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As if not being able to see Temple take on St. Joe's on an ESPN channel anyone actually has wasn't bad enough, the ubiquitous.com rubbed it in on its live scoring page by using the exact same color red to track the progression of each team throughout the game. 
Anyway, Temple lost by 1 after leading for much of the game. Not that more than 5% of the local viewing audience actually saw it...
Please let there be a better A10 TV contract next season.
The Sixers lost last night to the New York Knicks. Usually a Sixers loss is unremarkable. We expect losing these days. But this is a loss to the Knicks, a team Mark Narducci describes as being "miles ahead" of this Sixers squad. You know you have some serious issues when Isiah Thomas' Knicks are miles ahead of you.
>>New York 89, Philadelphia 81 [AP]
Video highlights after the jump.
Continue reading "The Knicks ... THE KNICKS are 'miles ahead' of Sixers" »
Fox Sports' "Cadillac of..." feature is polling which NFL fans are the best, and we Eagles fans are currently a distant second to the cheeseheads up in Green Bay, and ahead of Raider Nation. Not bad company if you ask me. When I visited Lambeau, I was impressed with the dedication of the Packers fans, which is as strident as any I've seen. But as far as passion, I still think the Eagles win that round in a walk. Having not witnessed Raider Nation yet, I can't comment there, but I've heard they're a force to be reckoned with. 
Fox also includes a Santa-Snowball reference-laden encapsulation of what it means to be an Eagles fan, but it's not just that which has already been said a thousand times over.* Nice of them to include us (and not the Cowboys, Giants, or Redskins).
So go vote us up here, and thanks to Hugging Harold Reynolds, a great blog whose graph screengrab I stole and placed above.
*fixed.
It's always great to see a line take on its own identity, building chemistry with a common style of play. Clearly, Flyers fans have been thrilled with the production of Scott Hartnell, Mike Richards, and Steve Downie, as well as their physical brand of hockey. This guy is pushing for calling them "The HaRD Line," which works aptly as an acronym and descriptor. We'll take it.
So the Pensblog and The 700 Level made a little mayor's wager on the outcome of the Flyers-Pens game last night, wherein the winning city's representative gets to post whatever suits their fancy on the other's site. Naturally, Philly won, and we are here to enjoy our spoils.
The NHL is looking to continue its trend of increasing its appeal in interesting ways, announcing this weekend that the Penguins and the Senators will open the 2008-2009 season by playing two games in Sweden. Sweden is an international hockey mecca, with talented players at all levels and rabid fans. Increasing the already growing interest the Swedes have in North American hockey can only be a good thing, and, if nationally televised, the games should see a small ratings bump, a great start to the publicity season.
>>For openers next season, it'll be 2 games in Stockholm, Sweden [Pittsburgh Post Gazette]
You may no longer have to call that kid from high school you only talk to in order to get a bet down on Sunday's football action. Did you know that it's estimated anywhere from $80 to $380 billion dollars get thrown around on sporting events in this country? New Jersey casinos want to get in on that action. [AP]
This morning, the Philadelphia Inquirer wasted valuable advertising space by printing the nonsensical ramblings of one, Frank Fitzpatrick.
He starts off his mess-of-an-article by painting a (blurry) picture of a person he saw in the airport yesterday. Something about tattoos, a Phillies hat, basketball shorts and a gold chain. Then he goes:
The temperature-immune traveler had Philadelphia sports fan written all over him - or would have had there been room amid the tattoos.
Gee, what gave it away Frankie? Could it have been... I don't know... THE PHILLIES HAT!?
Very observant, that Fitzy.
But that was just a teaser into the best part of his article; where he goes in-depth on "How to spot a Philly sports fan." Let's take a look at some of them, shall we?
The guy drinking rum and coke at 9 in the morning who on 9/11 asked the bartender to switch the channel to the Wings game.
Wow. That one hurt, Frank. Not offended-hurt. More like, that was by far the dumbest thing I've ever read and you insulted my intelligence-hurt. Fitzy is always coming up with great topical humor bits like this. And since when did Wings games start being played at 9 in the morning? If you're gonna offend people and not be funny, the least you could do is be realistic.
