Quick Weekend Review

If there has been a weekend where there was more to see than this past weekend, I can't think of when that weekend took place. For now, this is just a quick overview of the weekend's events, but I'll do a deeper dive on each of the biggies as it pertains to the Philly sports scene.

The Phillies. Wow. Don't make it easy on us or anything. When Lidge was on the mound over the weekend, doing his best Mitch Williams impersonation, I thought for sure I was witnessing a meltdown. Jimmy Rollins' sprawling effort to gain control of a grounder up the middle and his flip to Utley, who turned a game ending double play was as big of a defensive play as you'll see.

The Phils clinched their second consecutive NL East division championship and have earned themselves an NLDS series against the Milwaukee Brewers, who made the wildcard, after battling the choking Metropolitans of New York.

The Eagles. Great game last night, but in losing to the Bears, they definitely left a win out on the field. David Akers can seemingly no longer be counted on over 40 yards out and the red zone woes of last season returned for another night.

The Flyers. Went to the last Spectrum game on Saturday and saw the ceremony. I have some pictures to post when I get around to writing about it. The Flyers did a tremendous job and it was nice to see Bobby Clarke get a nice standing ovation after the way his tenure as GM ended. It would have been nice to see Eric Lindros make it to the ceremony (he was invited), but he had another engagement to attend to, but he did apparently record a video that I'm trying to get a hold of to post.

Penn State. Ranked No. 6 in the country and are especially being viewed differently after USC lost to Oregon State. The Big 10 is theirs to lose right now, if they can survive road trips to Columbus and Madison.

Cowboys Outlast Eagles

A late Donovan McNabb fumble while the Eagles had the ball in Dallas territory proved to be the pivotal play in a wild, back and forth Monday Night Football game that the Eagles dropped to the Cowboys by a score of 41 - 37.

When McNabb fumbled, the Eagles were leading by 3, and had just had a long kickoff return from rookie Quinton Demps put the ball into Dallas territory. Just as it looked like the Eagles were poised to at least put up another field goal, a botched handoff lay on the turf to be picked up by the Cowboy defense.

The Cowboys then took possession and drove the ball right down the field, eventually scoring the winning touchdown on a 1 yd Marion Barber run.

This game between 2 bitter rivals started out innocently enough, with the Eagles taking the ball and driving for a field goal, and then got goofy on the next possession where Tony Romo hit Terrell Owens with a 72 yd bomb to put the Cowboys ahead 7 - 3.

After another Akers field goal, the Cowboys returned the subsequent kickoff for a touchdown as rookie Felix Jones took it to the house to make it 14 - 6 Dallas.

Late in the 1st quarter, the Eagles benefitted from Asante Samuel's first Eagle interception as well as a fluky pass interference penalty to give the Eagles the ball at the 1, where, after a false start, Brian Westbrook caught a 6 yd pass from Donovan McNabb to pull within 1.

The next possession, after a botched Dallas kickoff return that pinned the Cowboys deep in their own territory, Tony Romo somehow managed to drop the football all on his own in his own endzone. Romo gathered the ball in his own endzone and was looking at his options, when Brian Dawkins busted in and knocked the ball away from Romo, causing a fumble ultimately recovered in the end zone by Chris Cocong for a touchdown and a 20 - 14 Eagles lead.

The next possession, the Cowboys methodically drove the ball down the field for yet another Terrell Owens touchdown, this time from 4 yds out to go up by a point.

The following possession by the Eagles could have been one of the most controversial ones of the year had they not scored on it. Eagles' rookie DeSean Jackson gathered in a Donovan McNabb pass and was coasting in for a touchdown, when, he inadvertantly flipped the ball before he went into the endzone. The ruling by the officials gave the Eagles the ball at the 1 yd line where Brian Westbrook took Jackson off of the hook, by punching the ball into the endzone for a 27 - 21 Eagles lead.

The two teams traded field goals as the half ended, with Eagles leading 30 - 24.

