Phinally Philly

Evidently Cole Hamels made a cameo in a promotional video for Modern Warfare 2…laying down the law on random ‘nade tossing and pulling a Chase Utley at the end for good measure.

My immediate reaction? The Phillies hat should be an unlockable piece of “armor”!

Maybe this will help keep you entertained during the rain delay.

Cole Hamels Reminds You That Grenades are “for Pussies.” -- Kotaku

When the Phillies won the World Series against Tampa Bay last year, I wondered when that World Series atmosphere would return to Citizens Bank Park.

Little did we know that it would return in just over a year.

After going 15 years between World Series appearances, the Phillies are back in the World Series as defending champions for the first time in their history.

With the series tied 1-1 with the American League “Varsity” club New York Yankees, the Phillies finally get a chance to play in front of their home fans. Yankee Stadium was dull and lifeless, but Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez played a part in that.

With Cole Hamels on the mound for Game 3 tonight, the Phillies need the pitcher who took the mound in last year’s World Series. Hamels hasn’t been the same as last season, but that was a pretty high bar to set. even if just pitches to half of that, I’m sure the Phillies would be more than happy.

With the home fans behind him, Hamels needs a good start. 45,000 rally towels will be waving, so Hamels just needs to forget about the endorsements for a few hours and channel last season.

The Phillies are 19-6 in the playoffs the last two seasons. How about they make it 20-6 tonight?

With all the exciting innovations we’ve had here at the site over the past few months we figured the one thing missing is the opportunity for you to listen to us BS about sports for 45 or so minutes. Hence the Phinally Philly Podcast was born!

Myself and Chris Shafer got together to discuss all four Philly teams (some more than others…sorry Sixers fans) in what we hope will become a weekly feature on the blog. If you think you’d make a terrific guest, have some feedback, or have a question you’d like us to talk about shoot us an email at “phillypodcast@gmx.com”.

The inaugural Phinally Philly Podcast

Major league sports schedules are released months in advance. I don’t think MLB, the NFL, and the NBA thought a weekend like this was possible.

In a span of 48 hours, teams from Philadelphia and New York will meet four times, three of those taking place at the sports complex in South Philly.

Saturday
7:30pm – Sixers @ Knicks
7:57pm – Phillies vs Yankees – Game 3

Sunday
1:00pm – Eagles vs Giants
8:20pm – Phillies vs Yankees – Game 4

This could be the greatest weekend in Philly sports history and to celebrate, we’ve launched a new Flickr account and group. Feel free to jump on and share pictures you’ve taken at games, tailgates, parties, anything Philly sports! Try to include dates and locations and please keep it clean and respectful.

We especially want to see photos of you guys celebrating Beat New York weekend.

The rivalries between teams from Philadelphia and New York have only been intensifying the last few years and the only scary thing this Halloween is not going 4 for 4.

Kevin once again here on behalf of NittanyWhiteOut and Examiner with your local college football round up!

After coming through with their first victory in Ann Arbor since Seinfeld was still on the air last week, Penn State looks to avoid a let-down this week. On the road for a second straight week Penn State takes on Northwestern in Big Ten competition.

Quarterback Daryll Clark threw four touchdown passes last week and was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. With Northwestern giving up over an average of 220 passing yards per game this season, it could be another big day for the Penn State quarterback, who is starting to close in the school record for touchdown passes in a season as well as season passing yards.

A win by Penn State, which is very likely, would set up an important game next week at Beaver Stadium as the Ohio State Buckeyes come to town. The Big Ten championship could still be within grasp for the winner, although Iowa still has a strong hold on that. But a BCS bid is not out of the possibility if Penn State can manage to run the table the rest of the way.

TEMPLE

The Owls, believe it or not, are one win away from clinching bowl eligibility for the first time since the early 1990′s. this week Temple rides a five game winning streak into a non-conference match-up against Navy. The Midshipmen will host the Owls, who have started to receive some attention. For Temple to leave Annapolis with a well-deserved victory they will need to find a way to slow down the Navy running game, which is averaging over 280 yards per game. Running the ball has long been a strength of the Navy program and it has helped them build a record of 6-2 this season.