Need more ways to spot a Philly fan? No problem, Frankie has you covered:
Continue reading "Frank Fitzpatrick thinks highly of the Philly sports fan." »
There was a lot of excitement among Flyers and Penguins circles leading up to last night's game, and understandably so. Their previous matchup saw a combined 10 goals (8 by the Flyers on the strength of two hat tricks) and a ton of rough stuff, including Pens enforcer George Laraque slew-footing goalie Martin Biron. On top of all the bad blood and the cross-state rivalry stuff, we can't forget that it's also potentially a four-point game in the league's tightest division.
During the pre-game skate, a respectful Riley Cote told Comcast Sportsnet of the mighty Georges Laraque, the NHL's heavyweight champion, and how he'd be honored to share a dance with him. On the other side of the red line, Laraque warmed up by shadow-boxing. They didn't wait long. Less than three minutes in, this happened. In short, Laraque dropped the overmatched Cote, but you gotta love the drive Riley showed to jump back up after being sent to the ice, hanging in there for a nice round with the giant.
For most of the game, the teams seemed pretty evenly matched. A quick look at the standings and both teams' records in January shows that they are. Pittsburgh native RJ Umberger scored, making it four of his nine goals this season against the team he idolized. Randy Jones, Mike Knuble, and even Jim Vandermeer also scored to give Ty Conklin just his second regulation loss of the season. Marty Biron was solid at the other end, earning a 4-3 victory. But the highlights of this game once again featured Steve Downie in a starring role. Videos and recap after the jump.
Continue reading "Flyers Enter All-Star Break on Top of Atlantic" »
After Antero Niittymaki finally fell to earth for a bit against the Devils on Tuesday, John Stevens is giving Marty Biron a chance to make a statement tonight against the Penguins. Minus a certain dive specialist (and, let's be honest, phenomenal player), the Penguins are at a considerable disadvantage. But in Philadelphia, we're all keenly aware that teams can rally to make up for the loss of their superstar leader. Also, they may not have Sid Crosby, but Evgeny Malkin has 15 goals in his last 15 games.
The Flyers own the Pens this season, having won all three contests so far. Last time around, they trounced the cross-state rivals, 8-2, in my favorite game of the season so far. Both teams are hot as hell coming into this game, with the Penguins riding an incredible streak from goalie Ty Conklin, who started the season in the AHL, but is 10-1-2 since being called up.
Time to enjoy a few Nugget Nectars, a Cocco's cheese steak, and hopefully a Flyers W. Also, word on the street is, if the Flyers win tonight, yours truly gets to post over at Pensblog tomorrow. If they lose, you'll have to endure a Steel City breakfast burrito.
"I had 17 fantastic years at Penn," said Dunphy, who added that he tends to "get lost" in his own team once the game begins. "I am relegated to yelling at Dionte and Mark to play better."
—Temple head coach Fran Dunphy, on facing his former team.
>>Temple has three-mendous effort against Quakers [Daily News]
So wait, is "Myers cool with being in old role" or is he "not relieved to be starting?" Now I'm confused. [NJ.com & PhillyBurbs]
While Sammy Dalembert was checking out the Flyers last weekend, Scott Hartnell, Steve Downey, Joffrey Lupul, and Mike Richards were court side at the Sixers game on Wednesday night. The Sixers lost to the Detroit Pistons.
The Getty Image description lists them as baseball players.
UPDATE: The Phillies were there as well. B&C has pics and video of a shoot around.
610 WIP's Anthony Gargano has a piece in the February edition of Philadelphia Magazine titled "Larry in Winter." It's an interesting look at the former Sixers (and 47 other teams) coach who now resides in the Philly area. Larry hasn't coached in a while because he's still trying to count all the money he took from the New York Knicks. That may have been a disaster in every single way possible except on Larry's bank account.
LB, while a dick for leaving the Sixers in shambles, is still kind of likable. He says he still wants to coach in the NBA again but hasn't found work since leving the Knicks. I'd still like to see him coaching at Episcopal in the Inter-Ac.
Anyway, perhaps the funniest line of the lengthy piece, as pointed out by AJD, is regarding the 1200 times Brown took Allen Iverson out a game.
