For those wondering where i've been (all 3 of my fans), the Saint has been on the road again and this time has landed in the Greensboro NC area (Dudski all the way! I saw that on the back of a car yesterday, it was probably Dudski himself).  Well, it's time again to test my sporting aliegences pitting my orginal hometown teams against my new hometown teams.

Sixers vs Bobcats - There aren't many teams the Sixers are better than these days, the Bobcats however are one of them.  In fact the Bobcats remind me of the post Barkley teams of the Sixers that made me swear off basketball for years after.

The Sixers take this easy.

Flyers vs Hurricanes - Ouch, toughie here.  The 'Canes have three of my all-time favorite Flyers in recent history, Brind'amore, Williams and Recchi.  The 'Canes have always been my number 2 team, and will stay that way.  But their enjoyable brand of hockey will be watched often for sure.

Cards vs. Panthers - Many will criticize this, but It's the Cards for me.  As you may remember the Cards won me over as my only Arizona flip-flop.  This is another easy call for me.  I hate the Panthers.  I generally dislike any one player overhyped team.  That was the Panthers to a tea last year.  It might be rough come football season around here, but to escape too much persecution, i might just claim to be one of the leftover skins fans around here when asked at the sports bars.

Phillies vs. Braves - HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA right, like any diehard Phillies fan is ever going to route for the Braves, ever.

            Call me a pessimist, but things aren't looking good for the Flyers.  Down 2-0 already to the Buffalo Sabres' things just keep getting worse.  The team was lackluster to say the least in their 8-2 loss in game 2.  Once again the goaltending bug bit the Flyers.  Robert Esche managed to stop just 5 of Buffalo's 10 shots.  Yup that's right he only stopped 50% of Buffalo's shots.  That might be ok if the Flyers only allowed 2 shots the entire time he was in the game.  

 

            Goaltenders in Philadelphia have been the shown the door for much better performances in the recent past.  So barring a major comeback can we already assume that Esche is on his way out?  Given the recent past, I'd have to say yes.  The only way Esche could possibly stay is if he leads the team to the Stanley Cup.  Which is unlikely considering he probably won't see another start in the playoffs.  Niitymaki should be in goal for the remainder of the series and if they don't win, there should be no reason, other than injury, to put Esche back in the net. 

 

            The Flyers have been flirting with disaster for some time now.  They struggled to put the division away in the final weeks and slipped once again into their tradition playoff spot of 5^th.  Key injuries, a Flyers specialty, have played a major role in the teams play.  Things definitely are looking bleak for a team that looked to be a Stanley Cup contender coming into the season.  What went wrong?  Besides the injuries, poor goaltending down the stretch.  Goaltending has done the Flyers organization in the past few playoffs, why would it be any different this year.

 

            Is there an answer to the goaltending problem?  Niitymaki looks to have a promising career ahead of him.  He played very well all year long as well as in the Olympics.  The best move might be to let him develop, but this move won't fly in Philly.  The Flyers have had a series of excellent teams that underachieved in the playoffs.  After being swept by the Red Wings in the last Cup Finals appears the goaltending carousel has been in full motion.  Bobby Clarke may be a genius when it comes to garnering offensive talent, but one area that is definitely lacking is on defense. 

 

            The key on defense is the Goaltender, a position it seems Clarke has little respect for.  The Flyers always seem to have great young talent in the goaltending core; however it never seems to stay in the Flyers organization.  Brian Boucher, Maxim Oullette and Jean-Marc Pelliter were all highly touted prospects with the Flyers.  Oullette was the highest drafted goaltender in history (at the time).  But of those 3 on Boucher was given a real shot, remarkable considering he wasn't even the starter for the AHL's Phantoms (that honor went to Neil Little).  Boucher made the most of his tenure but couldn't find a way to win games in the playoffs.  He was shipped to Phoenix, Oullette to Washington and Pellitier to Carolina.  While those guys were developing the Flyers seemed content to try a series of goalies with little playoff success. 

