This installment of Stars of the Photostream comes from HannahLa (now and always backlogged), who writes of this photo of the just-imploded Drexel Shaft:
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 4:10 pm posted by Brian Howard
As Stewie might say, “as long as we’re hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity,” but there’s a fine line between dated and retro, and we say time’s ripe for a Ren and Stimpy revival.
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 2:16 pm posted by Brian Howard
Little White Bag: Joey Ryan (behind cloud) hits Necro Butcher with a bag of “cocaine” in a November Ring of Honor bout.
Photo | Neal Santos
As a companion to this morning’s cover story byShaun Brady on the South Philly indie wrestling scene — there are no less than four independent promotions working The Arena — we had our vid-man Neal Santos and intern Scott Yorko head down to the Nov. 5 Ring of Honor show to take some pics and record some audio to give a better sense of the scene.
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 6:04 pm posted by Brian Howard
Yes, it’s difficult to argue that the Phils need fixing per se, but the need to do a little something something to get back to the World Series and get over a hump we’ll call the Yankees.
Here at The Clog, we’ve isolated four main areas the Phillies need to lavish a little TLC on over the off season:
Third Base (Feliz has to go)
The Rotation (Is Moyer the best we can do at fifth starter? Will Happ repeat his strong rookie performance?)
The Bullpen (Can we count on Lidge to recover? Should we sign free agent? Should we groom hard-throwing youngsters Scott Mathieson and Antonio Bastardo for bigger roles down the line?)
The Batting Order (Can we really thrive with a .290 OBP at the top of the order? Can we please split up Howard/Utley vs. lefties?)
The Bench (No more Bruntlett?)
and have concocted a poll with what we believe to be the main options for the team.
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 3:52 pm posted by Brian Howard
The winners of the Internet Baseball Awards — essentially the MVP, Cy Young, Rookie and Manger of the Year awards as chosen by stathead fans — were announced of the last two days.
More than 1,200 ballots were cast in this year’s installment. The hometown nine fared well in the National League though, much like this year’s post-season, nobody took home any hardware:
MVP:
Chase Utley and Ryan Howard finished 4th and 10th respectively in the MVP voting. Jayson Werth (20), Raul Ibanez (24) and Cliff Lee (28) also made showings
Cy Young:
Cliff Lee finished 9th in the balloting, which is not bad considering he put in less than a half season of work in the red pinstripes. J.A. Happ placed 16th with Cole Hamels clocking in at 19th.
Rookie of the Year:
This was a nailbiter, as J.A. Happ finished 2nd to the Braves’ Tommy Hanson in a photo finish. Happ racked up 5,473 points to Hanson’s 5,487. To my knowledge, no other Phils rookies received votes.
Manager of the Year:
Charlie Manuel finished 4th, behind Jim Tracy (whose miraculous reversal of the Rockies season was deserving of praise even if his handling of the NLDS was not), Joe Torre (who’s kind of coasting on reputation at this point) and Tony LaRussa (see Joe Torre).
Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 1:52 pm posted by Brian Howard
Reader James DiMartino of the Southwark/Passyunk Square area wrote this morning with this interesting alternative to a full-on transit strike:
The SEPTA strike is a great inconvenience to the general population. I am sure that the Septa board Members and the Union Leadership are not similarly inconvenienced by the lack of public transportation. Just look at the army of SUVs around the Bellevue during the talks.
I would like to suggest another approach to the union action. Instead of walking off the job, why not continue to operate the system as usual only REFUSE TO COLLECT FARES.
This would have a two-fold impact; 1. Put a halt to the revenue stream while 2. Retaining the popular support of the people whose livelihoods depend on reliable public transportation.
Each time SEPTA has gone on strike, they have actually lost ridership.
Why not take an action that helps the people as well as yourselves, guys? Would that not be enlightened self interest?
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 11:44 am posted by Brian Howard
As if you didn’t know: The Phillies won a tense game 5, forcing a game 6 tomorrow night in New York wherein Pedro Martinez will get a second chance to end the “who’s your daddy?” chants once and for all.