After an exchange of punts to open the 2nd half, the Cowboys struck first on a 17 yd pass from Tony Romo to Marion Barber. Barber earlier had a 20 yard burst to go with a Trent Cole roughing penalty that put the Cowboys in position in Eagle territory. The Eagles answered with a drive of their own that culminated in another Brian Westbrook touchdown as the 3rd quarter was ending to make the score 37 - 31 Eagles.

After the Cowboys drove and settled for a field goal to start the 4th quarter, the Eagles could have really salted the game away with another touchdown. Instead, we got the McNabb fumble and a hearty handshake.

Notes:

- Yup, still hate TO.

- Brian Dawkins....burnt on the TO slant for a TD and again on a post route from Jason Witten on the winning Cowboy drive.

- Sean Considine.....bit HARD on the Tony Romo shoulder fake on the 72 yd bomb.

- Speaking of the TO bomb....hey LEE-toe...what happened?

- Donovan....please learn to throw the ball away a little sooner. This indecision twice cost them on their final drive.

- DeSean Jackson....we love you and all, but don't EVER pull that stunt again.

Phils Win; Rollins Jeered

The Phils pulled out a 5 - 4 win over the Washington Nationals last night on the strength of a Jayson Werth home run in the bottom of the 8th inning. The homer capped a comeback for the Phils, who were down in the game 4 - 1 after the 4th inning.

But the big story of the game was the return to Philadelphia of one James Calvin Rollins, who recently made some comments you may have heard about.

In a purely unscientific guess as to the ratio of cheers and boos when Rollins first came to bat in the first inning, I'd have to guess it was about 60 or 70 percent booing, with the rest of the folks cheering.

Let there be no doubt, however, that in the 5th inning, when Rollins hit into a rally killing 4-6-3 double play, the natives were pissed and reacted accordingly and loudly. There was no mixture for that particular slice of fan reaction; the Phils had just scored on a sacrifice fly from the bat of Geoff Jenkins and had just turned the lineup over, when Rollins (batting left) rolled over on an 0-1 pitch.

The crowd did give Jimmy a nice hand when he smoked a 3-2 pitch from Steve Shell for an apparent home run, only to have the wind knock the ball down for a long, loud out.

In non-JRoll news from the game, Joe Blanton pitched 5 innings and seemed to labor. He seemed to be high in the zone and fortunately, the wind kept balls in the park last night, or else the score might have been higher for both sides. Blanton gave up all 4 runs and struck out 3. He gave way to Chad Durbin and Ryan Madson, who kept the Nats at bay and Brad Lidge came in to nail down save number 31.

The series continues tonite with Brett Myers facing Collin Balester. However, I suspect that the focus will continue to be on how the crowd reacts to Jimmy Rollins. I suspect that the vitriol will subside as the days go by, but this self-inflicted wound will heal much quicker if Rollins creates the kind of offensive wave we all know he's capable of.

Notes:

- Greg Dobbs and Chris Coste accounted for the other Phils RBIs.

- Donovan McNabb felt the need to render his opinion on the Rollins situation to Philly.com. Mostly empathetic to JRoll......

- Mike Missannelli had two interesting guests in the past few days weigh in on the Rollins situation. Both have had unique relationships with the Philadelphia sports fans over the years. Former Phil player and manager Larry Bowa weighed in, and I'm paraphrasing here, saying that playing in the Northeast can come with a bit of fan negativity. Charles Barkley weighed in with a very similar sentiments (audio link not up on 950's website....I'll post it if it goes up).

Photo: (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

Moyer, Howard Humble Cards

Jamie Moyer pitched 7 strong innings, giving up only 1 earned run and Ryan Howard hit two home runs as the Phils beat the Cardinals in a Business Person Special at CBP by a score of 4 - 1.

Moyer struck out 4 and walked 2 in winning his eighth game of the year against 6 losses. The win for Moyer is the first win in almost a month (6/12 vs. Fla) and despite his relative lack of success lately, Moyer's ERA is now below 4 at 3.95. Not bad for an old guy.