 

Roman Checkmanek, Sean Burke and Robert Esche all posted excellent regular season stats.  All failed miserably in the playoffs, Checkmanek above all others couldn't seem to figure out playoff hockey.  Esche has had the most playoff success.  Last season's playoffs saw the Flyers bowing out to eventual champions the Tampa Bay Lightning in game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.  But, Esche has faltered all season long and once again I fear there will be a goaltending shake-up in Philadelphia this off-season.  Who could the Flyers add?  Well there in lies the problem.  Quality goaltenders with a lot of playoff experience are hard to come by, and if you can get them, won't come cheaply.  Rumors should begin to pop back up about the possibility of Roberto Luongo becoming the next Flyers goalie.  It would be a great addition to the team, but he lacks playoff experience, in fact he has never even played in a playoff game. 

 

So what will this mean?  Luongo to the Flyers very well might happen, but the reality of the situation is that their long term answer should be Nittymaki.  No one would like to hear this though as it probably means lowering the always high expectation of the Flyers organization.  Unfortunately Esche will probably be gone before the start of the next season.  A great goaltender at times, he happens to currently inhabit the wrong position at the wrong time.

     So you've finally decided to do it.  You packed up all your things, made arrangements, house, job, moving vehicle.  You're on your way to a new life in a new place.  You'll miss friends and family, but you knew that.  One thing you probablly didn't count on however is missing seeing your favorite sports teams in action.  Do you struggle, sometimes in vain to keep update with your old hometown teams or do you embrace your new local teams?

     It has been about a year now since I moved out to the desert and I'm still dealing with that dilema.  I grew up a Philadelphia sports fan.  It was easy to follow all the stories and the games, they were always readily available to watch.  Now 2,000 plus miles away from Philadelphia those games are few and far between on the television.  To make matters worse, it is hard to even catch the games on tv when they are on due to the time difference.  I'll always be a loyal Philly fan, but is it really ok to cheer for the teams in Arizona as well?  Let's compair the choices.

Flyers vs. Coyotes : This decision is actually a bit tougher than I ever had imagined.  Back east I could watch every single Flyers game and knew every player on the team as well as 90% of the players with their AHL team the Philadelphia Phantoms.  People can say all they want about Philadelphia being a football town and how the Eagles are the cities top team.  I wouldn't go that far.  The Flyers are always exceedingly popular in Philly, partly due to the fact that they have been consistent winners through their existence.  Especially come playoff time Philadelphia bleeds Orange and Black giving the guys in Green a real run for their money as the top bill in Philly.

     Now on the other hand we have the Phoenix Coyotes.  The 'yotes haven't put together too many winning teams since moving to the desert from Winnipeg.  There is also the obvious drawback of not many people being hockey fans out here.  It's the desert, in fact Glendale Arena during hockey season is the only place in Phoenix where you'll even be able to see Ice.  The Coyotes do hold one major attraction for me though.  The team does hold a large number of former Flyers on it's roster.  So cheering for the Yotes isn't the worst thing in the world.  In a way it is like cheering for your old hometown players who made the move to the desert just like you did.  (It is no wonder why the team has so many former Flyers, the staff is litered with former Flyers/Sixers personel)

Decision time : I'll always be a Flyers fan.  Maybe if the Coyotes were on TV more than 25 times a season it might be a harder decision.  But, I can also cheer for the Yotes, which I will do, since the teams play in different conferences and only meet 1-2 times per year.

Phillies vs. D-Backs: Another one I thought would be a no brainer.  Of all teams I've liked, the Phillies have always been number one and have never waivered.  (ok, I'll admit, they shared the title for a brief period of time with the Dodgers due to Gary Sheffield being one of my favorite players.  He reminds me a lot of my all-time favorite player Reggie Jackson).  But with the exception of about a year, there never has been anyone else I've cheered for.  I love all things Phillie. 

The D-Backs: No real love for the D-Backs here.  The only real positive they have going for them in my mind is they play in the National League (American League baseball are  dirty words to me).  They do have the added bonus of being on TV nearly every night.

Decision time:  Phillies still win out. The D-Backs can actually be enjoyable to watch on TV though.  Phillies come first, I'll cheer for the D-Backs except for when the Phils are in town, at which time I will be seated firmly in Chase Field wearing my Phillies gear.

Sixers vs. Suns:  By all accounts this would be one place where I switch my alligences.  The Suns are great, the Sixers are terrible.  In fact the Sixers of the post Barkely era are the reason why I don't watch or follow basketball closely.  They were hard to watch, with their best player being "The Other Shaq" Charles Shackleford.  Being in different conferences could give me the option to cheer for both.  But realistically I don't watch Basketball until the NBA finals.  