Is it any wonder that Brown says if he were to write his memoirs, the title would be “I’ve Been Motherfu#@ed 1,200 Times”? Because, he says, he coached Allen Iverson for 600 games, took him out of a game two times, and both times, Iverson called him a motherf@#ker 600 times
>>Larry in Winter [Philadelphia Magazine]
The700Level.com was featured in an article today in the Philadelphia Inquirer. I sat down with the author, Will Hobson, to talk about Philly sports, the origins of this website, and many other random topics. It's a nice little article and I'd like to thank Will for asking us to sit down with him.
Perhaps my favorite parts of the article were the quotes used from some other Philly sports personalities. 610 WIP's Glen Macnow, one of the enjoyable Philly sports talk hosts, had this to say, "[Enrico] writes it with a sense of humor, and he covers the gamut of things. He finds interesting stories early." Also, A.J. Daulerio says we notice the nuances -- like him in a Tyrone Hill jersey.
Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think. If there was one thing I would clarify a bit it would be this quote, "I don't want to be the next legendary sports writer; I just want to be the next Sports Guy [Bill Simmons of espn.com, who came to fame as an Internet columnist], or Will Leitch." While I may have said that, it probably came out slightly wrong. I don't really want to be the next Simmons or Leitch. It's more of continuing down a similar path that they have lead the way in writing from a fans point of view and having fun with it all.
For those coming over to The 700 Level for the first time, you can subscribe to our RSS feed here. Or read our original response to Frank Fitzpatrick here.
>>Blogger gets into the game [Philadelphia Inquirer]
While Steve Downie landed some nasty blows, it was the Devils who continued their beating of the Flyers Tuesday night. Our pal Martin of digidigidigi was at the Wachovia Center for the game. Here are his thoughts.
For the longest time, I was under the impression that Ed Snider owned the Philadelphia Flyers. I was wrong. Martin Brodeur, Lou Lamoriello and his cast of no name wingers and defenseman do. I sat in attendance Tuesday night at the Wachovia Center where those hated satanic rivals from up the turnpike handed the Flyers a “pants around your ankles” embarrassing 7-3 loss. At stake was a shot for sole possession of first place in the Atlantic division, but I feel the Flyers lost much more than that. Post game interviews with John Stevens showed that the head coach doesn’t believe the Devils are in his team’s head. A contradictory statement came from Daniel Briere who opened scoring on a deflection in the first when he said, “They have our number. We have to figure out a way of getting them out of our heads.”
One of the few highlights I feel was worth the price of admission came at (off) the hands of Steve Downie, one of the most controversial and entertaining hockey players in Philadelphia since Eric Lindros came to town via a smeared fax. Late in the first and long before the game was out of reach, Devil’s goon David Clarkson was making his way to the bench for a line change and collided with Downie.
Continue reading "Downie Wins the Battle But Devils Win Fifth Straight Over Flyers" »
I was out of town and missed the Flyers-Devils game last night, but my inbox was full of e-mails about the hilarity of this "fight." Gets good around 3:35. (Full speed after the jump.)
Continue reading "Downie Makes Dave Clarkson Look Like Kelly Clarkson" »
Can this be real? I'm going to predict it's fake. Remeber what Stephen A. said about bloggers. [StephenABlog via]
Update: Apparently it's for real. Which is awesome. Go read the comments, you know, for kicks. "Donovan McNabb" commented! And "Al Gore!"
"The way I look at it is if you're going to the OK Corral and you can bring an extra gun, why wouldn't you?" Holmgren said.
>>If Forsberg is healthy, there's room in Philly [Inquirer]
No, not as the Governor of Alabama but as a video game superhero of sorts. Watch the trailer below.
From Joystiq:
We hope you've cleared the rest of your 2008, because the epic story of post-cyberpocalypse Neo New York in the wake of the great B-Ball purge of 2041 threatens to own the entirety of your existence for some time. We can't wait to find out the true nature of the chaos dunk and discover what the press release calls "a cavalcade of easter eggs, ranging from the mysterious to the unique." Hopefully by the time we're done finding them all, we'll be nearing the release of the implied second chapter of "the Hoopz Barkley SaGa." Hit the download link and check out the below trailer while you join us in waiting with bated breath.
Holy shit. It's like, an actual game. That you can download and play. Featuring Charles Barkley. Trying to save the world. Amazing.
