The return of the blog

Well, well, well.

After roughly two months of not having enough time/patience to work on my site, which was filled with frustrating under-the-hood issues, I am pleased to say we are back up and running smoothly. In addition to fixing the bugs which had plagued the site design and made navigation difficult, the 'Defend Broad Street' store has also opened up! Shirts, hats, hoodies, etc, with all designs by me or my lovely lady. So check back shortly(and by shortly, I mean this evening) for an actual sports related post and hopefully some more designs added to the store.

Chooch to the rescue, fans running on the field officially gets old

In the Phillies feared AL style lineup, it's often easy to forget about Carlos Ruiz until October rolls around and he does his best Reggie Jackson impression, which is fine-Chooch's job is to be solid defensively and handle the pitching staff, and I don't think anyone would argue that he does those things very well. Tonight, however, Chooch summoned his October magic in the 10th inning of a another bizarre night at The Bank.

Things were going great heading into the top of the 9th, with the Phillies holding a 1-0 lead and the Hollywood Hamels we all love and have missed dearly appearing to be back in '08 form. Naturally, things then went awry due to another fan deciding to see whether the Scotts Grass Seed he picked up at Home Depot really is as good as the real thing, right in the middle of Cole getting ready to deliver his first pitch of the inning. The "fan", reportedly this guy, was greeted with "Tase him" chants and hopefully a few solid death threats. Although he was removed rather quickly without incident, it seems Head Case Hamels resurfaced due to the distraction, as the night turned from memorable to a nightmare startlingly quick. The next two Cardinals batters slammed doubles, the game was tied, and heart palpitation inducing Brad Lidge replacing Cole. It's spots like this where you kind of look at the TV in a funny way and wonder if Charlie really did lose his mind this time, or whether he just has that much faith in his guys. Either way, as it so often does with Manuel, the move worked out-Lidge escaped the jam, setting the stage for fireworks in the 10th frame. Chooch went up to the box with a mean look on his face, crushing a pitch just foul before ending it on a 2-1 count with a bomb to left, saving Cole's gem from going to waste and possibly saving THIS GUY(hint, hint) from spending the rest of his days in a wheelchair.

Cop accidently hits 17 year old fan with Taser, says he was aiming for Figueroa

Kidding, I think.




In all seriousness, I'm sure some of the Phillies faithful wouldn't have minded if that was Sgt.Taser's gameplan, after Figueroa entered the game in the 7th in relief of Big Joe, who seemed just fine despite his delayed start to the season, giving up only 2 runs and leaving the game with two men down and the Phils within striking distance, down just a run. Nelson proceeded to pull a Tiger on us-we totally should have seen what was coming like an oncoming freight train, but somehow ended up shocked anyway when we saw him crash and burn before our eyes. A bad walk, a bases clearing double, and just like that, the Phils were in a tough spot. That unfortunately, seems to be a very fatal and overlooked flaw of the Phillies-we truly have no reliever who has you thinking "we're gonna be fine", like you did in 2008 with Madson, Romero, and Lidge. The bullpen is the reason why Roy Halladay is on pace to pitch about 40,000 innings this season, and the reason our feast or famine lineup appears to be lacking something this year-losing Jimmy has certainly hurt, but the Phillies used to able to win the low scoring affairs....whereas now there is little certainty that we can hold on to a 3 run lead, or have the pen stop the bleeding when a starter falters. Games like tonight's and the Ryan Madson/Braves incident make you wondering if we're going to have to strip our farm system of more valuable prospects to shore up our bullpen-Ruben can't waste all the talent on this team, especially when our main weakness was quite obvious when the season began.

          Let's just hope our favorite Comcast(Xfinity?) spokesperson can deliver tomorrow.

Just in case you had forgotten how long it's been.....

Eagles fans have been clamoring for the team to bust out a version of their Kelly Green uniforms since the team ditched them for midnight green in 1996-and no, the awful powder blue and yellow uniforms they wore for the team's 75th anniversary did not quell the fan's desire to see the Birds mix up their attire. Well, it appears Lurie & Co have finally obliged, due to greed the 50th anniversary of the Eagles last championship, the Birds will wear the same uniforms as Chuck Bednarik once did in this year's season opener at the Linc; a game which will be played against the same Green Bay Packer franchise the Eagles defeated in  the 1960 NFL championship. While I was hoping to see the team wear the 1990s version, since I was born 10 years too late and missed out on the Buddy Ryan era(not to mention the 700 level), a fact that keeps me up some nights. Regardless, you have to admit the throwbacks the team unveiled today at Franklin Field are pretty sharp, and I know it's going to hard for a lot of fans to resist picking one up, myself included.

Say a prayer my grandfather doesn't lose it tonight. Consider the rage this man might have built up in him - 65+ years of bleeding green and now he gets to see the jerseys from the team's glory days get used to rob even more fans of their money by an owner who seems particularly skilled at doing so all while failing to deliver a championship.

Blanton set to make season debut in Game 1 of Phils Cards showdown

Tonight at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies are anticipating the first start of Joe "The Lumber" Blanton, who had missed the first month of the season with a strained oblique. Blanton has to be a sign of relief for Phils fans across the region, as the first place Phils have had a shaky at best bullpen and even shakier starting rotation, save for The Best Pitcher Alive-something that we can fight through in the beginning of the season, but a lack of consistent pitching can only lead to one place, and I think that place has a lot more in common with 2009 than 2008. And that's on top of an offense, except for last night's annihilation of the Mutts souls/spot in the division, has sputtered since J-Roll has been out.

The Cardinals, led by superstars Matt Holiday and Albert Pujols, are often mentioned as one of the few threats to dethrone The Fightins in the NL, and these next four games should give us some indication of whether or not the NL has started to catch up to Ryan, Chase, & Co. The Cards starter tonight is one Jaime Garcia, who is 2-1 with a 1.04 ERA.

Despite being so early in the season, last night's game really seemed like something which could propel the Phils into a hot streak-getting first place back, battling despite being down early, and a crowd which hadn't been so loud since last October. I expect to see more fireworks tonight, especially from The Big Man - you know in private he must be at least slightly annoyed at all the subtle shots taken at him in the media, with their constant dismissal of Howard's accomplishments in comparison to Pujols.

Get 'em boys.