Also, SEPTA called an audible, announcing a 3 a.m. strike shutting down all city subway, bus and trolley service, essentially holding true to the letter of their word to not striking during the World Series home games. Yes, yes, we support the union’s right to strike, but tell it to the people waiting at bus stops at 5:30 this morning.
So we’ll take this opportunity to share a word with the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia who suggest you “Bike the Strike”:
PHILADELPHIA - November 3, 2009 - The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia urges SEPTA travelers to bike instead of driving. Commuters who bike will win out over those stuck in traffic jams of epic proportions.”Avoid the crush and bike the strike,” says Alex Doty, Executive Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia. “Bike the Strike to save time, money and help shrink your waistline. Plus, I guarantee you will have more fun than anyone trying to drive during the strike.”
In cooperation with Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation and Utilities, the Bicycle Coalition has established a Bike the Strike station at City Hall (Dillworth Plaza). The station has bike parking corrals, free coffee, bike maps and Bicycle Ambassadors on hand to give tips on bike commuting and personalized route planning.
Keeping safe while bicycling is critical. “Bicycles are considered vehicles, so we also urge all bicyclists to obey the rules of the road,” said Education Director Breen Goodwin. “It’s important for all bicyclists to be civil, courteous and comply with traffic laws, such as walking their bikes on sidewalks and stopping at all signals, to ensure the everyone’s safety.”
Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 5:14 pm posted by Brian Howard
Jim Horwat
Click image to see full print.
Jim Horwat, our favorite Phillies-loving, smile-crazy illustrator — the man behind last year’s championship-celebrating tribute/collage — is back with a 2009 print featuring all the stars of this year’s run and Brad Lidge and Eric Bruntlett. Oh, and it’s also got HK and the Phanatic done up like some kind of Mayan priest.
This year’s print is full color and available in a signed and numbered first edition on Horwat’s web site. Do some early x-mas shopping and maybe buy the Phils a little karma tonight.
Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 8:31 am posted by Brian Howard
Dunno if it was the shaky first inning by Joe Blanton, the continued struggles of Ryan Howard vs. lefties, the reliance on the solo home run, the uncanny ability to convert a 2-on-nobody-out opportunity into a goose egg, or the almost comically preordained bullpen collapse that was most emblematic of the Phils season.
Last night’s World Series game 4 had a little bit of everything for your local neighborhood Phils cynic. Let’s not forget that while the Phillies are indeed a very formidable team, they’ve got their weaknesses — and almost all of them were exposed against the best power pitching and power hitting money can buy.
CC Sabathia — his inability to do anything with Chase Utley notwithstanding — continued to make Phils lefties Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez look look like Rico Brogna and Travis Lee.
Joe Blanton, a yeoman 4th starter, despite a sick run from the second inning into the fifth where he painted the corners deftly, was undone in a fifth inning where nobody hit the ball all that hard, but, given Blanton’s lack of an out pitch, was unable to drop the hammer and end an ill timed two-run rally.
Charlie Manuel, despite finding himself in a situation — tied at 4 in the ninth after an improbable Pedro Feliz tying shot — where he might be facing extra innings, decided to not try to get another inning out of his best/most durable reliever, Ryan Madson, and went to Brad Lidge in a situation that called for perfection.
In a bit of irony too rich for words, when the Phils employed a severe defensive shift against Mark Teixeira — the same one used so often against their own Ryan Howard — they got burned on a steal of second wherein Johnny Damon kept running right on down to an uncovered third base.
Of course, then there’s the mystery of why Brad Lidge stopped throwing his slider — his best pitch and possibly the best pitch on the entire staff — while facing Johnny Damon in the first place, but Brad Lidge mysteries could fill a book at this point.
Received a flurry of texts/tweets/fb messages last night informing me that our dear newspaper had a cameo in last night’s episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 3:42 pm posted by Brian Howard
Yesterday our own contributing sports editor E. James Beale sat down with Daily News sports editor Josh Barnett on Marty Moss-Coane’s Radio Times to talk about the World Series. Listen below.
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