Decision time: Neither, I have no real attachment to basketball and I shouldn't even pretend anymore that I do actually have a favorite team.

Eagles vs. Cardinals:  The battle of the Birds.  I like the Eagles but am not the typical Iggle fanatic from Philadelphia.  I'd watch all their games, cheer for them to win, but they were never my top team  (Long time Bronco fan actually).  The Cards are well, the Cards.  They remind me a lot of my beloved Phillies, around forever and just one championship to their credit.  The Cards look to have an exciting team and even through this past season found myself more engorged in Cards games than I ever thought I would be.  

Decision time:  Well, I think I'm actually going to make a bit of a switch here.  I'll still watch and follow the Eagles, but since they were never my top NFL team, They get dropped down to second billing and the Cards will get the majority of my attention as my top NFC team. 

     Moving is tough on sports fans.  After a year I still don't have it completely figured out and looking at the posiblities of changing zip codes again sometime in the next year, it could just get that much worse.  But, for better or worse, I'm still sticking with the teams I've always loved, even if I do feel guilty cheering at games for Arizona teams.  I don't like feeling like a traitor, but if I don't start taking more of an interest in some of these teams the games I do get to see would be pretty boring. 

            The legacy of the Philadelphia Phillies over the years can be summed up as perennial losers with flashes of success from time to time.  They currently have amassed the most losses of any team in the history of pro sports, not just baseball, all of professional sports.  Including today's loss they are just 118 defeats away from 10,000 all-time (9,882 if you're counting).  Established in 1883 the team has had little to celebrate.  Now in their 123rd year of existence, the Phillies lay claim to 9 playoff appearances, 5 pennants and just one World Championship.  However, the team has seen a streak of winning seasons as of late, but improved in nearly every way, there is still one position that seems to haunt the Phils organization, the closer.

 

            The Phils have had their most recent post season post season experience back in 1993.  They dominated during the regular season (they didn't lose back-to-back games that year until sometime in early August) and made their way to the World Series.  In the series they faced the defending champions the Toronto Blue Jays.  It was truly a great series, although for the Phils' faithful, the ending was disappointing.  Mitch "Wild-Thing" Williams served up the game and series ending homer to Joe Carter and the rest was history.

 

            The closer position in Philadelphia has never recovered.  Williams by all accounts had a stellar season in '93.  He finished the year with 43 saves and while he did save a lot of games, he had his share of blown saves.  He lived up to his nickname of "The Wild Thing".  However, after serving up the series ending homerun neither Williams nor the Phillies closers ever recovered.  Williams was run out of town and could not pull together his stuff and was soon out of baseball.  Williams may be gone, but for the Phils Phaithful the memory remains.  No one position in any sport has been as scrutinized since '93 in Philadelphia (although the Flyers goaltenders come in a close 2^nd). 

 

        Closers have come and gone from Philadelphia in the past 13 years, but as the team has seen those recent successes, they have come close, only to be let down by their good friend, the closer.  Jose Mesa was filling the closer roll when the Phils began to become winners again.  Mesa posted 42 and 45 save seasons in his first two campaigns with the Phillies (2001, 2002).  Great numbers but Mesa seemed to collapse at the most in opportune times and the Phils could not hit post season pay dirt.  2003 was the end of the road for him, managing only 24 saves.  Mesa, the once dominant closer looked rattled at best most of the time.  The media and the fans came down hard on him for his blown saves, despite posting back to back season of over 40 saves.  Mesa left Philadelphia and the very next year was back to his normally confident self and had 43 saves for the Pirates in '04.  So, was it Mesa after all who was to blame?

 

            Enter the next victim, Billy Wagner.  Wagner was signed by the Phillies to be their savior in the pen.  An established closer (so was Mesa at the time he was signed) Wagner was expected to come in, shut things down and get the team over the hump that had plagued them for so long.  Wagner had great numbers in Philadelphia, but was not overly impressive with his save totals, just 21 his first season and 38 last year.  But even with the likes of Wagner, closing out games for the Phils always seemed to be an adventure.  Why is this?