Temple will also be looking for revenge. Last year the Owls let a victory slip away from them as Navy stunned Temple for a 33-27 win in overtime. Navy outscored Temple in the fourth quarter 20-0 to tie the game.

Good luck to Temple as they attempt to clinch bowl eligibility. This really is a big deal for this program!

VILLANOVA, PENN

#4 Villanova is off this week but next week should be a great one. The Wildcats head to Richmond, who is currently the top team in the country.

Meanwhile in the Ivy League Penn looks to extend their four game winning streak by one more by winning at Brown University. Penn enters the weekend tied for first in the Ivy League at 3-0 with Harvard. Brown is right behind both at 2-1 in the conference.

Quick! Name the most famous Brown football player of all time!

Give up?

Joe Paterno, who still owns a couple school records from his days playing as a quarterback and cornerback.

The Phillies hit up Amtrak today to come home after splitting the first two games of the World Series in New York.

Yes, last night’s loss was disappointing, but to come out of Yankee Stadium with a split is a hell of an accomplishment. The Phillies have taken home field advantage away from the Yanks, even though Yankee Stadium was pretty much lifeless for the two games there.

While the Phillies pounded out 6 runs in Game 1, this series so far has been all about the pitching. Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathis both had incredible outings in the first game, which was followed up by a brilliant performance from A.J. Burnett, which overshadowed a good game thrown by Pedro Martinez.

Seeing the two most high-powered offenses in baseball being neutralized in the World Series is amazing. I know it’s not good for the casual fan who likes to see scores of 8-7, but screw them. Pitching duels are exciting too. Pitching is what wins games in the playoffs, and that stayed true through the first two games.

The pitching has totally shut down the two cleanup hitters, Ryan Howard and Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod has gone 0-4 in each of his first two World Series games with six strikeouts in those 8 at-bats. After starting off this postseason going 14-32 with 5 HRs, he’s gone back to his old October self the past few games. Howard hasn’t exactly been Mr. Powerhouse himself either. He went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts in Game 2, but that was after he went 2-5 with an RBI in Game 1. Seeing these two sluggers shut down by the opposing pitchers is a sight to see.

The pitching matchups in the next few games would seem to favor the Phillies. Cole Hamels, if you don’t remember, was last year’s World Series MVP, and he goes Saturday in Game 3 against Andy Pettite at the Bank. If Hamels can regain his form from last year, he’ll be fine. He looked a bit better in the Game 5 clincher against the Dodgers, but no where near his Superman-like run through the playoffs last year.

Game 4 is going to be interesting. The Yankees are ready to go with C.C. Sabathia again on short rest. The Brewers tried this last year, and it eventually caught up to him. Shane Victorino grand slam anyone? The Phillies still have Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ fresh in the bullpen, so either one of them could go on Sunday. Cliff Lee would also be an option on short rest, but I think Cholly will go with Blanton in Game 4, keep Happ in the bullpen, and bring back Lee for Game 5.

As New York found out, this series isn’t going to be easy. Now it’s time to show the Yankees how real fans act during a World Series.

Welcome to the Bank boys. The Series ends here.

It’s Game 2 of the NLCS all over again: a mediocre pitcher stumps the Phillies’ bats, and some late inning rallies are thwarted by blown calls, a general inability to hit in clutch situations, and an inconsistent strike zone. Unfortunately for Pedro Martinez he also hasn’t been backed by anything resembling run support in either of his two postseason losses.

All the above points could be enough to ruin a Thursday night for a loyal Philly fan, but we should still feel pretty darn good about the team’s chances with the series heading back to Philadelphia.

