Loss #29

At 2:07 am last night when Jeff Conine grounded out for the 3rd time this game the Phillies officially had their 29th loss of the second half of the season. As you know, well... those who've actually been reading my blog know, I predicted that if the Phightin Phils were to make the playoffs they could only lose 28 games after the all star break. Until last night they were only 1 game out of the wild card, but with the Dodgers and Padres hammering the Rockies and Diamondbacks respectively, the Phils now sit 2 games back of the Dodgers in the chase, who sit 1 game back of the Padres for the NL West lead. Now it isn't "over" per say for the Phils, but they have put their backs against the wall officially, and they've got to be exhausted from their last two games which had them sitting in RFK Stadium for a total of almost 12 hours. God knows I'm tired of watching them. If the Dodgers lose 2 out of 3 and the Phils sweep they will be tied for the wild card and have a 1 game playoff against the Dodgers Monday in Philly. If the Dodgers lose all 3 and the Phils sweep then the Phils get the Wild Card. Now if the Padres get swept and the Phils sweep and the Dodgers win 2 or 3 games this weekend the Phils will play the Padres on Monday in a 1 game playoff in Philly. Now if the Padres get swept the Dodgers lose 2 of 3 and the Phils sweep the Marlins... who knows. Then you have to throw in the mix of the NL Central chase with Houston and St. Louis and if the winner there ends up with the same record as the NL West leader and the Phils... wow... my head hurts. But regardless of what happens... if the Phils lose again, they're most likely done and yet another year goes by where we follow them all the way down to the end of the season and then watch our chances wash away. Agony at its best.

A new beginning and a final stretch

If anything could exemplify the Philadelphia Sports teams it was the Eagles game this Sunday. In such a small 45 minute dose it wrapped up everything that we've always seen in our teams. Play well, keep us hanging on till the last second even when our backs are to the wall and there's a 9000 lb gorilla bearing down on us and then at the last second as I like to say, the rip our hearts out of our asses and cram it down our throats. The Eagles led 24-7... thats right a 17 point lead with only 15 minutes of football left against a Giants team that had been shutdown the entire time... only to blow that lead on poor clock management and shotty ball handling. Sitting here now, Tuesday afternoon, I still can't believe what I witnessed in person that Sunday Afternoon. They DOMINATED...and I mean completely DOMINATED that game. From front to back over 3 quarters and if they had wrapped that up they would've been considered by everyone an NFC powerhouse for sure... forget Dallas, New York, Washington, Carolina... this is Philadelphia's Conference to lose... but they didn't and now they sit, tied 3 ways for 1st place and we can't forget Dallas, New York, Washington or Carolina. Now we have to settle for the mediocrity everyone expected from them all off season. Now it may just be me because I'm biased, or it may be real, but for 45 minutes of that game they looked like the Super Bowl team from just two years ago. Now only time will tell, and lucky for us that game was just the second of the year, and we'll have to sit back, wait and see what can become of these 2006 Eagles and whether or not they can flip that game and learn from it or if they are completely devastated. They need to soundly beat the 49ers and the Packers in my opinion to still offer fans like myself hope that they can finish at the top, which i still believe they can. So when I go back to that stadium on October 8th to see the game of the year thus far... I can walk into that stadium with that cocky glare and confidence that they'll kick the crap out of the Cowboys. "If you're looking for T.rO.uble... iT.'s O.ver in Dallas"

As for the Phils they start their final stretch with my prediction still in site. 26 losses thus far since the all-star break and I said if they lose no more than 28 then they will win the wild card. The loss last night to the Cubs was a shame and they now have to go 10 and 2 in the final 12 for my prediction to come true. With San Diego and LA trading spots at the top of the West and Wild Card the Phillies are essentially chasing two teams. Today they sit 1.5 games behind San Diego and 2 games behind the LA Dodgers. The closest team to the wild card behind the Phils are the Giants who are 2.5 games behind them... and we are down our Final stretch. After this series with the Cubs they have a game against a 3 game set at home vs. the Marlins, 1 vs. Houston, 3 at Washington and 3 at Florida. All teams below .500 and all teams beatable, they lead the season series against all of them. So it lies in the hands of the Phils... 1.5 out of the wild card with 12 to go... my prediction is they need to win 10 of the 12... my further prediction is... they win 8 or 9, lose by 1 game and again like all teams, keep us hanging on to the edge of our seats until they put themselves in prime position to rip our hearts out our asses. Good Luck Phils/Eagles and lets try to win one for the fans this time!

Roger Maris, Big Mac, Sosa, Bonds or Howard?

So how bout it sports fans, after watching this exciting labor day weekend of baseball and the Phils hanging on to their playoff hopes, I turned to ESPN.com today only to see an interesting question on the front page. If Ryan Howard hits 62 home runs (currently 53)this year would you consider him the all time single season home run leader. I voted No. But after checking the results... all 22,000+ results... turns out 52% of people say yes. Wow. Really? I was very very surprised by that. Not only has McGwire hit 70 and Bonds hit 73, but Sosa has hit more than 61 twice. I guess the fans are really taking this steroid thing seriously, I mean I understand why they might say that but to have more than half of the baseball population say that they still consider the record to be 61 is pretty amazing. The steroid use really appears that it was out of control and while I have no problem saying yeah those guys probably did steroids, Baseball is the one to blame here. They sat back and watched the McGwire/Sosa chase of 61 in 1998 and just rolled in the dough as the fans' hearts were won back. But now there are so many questions about Bonds in what has enduced all but an outright confession from him, and you think... last night he hit his 730th HomeRun and does anyone care that he is 25 away from Hammerin' Hank besides San Francisco?? At least 90 if not 100% of fans believe that Bonds took steriods and delibrately cheated the game of baseball for a long time. So why should we count that record?? Well I guess we can ask ourselves the same about 73 in a season, or 70 or even 66 or 65. Could you imagine how different we'd all feel now, if we were sitting here saying "Ryan Howard; 24 games left and only 8 HomeRuns away from tying Roger Maris record?" Imagine the aura of baseball now... As Howard chases Maris the Phils chase the Wild Card. How different would we really be? So here's to Howard and his 9 HRs in his last 11 games and here's to the Phils who are desperately trying to "one-up" the Padres to get in. Good luck to you guys and maybe come October we'll all be talking about the new single season HR record holder... Ryan Howard.