As for Ryan Howard, he certainly seems to have heated up at the plate as the weather has gotten hotter. For the month of July to date, Howard is hitting a cool .375 with 7 homers and 15 RBI. This surge has been good enough to put him in the NL lead for both home runs (27) and RBI (83). With that sort of run production, it is now a little easier to ignore his MLB leading 125 strikeouts.

Since Brad Lidge was unavailable due to extended usage the night before, JC Romero came on in the 9th to nail down his first save of the season.

Tonite, the Phils open up a series at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Probable starters for the weekend:

Fri: Doug Davis vs. Kyle Kendrick (7:05pm)

Sat: Randy Johnson vs. Adam Eaton (3:55pm)

Sun: TBA vs. Cole Hamels (1:35pm)......although I was reading somewhere that this is typically Brandon Webb's turn, but since the All-Star break starts on Monday, he may not be pitching).

Phils Notes

As you no doubt have heard by now, Chase Utley will be the latest Phil to compete in the Home Run derby at the All-Star game.

Am I the only Phils fan NOT excited about this prospect? Do I really need my All-Star second baseman and perennial MVP candidate screwing up his swing at a whorish, made-up event like this?

The Phils do have a history with the home run derby. Bobby Abreu won the event in 2005 in Comerica Park and Ryan Howard won the event in 2006 in PNC Park. The results for the reminder of the year, for each player were a bit of a mixed bag.

Bobby Abreu slumped in the 2nd half of 2005, hitting just .260 with 6 HR and 44 RBI. Ultimately, Abreu was traded in a well publicized salary dump the following year. Ryan Howard, on the other hand, hit .355 in the 2nd half of 2006 with 30 HR and 78 RBI on his way to winning the NL MVP.

Utley has a swing that is more of a quick whip of the bat designed to produce line drives rather than home runs, which differs from Howard's power stroke. I also don't believe that Utley's swing can be compared to Bobby Abreu's stroke, whose hands are not as quick as Utley's and can spray the ball to all fields. I personally don't think Abreu has been the same player since he won that Home Run derby. Is it all the fault of the event? Hard to say.

Ultimately, though, I think Utley has the disposition and attention to detail to be able to handle what the event entails, but I would just as soon that he not have to worry about tweaking his swing or artificially trying to drive the ball out of the park just for the sake of this event.

Phils Win! Howard Breaking Out?

The Phils beat Roy Oswalt and the Houston Astros last night by a score of 7 - 5. There were several heroes last night, but the first one that should be discussed is the Big Man, Ryan Howard.

Ryan Howard had 3 hits last night, including an opposite field shot off of Oswalt that was reminiscent of Howard's MVP year, when it seemed everything was hit the opposite way. This game for RyHo is on the heels of the game in Washington on Wednesday night, when Howard jacked 2 homers and really looked confident at the plate for the first time in a long time. A confident Ryan Howard will go a long way as the baseball season heads into the Memorial Day weekend (the unofficial start of Summer).

Also of note for Howard: his average is now above the Mendoza line. Howard's average, after two straight 3-hit games, stands at .207.

Want another hero? How about Pat Burrell? Burrell hit a pinch hit home run that broke a 5 -5 tie in the 8th inning.

Pat Burrell? Are you kidding me?

How bad must Burrell want the one more big contract before he goes on permanent happy hour? Maybe that's a bit cynical, because you'd like to think that Burrell could have done the sorts of things he's done this year with a little more consistency in the past.

Want another hero? How about more than one hero? The Phils bullpen pitched 4 scoreless innings after Phils starter Kyle Kendrick gave up 5 earned runs over 5 innings. Ryan Madson, JC Romero, Chad Durbin (who picked up the win), Tom Gordon, and Brad Lidge all combined to hold the Astros down offensively until the bats could wake up and provide the winning margin. Coming back to Houston and picking up a save in a town where he caught a little heat must have been especially satisfying for Brad Lidge. It was his 12th save on the year, and he lowered his ERA to a microscopic 0.43.

