therealworldschampion

Howard hit his 39th tonight and the Phils won. It's really lucky Gillick actually was able to send Ryan Franklin and his shitty pitching to the wild-card leading Reds today...

Bob Knight once had a theory about professor's degrees when he was at Indiana: "B.S. is exactly what it says it is, M.S. means "More of the Same", and P.h.D is "Piled high and Deeper."

Remember though, the 2003 USC Trojans had Norm Chow commanding the offense, one of the best OCs in college football history. Time will tell if Kiffin and Sarkasian are really great OCs or if the polished talent carried the offense last year.

Caught the first quarter on the radio when I was in the car. Starters looked great apparently, and the Eagles ran the ball really well.

Look what finally got on YouTube...

Nice job by Hamels and the Phils tonight. Here's a question: If the Phillies somehow make the playoffs as the WC and the Yankees don't at least win the AL pennant, does Bobby Abreu qualify for the Ewing Theory?

Regarding the Abreu trade, there might be another reason that the Phils got fleeced: It was rumored that Paul Hagen from the Daily News said that he overheard during All-Star Weekend that the ownership may be in financial trouble. Apparently Bill Giles had to sell some of his shares of the team to another member of the ownership because of a cash shortage. This financial trouble would be understandable since attendance has fallen, along with the high payroll, rising interest rates, and stadium debt. Should be an interesting offseason with the freed up cash and seeing where it goes...

Anyways, Utley has 1, maybe 2 more chances of extending the hit streak. A-Rod now at least has someone to relate to with getting killed in the media and with the fans with Abreu there.

It's Nowitzki there. And unless you have proof on how unclutch he is, I think it's safe to say that you should keep your mouth shut. I can't take a guy seriously if he thinks David Bell is better than Bobby Abreu. EDIT: Sorry I just thought it was ironic that you a Philly fan, me being a Yankee fan..and me having a thing for losers. Just wanted to get that out. Well you are a Knicks fan too...

In some fans eyes, it comes from his defense in right field. It seemed to me that he started to lose a step in 2003 when Thome was signed. He looked in great shape in 2002, then he came back from the offseason for 2003 and it looked like he had put on some weight. Here's tidbit from the Philadelphia Daily News today, the Phillies had a deal in place with the Orioles to send Pat Burrell to Baltimore last week, only to have it nixed by Burrell. Had that trade happned, Abreu is still a Phillie. I would've definitely preferred still having Bobby as compared to Burrell.

Just to play devil's advocate here, doesn't it bother you that the organization cares more about cutting payroll than winning games? EDIT: Keep in mind we don't get to face Jeff Weaver every night. This bothers me the most. I hated Bill Giles' "we're a small-market team" statement, because when you play in the 5th largest market in the country, you're not small-market. I'm expecting probably around a $70-$75 million payroll next year. Forget the money saved from the Abreu trade actually being used for anything with the exception of getting new deals in place for players like Utley and Howard, it's likely going into the ownerships' pockets. I believe that the ownership (Claire Betz, the Buck brothers, John Middleton, Bill Giles, and Dave Montgomery) are all quite old, so hopefully their heirs are more inclined to be more active in the organization or want to sell. I don't expect these owners to do anything since from what I've read of them, they're basically old-money Main Liners who basically see the Phillies as a money-maker or a showthing.

Joe Paterno once had a quote in the late 1970s-early 1980s about why he wouldn't take an NFL job: "Go to the NFL? And leave college football to the likes of Barry Switzer and Jackie Sherrill?"

Credit Stoops for kicking Bomar and the other player off the team immediately. That kind of stuff can get a program in loads of trouble from the NCAA.

Florida State actually could've joined the SEC in the early 1990s when they were looking to join a conference, but opted to join the ACC. Can't blame them however, they may not have won their national title in 1993 if they had to play an SEC schedule (SEC title game, an undefeated Auburn team, and a solid Bama team).

Spiff needs to find and post a pic of the Hurricanes coming off the plane in Tempe wearing fatigues in 1986 for that week.

Well yeah, I mean they should seriously just make the SEC logo a pair of hands with fingers crossed hoping that they don't get caught...

Castro, Keith Richards, and Joe Paterno will outlive us all.

Apparently there was a report in the Boston Globe from a "well-connected" NBA source that the Sixers are going up for sale. All I can say is that I hope to God that it's true because if the Sixers get new owners (hopefully a group headed by Pat Croce), the first thing they're likely to do is send Billy King packing. This may also be why the Iverson trade rumors stopped, because they need something that will attract potential buyers.

BC's is hysterical: It's so true if you've heard of the stuff in the BC/Notre Dame rivalry.

Billy King and Bob Clarke.

WOW, someone has got some issues! I like how the Yankees didn't have to pick up the 2008 option year. Ed's still fucking the franchise even after he left. You try rooting for a team that has ONE World Series title in over 120 years and always seems to be bad.

Much thanks to Ed Wade for handing out those full no-trade clauses to Abreu and Burrell when he was extending their contracts. May you get avian flu, a ton of STDs, and die Ed.

Shit, I wanted Duncan and Clippard in the deal. To make it worse, I bet Eskin will be in all of his glory tomorrow afternoon on WIP.

This year will really test Kiffin and Sarkasian's coaching abilities. Some USC fans will say that Leinart came out of nowhere in 2003 as a way of predicting a great season for Booty or Sanchez, but Leinart had Norm Chow coaching him. We'll see if the coaching really was the driving force behind the USC offense next year. On the other hand, I think the defense will be better there next year.

I want to get that Comcast offer for my apartment, but apparently it's "not avaliable in my area". You would think that the area I'll be living in (Philly suburbs) would have all the Comcast services since Comcast's HQ are located right in town 10 mins away....