Philly Sports: Week in Review June 4

Another ho hum sports week. The only team in action again this week, the Phillies had a mediocre week taking 2 of 3 from the Nationals and salvaging a split with the Dodgers. This week saw them keep pace with the Mets and again overtake the Braves for 2nd place.

Heres to the Carolina Hurricanes as they go to the Stanley Cup finals led by several key ex-Flyers - Rod Brind-amour, Mark Recchi and Justin Williams.

The Eagles are set to open up a minicamp, presumably with no hold outs or major strife for a change. In a lackluster sports season I am sure the reporters will be searching for any sort of juicy morsels of news.

Who's Hot: Chase Utley - after a bit of a slow start to the week Chase ended the week red hot bringing his average for the week up to .367 with 2 HR's. Geoff Geary picked up 2 wins in scoreless relief.

Who's Cold: Surprise, Surprise, Mike Lieberthal back and Mike Lieberthal is stinkin up the joint with 1 hit in 16ABs. Gavin Floyd pitched poorly enough to earn a one way ticket to Scranton.

Most Hated Teams - Part 2

The following is the 5 most hated teams by Philadelphia fans.

#5 Washington Redskins

First lets start by acknowledging that it is hard to hate Joe Gibbs. For the most part his teams are fairly classy (although druggy Dexter Manley is an exception). On the other hand twice a year the Eagles square off against their fellow NFC East rival. A team the Eagles play twice a year. We continue to savor the memories of the "Body Bag Game". How can a fan stomach the meddling owner Daniel Snyder (Redskins fans may agree with me on that one.) Fortunately he is as foolish as he is annoying by over paying for Bruce Smith and the hated Deion Sanders. Let us not forget "Hail to the Redskins". Come on, this is the NFL, who has a fight song. (Oh wait, we have Fly Eagles Fly!) Lets face it, their fight song may have been around for a while, but ours is way better. And then there is the grown men wearing dresses and pink pig noses otherwise known as the hoggettes. I will never understand the tie in between football and transvestite swine.

#4 New Jersey Devils

The Flyers nemesis. It seems like they can never quite overtake the dreaded Devils. The Devils almost single handedly destroyed the NHL by perfecting the Trap, taking a fast paced exciting game and turning into a slow boring debacle. Remember Scott Stevens ending the Flyers career of Eric Lindros. The fact that they play in the swamp infested Meadowlands in the dump of a state does not help either. (To appease my wife and other fellow New Jerseyers, I am referring to North Jersey. Even my wife says that those in South Jersey make fun of North Jersey.)

#3 New York Giants

Another bitter NFC East rivalry and another New York team makes the list. Proof of the fans hatred for this team is when the Giants and Eagles play there is more fights between fans in the stand then there is scraps between the teams on the field. I am too young to witness it, but the old schoolers will surely remind us of the Bednarik hit on Frank Gifford. Those of us in my generation learned to hate the Giants when Phil Simms was at QB, Mark Bavaro at TE and Bill Parcells was the coach. Jeremy Shockey now continues to make it easy to hate today's Giants.

#2 New York Rangers

My 5th New York team to make the list. Each and every time the Rangers travel south to Philly they are serenaded by Rangers Suck cheers from the crowd. With the new salary cap in the NHL the days of the Rangers attempt at buying a Stanley Cup are over. Unfortunately that takes away some of the satisfaction that we had from watching the highest payroll in the league perennially not make the playoffs. My greatest memory as a hockey fan was the Flyers taking 4 of 5 against the Rangers to get to the Stanley Cup finals in 97. Other reasons to hate the Rangers - Messier's guarantee, Madison Square Garden, Ulf Samuelson, Darius Kasparitus, Eric Lindros, Matthew Barnaby & now Jaromir Jagr.