The series against Houston continues tonite at 8:05 (televised by CSN) with Adam Eaton facing Brad Backe.

Did you notice?

- Houston's Lance Berkman went 3 for 5 last night and is probably as dialed-in as any baseball player I've seen on another team this year (Brandon Webb, before his loss the other night, comes to mind). He's hitting .388 and was definitely worthy of the hyperbole being heaped upon him by the Phils announcers last night.

- Michael Bourn is hitting for crap (he struck out 3 times last night to go with his 2 hits, but is only hitting .214, with a tiny .275 OBP), but he stole his 21st base last night. The Phils still haven't replaced his speed on the bench.

100 Consecutive Seasons....

SI decided to regale those outside of our fine metropolis about our recent sports heartbreak. And by "recent", I really mean "the past 25 years". They have come out with a list of the top 100 heartbreaking moments from the past 25 years. It reminds those of us that love the local Philly teams why we are often right when we become pessimistic.

It also reminds me of why we can get so cantankerous as fans.

The author, Bryan Armen Graham, is a Philadelphian and did an excellent job of detailing some of the sports woes we've experienced in the past 25 years (which means, there is nary a Santa reference to be found).

There were one error and a couple minor points of contention I had with this article:

1.) Item 97: Rod Brind'Amour was not the team captain. That was one Eric Lindros. And I'm not 100% sure this should be on the list. Keith Primeau turned in one of the all-time great playoff runs in 2004. Primeau was the unquestioned leader of the Flyers to the point where he got Flyer legend Bill Barber fired. We all know Brindy eventually won the Cup, but don't think this trade belongs on this list.

2.) Item 95: You could make the case that the Bobby Abreu trade was addition by subtraction. We got rid of his salary and his blaise attitude. The Phils truly become Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley's team when Abreu was shipped out.

3.) Item 88: I'm sorry, but the recent Pens series just doesn't rank on this list. The Flyers were the worst team in the league the year before. The Pens were favored; they were supposed to win. Don't know how this makes the list, other than it's the most recent loss.

4.) Item 31: Say what you want about how Eric Lindros' time in Philly went, but you can't argue that he made the franchise relevant again when he came here. As the Sports Guy would say, this topic is it's own column. Lindros is indirectly responsible for getting the Wachovia Center (born the Corestates Center) built. I can't say this was a good trade for the Flyers in hindsight, but it wasn't like the Flyers didn't benefit. This trade probably deserves to be on the list, but maybe not this high.

5.) Item 17: That 2002 NFC Championship game wasn't as close as the final score would indicate. Yes, the Eagles lost and it sucked, but didn't you have the feeling that the Rams were the better team and that the Eagles would eventually get their Championship?

6.) Item 12: You can't underestimate how far back the Sixers were set back, as a franchise, by picking Shawn Bradley. This could be a top 5 selection on this list, bumping the 2001 Sixers from the top 5 (when in reality, the 2001 Sixers were just not going to beat the Lakers).

Check out the entire article here.

Werth Hits 3 HR; Scott Rolen Still A Jerk

The Phils trounced the Toronto Blue Jays last night at Citizens Bank Ballpark by a score of 10 - 3. The game featured 3 home runs by CF Jayson Werth, including a grand slam in the 3rd inning. Jamie Moyer pitched into the 7th inning before giving way to the bullpen and he picked up his 3rd win on the season against 3 losses.

It is refreshing to see how Charlie Manual is finding interesting ways of getting Jayson Werth into the lineup. You could see there wasn't much of a defensive dropoff with the athletic Werth in CF as opposed to the speedy Shane Victorino from when Victorino was injured. Furthermore, Victorino was considered a top notch defensive right fielder when he played there last year, because of his arm and ability to track balls. Neither player seems to mind the position switch so much according to an article from PDN's David Murphy, and I actually hope it turns in to a platoon-like situation, with Victorino, Werth, Jenkins, and Dobbs all getting their starts in those outfield positions when the time comes for their particular skills to be employed. I especially applaud the extended play of Werth, who, throughout his young career has displayed good skills, but has had a hard time staying out of the trainer's room.

