Billy Paultz Reconsidered

The “controversy” over Brett Myers and not Cole Hamels starting opening day for the Phillies is a good example of why spring training is too long. People have to reach hard for things to write and talk about. No, it doesn’t matter who starts opening day. What’s the over/under on how many regular season days will it take […]

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It’s been a long day and long week of hoop-related activity, so what am I doing now? Writing about basketball while watching basketball (Memphis-Tennessee) in the newsroom. Envy my life, minions.
Not to step on the quasi-diary of the District 3 high school tournament that will be in tomorrow’s paper, a spare observation or two:
Local teams’ […]

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The AP story on the Phillies signing Pedro Feliz, written by Rob Maadi, includes the following sentence: “He’s an upgrade over the trio of Greg Dobbs, Wes Helms and Abraham Nunez.”
That’s not a quote. Those words are Maadi’s. How often do you see such straightforward, undisguised opining in a standard, just-the-facts wire story? And if […]

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The Mitchell Report on steroids, the latest major salvo in baseball’s longstanding public-relations war against itself, will be made public about 12 hours from now.
Journalists who’ve seen the report or talked to people who have say upwards of 100 players will be named as abusers of performance-enhancing substances. Mitchell had no subpeona power, and the report […]

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The following piece came in, unsolicited, from two local guys, Dan Murray and Marc Hondares. It advocates an idea that, I think, has some merit…
I’d be happy to do more of this, by the way. Send me stuff, and I might use it. I also might not, but it’d be fun to turn this blog into a […]

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First of all, it was a great football game. Before we get caught up in the quarterback controversy and the analysis and whether the Patriots were overhyped, can we at least acknowledge that?
Thank you.
One thing I love about Andy Reid is that he always believes in himself, and he never cares what everybody says, what […]

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In defending Jimmy Rollins’ MVP election Tuesday, Bill Conlin of the Philly Daily News took on “Baseball Abstract” guru Bill James re Rollins’ fielding on Comcast SportsNet’s “Daily News Live,” Tuesday, then expanded his argument in today’s paper.
Background: James is arguably the most important sportswriter ever (granted that’s not saying much, but who else has actually […]

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This will be seen, nationally, as more a Mets’ collapse than a Phillies’ triumph. That’s natural. Is 1964 remembered more for the Phillies losing or the Cardinals winning?
OK, but a couple of points:
1. If the Phillies’ had been reasonably healthy - not injury-free, just around the big-league average - they were clearly at least a […]

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You know how sometimes you’ll be watching a basketball game and it feels like a certain player is doing nothing, and then you look at the box score and he somehow scored 20?
I swear, that’s how it is with me and Anthony Morelli. When I looked at the final stats from Penn State-Buffalo and saw […]

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Wednesday was my Labor Day and I’ve just now gotten over the nausea from the Phillies debacle, so there’s a lot of excess bloggage to drain…..
Brett Myers’ reaction to everything dramatically good or bad seems to be hyperventilation and trying to throw the ball through the Great Wall of China.
Shouldn’t he be over that by […]

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