>> Fan-made Charles Barkley RPG sees full release [Joystiq via bh]
I do not care about Dana Jacobson but apparently she is all the rage in the sports blogosphere. Also, Notre Dame sucks. [BallHype]
"No. Not at all," the Phillies general manager said yesterday when asked if he was worried that there could be lingering hard feelings if an arbitration hearing is required to reconcile the difference between what the Phillies are offering - $7 million - and what Howard's representative, Casey Close, is asking - $10 million.
Listen, we ALL want Ryan Howard to be a happy Phillie. Every single radio host I've heard is crying about how the Phillies need to give Howard a long term deal like they gave Utley. The whole problem with that is, maybe Howard won't settle for a nice $80 million deal like Utley did. I don't see why everybody has their panties in a wad over this. You don't go out and break all arbitration records and give Howard the $10 million he's asking for. You play the game and you offer Howard a respectable long term deal. If he doesn't want that security right now, that's a risk he has to take.
>>Gillick downplays risk of hurting Howard's feelings [Daily News]
"If we have an opportunity to add difference-making players, obviously we'd like to do it," Reid said. "There are a lot of guys you're going to be looking at right now who are going to be tagged or signed back [by their current teams]. That's all part of it - you've got to go through it."
It's nice to see Andy at least say if the opportunity is there, they'll take it. But our definition of an opportunity being there and Andy's is likely pretty different.
Also, somebody asked Andy when he's gonna start a blog.
"I've got to get rid of the blog around my waist right now," he said. "That's the only blog I'm worried about."
Ha! Actually, that is not at all funny. Nope.
>>Eagles' Reid open to adding 'difference-making' players [Inquirer]
Ryan Howard is the best power hitter in the majors and the Phillies should ditch their business-like approach to his contract and buck up like they did with Utley last year when he faced arbitration.
There. A one-sentence, less colorful summary of Bill Conlin's article in today's Daily News.
I'm starting to agree with him, too. Maybe I'd think different if the Phillies opened the bank during the offseason for free-agents and felt like there wasn't enough "financial flexibility" to sign The Big Man long term right now -- but they haven't. And if you paid Freddy Garcia $10M for 1,040 pitches last year (none of which broke 87-mph on the radar gun, btw) you mightaswell open up the wallet and throw Howard the extra $3M that will make him happy.
It only makes sense. And you can't compare this to any other arbitration case for a 3rd year player, either. Unless, of course, you can name me another who already has a ROY and MVP trophy to his name.
My favorite part of the article, Conlin being Conlin:
After perhaps the greatest first full power season of any player in history, Ryan Howard last winter butted heads with the service-time ogre guarding a shallow moat around the pastime's only citadel of control over its finances.
That service-time ogre sounds like an asshole.
>> Get the pitch up [Conlin]
Slam Online runs a feature every Friday that has an illustration done by artist Joel Kimmel. Last Friday's post featured two great images. The one of Dr. J. below and another of Sir Charles owning the rim.
As some of you may or may not know, the much anticipated book God Save The Fan
Leitch hogs all the screen time.
Could you imagine former Mayor Street appearing on MSNBC and actually representing Philadelphia well? Kudos to Mayor Nutter for a nice job on Hardball with Chris Matthews in a discussion of race today and the role it's playing in the current presidential campaigns.
You may be aware that Ex-Philthies hurler Randy Wolf signed a 1-year, 8.something million dollar contract with the San Diego Padres this offseason...
but more interesting than that is the fact that he recently purchased the house of ex-G'nR guitarist/video game pitchman, Slash, for an undisclosed amount (The house was originally for sale in the $6M range).
After the jump, enjoy some pics of Randy's new, humble abode.
It's actually a beautiful place, and as you'll see, it would comfortably fit up to 150 members of the now-defunct Wolf Pack.
Brian McGrattan and Riley Cote were jawing at each other before the first puck was even dropped yesterday. They didn't waste any time once the action started before dropping the gloves and going at it. Cote seems to have held his on in the fight and the Flyers certainly owned the Senators for the rest of the day.
Since my trip to the Wachovia Center two Saturday's ago, the Flyers have put on a nice little four game win streak and are playing some exciting hockey. Early this morning, I mentioned in passing the Flyers 6-1 "shellacking" of the Ottawa Senators yesterday. The win over the Sens put the Flyers at an impressive 10-1-1 in their last twelve games.