 

 

            Besides the pressure of fans and media, there is something else going on with Phillies closers, the coaching staff.  Wagner posted 38 saves last year, but the shocking statistic is that he appeared in 75 games last year.  75 games!  It seems a bit high for his save total.  The fact is there has been mismanagement of the pitching staff in Philadelphia over the past several season.  Man times over the course of Wagner's tenure he was trotted out to the mound in non-save situations, only to have the team be in a save situation the very next day, only to have a tired Wagner who was worked 2-3 innings the night before.  In 2004 he had a similar game to saves ratio, appearing in 45 games and saving 21. 

 

            Wagner wasn't the only one.  Mesa appeared in over 70 games each of his first two seasons as a Phillie.  His final year he appeared in 61 games and saved 24.  Although his last season there his confidence was definitely shaken after recording a career high of 9 blown saves the prior year (2002, his previous high in a season was 5 and averages just over 3 per season for his career).  It seems that current Phillies closer Tom Gordon is in for much the same fate.  Already much maligned from the outset in Philadelphia, the coaching staff doesn't seem like it wants to take the pressure off their closer.  In the second game of the season Gordon was put in the game, in a non-save situation and gave up the winning run.  It looks like the start short tenure for Gordon (although this season might seem like an eternity for him). 

 

            So who is to fault here, is it Mitch Williams and him adding even more pressure and attention to an already pressure packed role?  Is it the pitchers themselves?  Or is it the coaching staff, Larry Bowa and Joe Kerrigan both have felt the wrath partly (more like mostly) due to pitching woe's.  However Charlie Manuel and Rich Dubee appear to be running down the same road, the road to heartbreak and failure....

Invasion of the PC Police!!!!

 

            The PC (politically correct) police seem to be growing in the world of sports these days.  Any off the mark comment made by a coach, player or even the team grounds crew has these people screaming for their jobs.  Whatever happened to free speech? Anyway, I thought it would be fun to see what the PC police would do with the names of some of our pro sports teams.

 

Let's start with the NFL and obvious choice #1.

 

Washington Redskins -

 

The nickname has the obvious connotation as a slang term used to describe Native Americans and is deemed "offensive". 

 

New PC Name - The Washington Americans

 

Kansas City Chiefs -

 

See above, although, slightly better than just being Redskins' because they are the "Chiefs".

 

New PC Name - Kansas City Tornado's (team name later dropped due to it's insensitivity to Tornado victims in the mid-west and is renamed the Stram's after legendary coach Hank Stram)

 

New York Jets -

 

The team name once deemed perfectly acceptable, is now deemed "offensive" or in poor taste after 9/11.  The name is also offensive to the residents of New Jersey who have hosted the Jets and their poor play for years without the name recognition. (Even more offensive to New Yorkers who wonder why the team that stinks still has New York attached to it after playing in New Jersey all these years.

 

New PC Name - New Jersey B

 

New York Giants -

 

The nickname Giants is not very offensive (although I'm sure we could find some extremely tall people who would take offense to the term "Giant").  The Giants name change would be part of a package deal with name change of the Jets (Now New Jersey B)

 

New PC Name - New Jersey A. The A and B nickname will rotate throughout the years as a college style rivalry game will be played each year with the winner claiming the rights to the A nickname and the loser of the game gets the nickname of B.  This is later to be deemed offensive to the letter B since it would now equate that letter with being a loser.  Final PC name change, The New York/New Jersey Bridges and The New York/New Jersey Tunnels.

 

Onto the MLB:  For the sake of time and space I will but all Native American Nicknames into one category with the explanation of why the are offensive as a given.

 

Atlanta Braves & Cleveland Indians -

 

New PC names - Georgia Peaches & Cleveland Rust

 

Kansas City Royals -

 

Name can be considered offensive on two fronts.  The name Royals can be considered a rip-off of the former Negro-League team the Kansas City Monarchs.  In addition the name Royals is offensive to the founding fathers of our country who strived hard to remove our country from any connection to a royal family.

 

New PC name - None, team contracted under the provisions of the Patriot Act

 

Los Angeles Dodgers -

 

Also nicknamed the "bums" (Dodgers comes from the art of dodging trolleys in Brooklyn) the name is deemed offensive to the homeless population of America.

 

New PC name - Los Angeles Palm Trees.

 

Bonus PC name from outside of the US-

 

Arsenal Gunnars -

 

Oddly there is very little clamor about the team name.  However the PC police invade England and.....

 

New PC name - The British Parliament (instantly the new team name causes an uproar through-out England as it is deemed offensive to the residents of the U.K.)

More to come.....