First things first, the Yankees have looked horrible through Games 1 and 2. Tex and Jeter are the only guys in pinstripes swinging the bat well, A-Fraud has yet to make his appearance in this World Series, the Yankees bullpen looks ten times worse than the Phils’, and AJ Burnett could not pitch that well again if his life depended on it. The Yankees won Game 2 because the Phillies failed to capitalize on several opportunities with runners in scoring position, and it came back to haunt them. Just like Game 2 in Los Angeles (and Game 2 in Tampa back in ’08), the Phillies let the opponent escape when they had a perfect chance to go for the early knockout in a hostile environment.

Tough losses are nothing new for this team in the ’09 playoffs. That 5-4 loss to the Rockies in Game 2 of the NLDS was almost as brutal to watch as the 2-1 loss to the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS. We were left shaking our heads after both games and wondering if this team really has what it takes to repeat. How did they answer? By not losing another game in either series.

Time will tell if they can sweep the Yankees at Citizen’s Bank Park and it will be anything but easy, but if there was ever a team that could do it, it’s the 2008 World F**kin’ Champs. A year ago today the Phils won the World Series, and they are in a fine position to do it again.

Image courtesy of ESPN.

While the Phillies were busy smoking the Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series, the Sixers were playing a game 1 of their own in Orlando.

The defending Eastern Conference Champions did their best Phillies impression last night. However, there are some positives to take out of the Sixers loss.

First off, anyone who watched the game last night saw that the Orlando Magic are just a machine. As Eddie Jordan said after the game “They are really, really good.” And he’s right, the Magic couldn’t have played a more perfect game. And saying it was perfect isn’t really stretching it. They shot over 55% from both the field and from beyond the arc. And their bench contributed with a totally of 48 points, not too shabby right?

Now, I’m not going to try and sell you on the fact that the Sixers played a great game. Though, they did not play nearly as bad as the score may have indicated. They weathered the storm fairly well early, trailing by only 2 at the end of the 1st quarter, while actually leading for a short time.

The Magic did a fantastic job on the defensive end making Andre Iguodala a non-factor. One promising thing to come from that was the contribution of Marreese Speights, who scored a career high 26 points , going 10-11 from the field. One not so promising thing was the play of Samuel Dalembert. Sammy, like the Sixers, actually played well in the first quarter,  but was simply terrible the rest of the way. He was dominated by anyone the Magic put out there, and the inspired play by Speights could put Dalembert’s future minutes in serious jeopardy.

You can tell the Sixers are still learning the Princeton Offense as they go. Though, I don’t think scoring will be the Sixers problem. What they must work out if they expect to be competitive in the East is their defense. And I believe they will, they do have the personal to play average defense at least.

It’s hard to pull out positives with numbers or describing a specific play from last night. When the Sixers were able to set up their offense it was semi-successful, the system was getting guys open they just weren’t hitting the shots. Not hitting the shots as well or as often as the Magic, which puts you in catch up mode right away. When you have a team the caliber of the Orlando Magic playing as well as they were early on last night, you have no choice but to shoot it out with them. They force you to change your game plan. Now learning a new system virtually on the fly already stacked the deck against the Sixers. And the Magic playing nearly perfect didn’t help either.

So, don’t put your heads down about this team yet. They are going to be a good team, certainly not great, but they won’t be bad either. They aren’t going to have to play the Magic every night, and only 3 or 4 teams are even in the same league as the Magic. And I feel confident saying the Sixers are in that second tier right below those elite teams. Stay tuned, it’s still going to be an exciting and entertaining season for the 76ers.

-Mike Santa Barbara

*** Follow me on Twitter @Mike__SB ***

What an incredible game last night by the Phillies. Cliff Lee was on target from the first pitch and Chase Utley apparently decided to make a second home with a new edition of Utley’s Corner. When all was said an done the Phillies took game one of the World Series from the Bronx Bombers by a score of 6-1.

Absolutely incredible.

If you did not know I have been putting together a little musical slide show after each Phillies postseason game this month. I was asked to go ahead and post my work for last night’s game so here it is for you Phinally Philly faithful to enjoy.

