"

The answer to that lies in the next 20 weeks of the NFL regular season and playoffs, a grueling marathon of attrition that leaves only 1 team standing at the end. The Eagles fared well in what will likely be one of their most difficult games of the season. The Cowgirls have to wonder how good they really are, if an 8-8 team without it's 2 starting wide receivers can move the ball as easily as McNabb and Co. did last night.

The game against Pittsburgh next weekend now looms large for the Iggles. If they play like they did last night (sans DeSean Jackson's Leon Lett moment), they're going to beat the Steelers, and most of the teams on their schedule.

T.O. needs to be curb stomped.

Donovan's Last Stand

In the interest of upholding the integrity of prognosticators anywhere, this post should have been made BEFORE the Eagles 38-3 joyride over the hapless Rams. But I didn't get around to it because I'm lazy, and I also had a run in with the Pussycat Dolls this weekend (still brushing my shoulders off).

Seriously, this is quite possibly Donovan McNabb's last season under center as quarterback of our Philadelphia Eagles. But the Syracuse legend and the greatest quarterback in the history of the Philadelphia franchise still can't seem to earn the benefit of the doubt from a fickle, resentful Philly fan majority. The memory of his scatter-brained performance in Super Bowl XXXIX will undoubtedly resonate in our collective subconscious for ages, or at least until the Birds redeem themselves in the Big Show one of these years.

One misstep, one bad game, and #5 will hear the boos from the Philly faithful. A precedent that was established way back at at the 1999 NFL draft continues to echo and haunt the remade quarterback, as his street cred and margin for error shrink with each injury plagued season. But does Donovan really deserve this duplicitous treatment? Honestly, are we better off with Kevin Kolb right now, or were we any better off with Jeff Garcia in '06, or Doug Pederson in '98??



This dude is the best quarterback you have ever seen don the winged helmet, period. Granted, this post is coming after a game that saw D-Mac put up almost 300 yards passing and 3 TD's in the first half alone. We witnessed a Donovan that was not even pretending to be the scrambling impresario that led the Eagles to multiple playoff births earlier in the decade. He trotted out of bounds on multiple occasions, smartly avoiding even the slightest chance of injury. His throws were accurate, his body language confident, his game all around tight and crisp. No chest pounding or pointing to the sky after scores, either. This version of McNabb has been there, done that. Could it be that Donovan has become a true veteran, poised to finally lead this team to the promised land?

McNabb will forever have the benefit of the doubt from this Cuse alum, but the same can't be said for the typical Eagles fan (K, you reading this?). Yes, he does drive me crazy sometimes. His standard bullet-throw-straight-into-the-turf has become a staple of Eagles offensive failures, and he's definitely made the absolute least of an already weak receiving corps at times... crucial times. There is a history of Donovan coming up small in the big games, going back to his underwhelming performance at the '99 Orange Bowl for the Syracuse Orangemen. If you have doubts about McNabb's college career at SU, though, refer to the following Wiki citation:

One of the most decorated athletes in Syracuse University history, McNabb was a four-year starter at quarterback and a reserve on the school's nationally ranked basketball team. On the gridiron, he was named the Big East Conference's offensive player of the decade' for the 1990s, and offensive player of the year an unprecedented three times from 1996-98, as well as the first-team all-conference vote earner in each of his four seasons. Later, he was named to the Syracuse All-Century Football team.



As an Eagle, McNabb already owns or will break virtually every significant passing record. The disappointment from the last three football seasons in Philadelphia has obscured the sparkling highlight plays that McNabb is capable of producing on any given Sunday. He gives us a chance to win against anybody, in any game.

The point is - you're going to miss Donovan McNabb once the Kevin Kolb era starts. You're going to miss the effortless 90 yard bombs to Hank Baskett, or the sound-splitting lasers to whatever other scrubby receiver the Birds are currently employing. Kevin Curtis will be back eventually, and DeSean Jackson is beyond words at this point (post soon to come). When you throw in a healthy LJ Smith, and the always dangerous MVP-caliber Brian Westbrook, you realize that McNabb has quite an underrated arsenal at his disposal.

Next week is the true test in Dallas. Nationally televised game. It makes me think back to 2004, when the Eagles torched and embarrassed the Cowgirls on Monday Night Football, 49-21. McNabb was throwing TD's to TO back in those days, but now Terrell Owens plays for the enemy. The enemy is formidable, and this blogger will be getting rowdy for that game FO SHO.

Eagles 36, Cowboys 28. See you all next week.