Also of note in last night's game was Ryan Howard getting another hit to bring his average to .188. The series against Toronto continues today with Adam Eaton going against ex-Marlin AJ Burnett.

Scott Rolen Still Hates Us

As you may be aware, the Toronto Blue Jays are the latest stop for diva 3B Scott Rolen. This is after he annoyed Tony LaRussa in what Rolen called "baseball heaven" to the point where the Cardinals probably accepted a lesser player in trade in Troy Glaus. After 5 or so years have passed, you think Rolen might have matured to the point where he can wax philosophically about how his time ended here in Philadelphia in such a way that maybe the fans can understand things a little better and maybe get over the circumstances of how Rolen left town altogether.

Not a chance.

ESPN 950's Dan Schwartzman attempted to interview Rolen last night and Rolen, despite his polite demeanor, wanted nothing to do with talking about his time in Philly. Rolen was described as "wagging his finger" everytime the topic of his time in Philly came up. It's sort of frustrating for Philly fans because we all wanted to like Rolen, but apparently, Rolen doesn't now, nor has he ever, felt compelled to talk about things through the media to enable fans to understand him a little better.

As ESPN 950 plays that interview all weekend, Rolen can expect to be booed for the remainder of the weekend.

Gavin Floyd Almost Throws Another No Hitter

You'll recall we gave up Gavin Floyd, a former first round pick, in the Freddy Garcia deal. Just typing Freddy Garcia's name makes me want to regurgitate last night's meat loaf. He beat the Twins 7 - 1 last night, giving up the only hit in the ninth inning to Joe Mauer.

Indians 86 J-Mike

The Indians designated our old friend Jason Michaels for assignment. The entire Philadelphia police department nods in approval.

Fictional T.O. is Greatly Concerned

From the Onion: T.O. talks about his new teammate, Pacman Jones.

"I don't want to hear anyone talking bad about Jones," Owens said, his voice breaking as tears streamed down his face. "That's my teammate. That's my cornerback. Mine. Mine. Mine."

Admit it: There is a small part of you, the Eagle fan, that totally misses this guy and makes you pine for crazy-ass Ocho Cinco.

Big Flyers Game Tonite (and other hockey stuff)

- Habs coach Guy Carbonneau hasn't announced a starter, but I'd be stunned if it weren't Carey Price. The Habs made their bed with Carey Price when they traded Cristobal Huet for a virtual bag of peanuts.

- "Obi-wan" Knuble should be back in the lineup for the Fly-boys tonite. I wouldn't put him back on Carter's line right away, but I think he's definitely been missed on the power play.

- We haven't seen the best game from either of these two teams yet. Need the Flyers to assert themselves offensively and stay out of the penalty box. Saw on Bill Meltzer's pre-game report on Hockeybuzz.com that respected veteran official Bill McCreary will be on hand tonite officiating the game. I wonder if that assignment has anything to do with the Flyers carping in the press about the officiating. From Mike Richards on anti-Flyer bias from officials:

“We know the circumstances we're in,” he said. “We know if we go into a scrum, the odds are we're not going to come out on top of it. We just have to know that and get out of there. That's the mindset we have; we can't take that extra jab ... we'll get called for it.”

- File this under "I totally saw this coming".....Former Flyer Joni Pitkanen, pending restricted free agent, is apparently looking for WAAAY more money than he's currently worth. Sorry, Flyer-bashers.....Paul Holmgren will be vindicated for this deal (if the play of Joffrey Lupul hasn't done so already). I wonder if the light will ever go on for Joni. For a stark comparison on Joni's play, one only needs to look at the way fellow countrymen Kimmo Timonen and Lasse Kukkonen play....both play with passion and grit....two things sorely lacking in Pitkanen's game when he was in Philly. The sad thing is that Pitkanen has more raw talent than both of them.