If you would like to know when the latest video is available for viewing you can find out by following me on Twitter. I also post them immediately on my personal blog, Ramblings, as soon as I can. Of course, you can always subscribe via YouTube as well.

The Frillies handled the Yanks in Game 1 6-1, putting the pressure solely on New York’s shoulders for Game 2. We’ll have more on this win tomorrow, but a few postgame thoughts:

- Could Cliff Lee be the best all around player in baseball?!? Think about it, he is an elite pitcher, he can hit, steal bases (thanks for pointing that out @smagillies!), AND field! His behind the back catch late in Game 1 was Greg Maddux/Gold Glove caliber and the nonchalant grab of an earlier Damon popup was simply hilarious.

- Just in case you were curious, the Phillies have the full backing of Red Sox nation. My buddy Brandon (a diehard Sox fan) was texting me all throughout the game. At one point we actually had the following exchange:

Brandon: “You think Cliff Lee will let me have his babies?”

Me: “Hands off!! He’s mine!!”

Brandon: “Okay so you take Lee and I take Chase.”

I love how sports can drive two straight guys to have conversations like that. Another text from ANOTHER diehard Sox fan I know: “I can see the new york post tomorrow: C.C. Gets Chased…f**k yeah!”

- Joe Buck was all of a sudden so much more bearable after having to deal with Chip Caray and the primarily anti-Phillies TBS broadcasts through the NLCS. That being said, Fox’s postgame show may have been the worst I’ve ever seen. They spent all of five minutes talking about the game before rushing to end to broadcast in order to show….Malcolm in the Middle re-runs. Brilliant. I’m not even going to get into how obnoxious each of the postgame show hosts are. (Chris Rose defines douchebag, and Ozzie Guillen?!? That’s REALLY the best they could do?!?)

- Great to see the offense torch the Yankees bullpen and force Girardi to make multiple trips to the mound. He is alread bad enough at managing his pen, but when Phil Hughes and Co. struggle it just puts even more pressure on him to make an additional unwise change. Leaving Robertson in to face Ibanez was a game-changing mistake and the Phils will absolutely take it.

- Speaking of Phil Hughes, what was he so mad at the home plate umpire for after he got pulled? The Yanks got a generous strike zone to work with all night long. If anything he should be mad at himself for sucking so bad.

- Speaking of “suck”, Pedro Feliz has been awful this postseason…particularly behind the plate. Everytime he steps up to bat I make a silent bet with myself of how he will make an out. Needless the say I made a killing on that late game double play.

- I’d be wrong not to give some love to Chase for his fantastic game. Two homers off of CC Sabathia is not bad at all, and he gave us this classic “Utley moment” in the postgame presser. I love this guy’s sense of humor!

Thanks to @trntkd for finding that!

- The Phils are in a terrific position for Game 2 now. I personally would rather see Cole Hamels get the start, but I had serious doubts about Pedro Martinez prior to Game 2 in LA and he proved me wrong. Here’s hoping he does it again. If not, the series is still tied heading to Philly.

- Gotta love how the lower levels of Yankee Stadium were nearly empty from the eighth inning on. I didn’t realize the Phils were still playing in Los Angeles! I also heard quite a few “Let’s Go Phillies” chants later in the game…let’s completely take over Yanker Stadium for Game 2!

- Finally, to all three or so of you who were offended by my World Series Preview: let it go. The piece was meant to rip the Yanks while simultaneously staying lighthearted and a little too angry. I don’t feel like there was anything in there that was overly offensive or that unnecessary (this is the YANKEES we’re talking about here.) Next time I’ll put a disclaimer at the top for the language, because that is obviously not something we frequently do here, but I stand by everything else I said…especially about Suzyn Waldman. We do appreciate you guys reading and we love the feedback, but loosen up for cryin’ out loud!

Image courtesy of ESPN.