On Saturday, the Flyers overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat the Islanders by a final of 5-3 up on Long Island. Scott Hartnell lead the way with his second hat trick in 9 days. Hartnell's play has been impressive and his addition to the Flyers is only one of the many off season moves paying dividends for Paul Holmgren.
For all you puck bunnies out there who were wondering what Hartnell does to unwind after his big games at the Wachovia Center, the Flyers bring us their own version of MTV Cribs featuring Scott. Hartnell lives in a real nice pad somewhere in what looks to be the Olde City area. Besides having a nice arcade collection, the Flyers star appears to have good taste in beers and a nice wine collection. The video after the jump.
Hidden in a Sunday column about John Harbaugh heading to the Ravens are two interesting tidbits about the Eagles.
It wouldn't be surprising at all to see Donté Stallworth come back to Philadelphia after he wins a Super Bowl ring with New England. Stallworth is due a monstrous bonus in February, one the Patriots likely won't pay because they will have to spend money to keep Randy Moss.
Stallworth qualifies as a playmaker and probably one who would be acceptable to the Eagles' high-maintenance quarterback.
I think most Eagles fans, while green with Super Bowl ring envy, would welcome Stallworth back to the Birds. Now how about this little nugget that Reid and McNabb chatted after the season on what the off-season should look like.
Continue reading "Andy Talked With Donovan; Stallworth Could Be Back on Birds" »
What to read as you sit there all depressed because you're at work today.
Continue reading "Monday Extras: Looks Like Everybody Has a Case of the Mondays" »
Given that he plays for team Canada now, it's about time Sixers center Samuel Dalembert learned a thing or two about hockey. Sammy D attended his first NHL game yesterday and witnessed a good one. The Flyers beat Ottawa 6-1.
Now, I'm not going to rip into Sammy too hard because this whole promo was done for charity. He was born in Haiti and grew up in Montreal so English may not be his strength, but if you're doing a promotion with the Flyers, you can't go out and call a puck a ball. That's just horrible.
Check out this video from Comcast.
Sixers fans have given Sammy a lot crap over the past few seasons, much of it deserved, but he has stepped up this season and is performing at a high level. Add on this fun public persona and you've got yourself a nice player for the Sixers.Many of you watched something happen today that you'd only thought possible in nightmares. Eli Manning has led his New York Giants to the Super Bowl. That's tough to watch. Now Eagles fans will be forced to root for perfection.
My email just lit up with a passionate rant from a Philly fan named Matt from Stockton, NJ. He makes some... er, points we guess, about the joy Eagles fans got out of watching Terrell Owens and the Cowboys lose. And then he says something about the Giants being in the Super Bowl sucking a lot. Matt's email, after the jump.
A fun story from the Chicago Tribune about how Andy Reid, Packers QB coach at the time, was the only coach to show up to watch Boston College quarterback Matt Hasselbeck at a workout. Later, Hasselbeck chose to be on the Packers practice squad over getting a roster spot on the Bears.
"I was in a system with Ron Wolf, who had picked all these quarterbacks. Mike Holmgren was the head coach, Andy Reid coached the quarterbacks, Brett Favre was the quarterback. That's better than going to Harvard Business School."
>>Practice squad over Bears? [Chicago Tribune]
Whatever means necessary! Fine video put together by FanHouse.
At the draft, the MLS commissioner says the Chester stadium may be leading the competition with St. Louis, "If Philadelphia is able to finalize their plan, they have been leading the charge and have a step ahead of St. Louis."
And look: There may be a heated rivalry with DC! over Soccer!
He spoke during a break from a loud and energetic soccer draft, with hundreds of fans chanting and singing for their teams. "Pick St. Louis! Pick St. Louis!" a group of DC United fans chanted to the commissioner, taunting about 20 members of the Sons of Ben fan club who traveled here to cheer the Philadelphia area's prospects.
It was the first glimpse of what might turn into a heated soccer rivalry between Washington and Philadelphia, complete with the chants and songs that characterize followers of the sport around the world. Indeed, one of the appeals for MLS of having a Philadelphia team is the city's proximity to New York and Washington, and the rivalries that would engender.
>>'A step ahead' in MLS race? [Inquirer]
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