#1 Dallas Cowboys

Was their ever even a sliver of doubt who the most hated team is? A visit to the vet or the Linc against the Cowboys will unveil *&%# Dallas t-shirts all over the stadium. Where do we even begin? The mere sight of the blue star causes my blood to boil. The term "America's team" makes me want to puke. The front running, bandwagon fans that come out of the cracks like vile rodents during a winning season. That moronic stadium with the hole in the roof. Jerry Jones' dopey smirk. Tom Landry and his aggravating fedora. Jimmy Johnson, his plastered on hair and "how bout them Cowboys" and the epic battles against Buddy Ryan that made Buddy a Philadelphia legend. Barry Switzer. Troy girl Aikman leading his team of drug addicts and criminals such as the loathsome Michael Irvin. Deion Sanders and his touchdown dances and self centered showmanship including the his bizzare dance around the injured Michael Irvin on the Veteran stadium carpet. There is the fake kneel down scab revenge game, the snowball game and of course the "Bounty Bowl." We take pride in passing along our hatred from generation to generation so imagine my delight when my 2 year old son said to me "We like cows, but we don't like the Cowboys!" It almost brought a tear to my eye. What is the status of the rivalry? Lets just say that the rivalry that will never die is about to kick into high gear. Bring on T.O.!

Philly Sports: Week in Review - May 28

Another rather uneventful week in Philly sports. May, for a Philadelphia sports fan means that the Sixers find out where they pick in the lottery, the Flyers take to the golf course after a pre-mature end to a run for the cup and the Phillies teeter on the brink of falling from the playoff race. This May is no different.

Eagles: Also not much happening. As for football, if I cared even a little bit about the Soul, I would be irate today as the Soul had a chance to advance in the playoffs with a touchdown, but fumbled on the 2 yard line as time expired to end the game. Do any "real" Philadelphia sports fans really care about what happens in the Arena Football league?

Sixers: No luck for the Sixers in the draft lottery as they end up with the number 13 pick in the draft. Has anyone noticed all of the former Sixers playing important roles in the Western Conference playoff? San Antonio, who were eliminated by Keith Van Horn and Jerry Stackhouse's Dallas Mavericks, had Bruce Bowen and Nazi Mohammed, while Phoenix has Raja Bell and Tim Thomas.

Flyers: Since we are talking about ex-Philadelphians, the Hurricanes first 3 goals yesterday were scored by Justin Williams, Mark Recchi, and Rod Brind'amour. This is surely a sign of our plight, we again watch our ex-players have success after they leave Philly. (ie: Sir Charles, Reggie White, Schilling, ... I could go on and on)

Phillies: In the lone bit of inspirational news this week, Aaron Rowand, our newest hero, received a hero's welcome in his return to the field. The rest of the week was a letdown as Cole Hamels went on the DL, and the Phillies lost 2 of 3 to both the Mets and the seemingly unbeatable Brewers. To make matters worse we have to see highlights of Barry Bonds and his tainted 715 HR's.

Who's Hot: Ryan Howard (.364, 3HR, 10RBI), Pat Burrell (.364, 2HR)
Who's Cold: Phils pitching staff, Bobby Abreu (.227 & playing uninspired defense), Billy King (Not getting the Sixers ping pong ball chosen in the lottery)

Most Hated Teams - Part 1

The following 2 part post is my opinion of the 10 most hated teams by Philly fans. I welcome your comments.

Honorable mentions:

Toronto Maple Leafs: In the late 90's and early 2000's the Flyers seemed to have perennial grueling, spirited post season matches with the Leafs. Seeing Pat Quinn's bitter scowl game after game was infuriating, but the big reason for hating the Leaf's is Tie Domi.

New York Yankees: If they would be in theNational League, they would probably be near the top of the list, but even so they are from New York and you got to hate a team that tries to buy a ring year after year.

#10 New York Knicks
It is not easy to hate a team that is very rarely competitive, but lets face it we hate New York and with Larry Brown as coach it is just another reason to hate them.

#9 Pittsburgh Penguins
Our cross state hockey rival. In the early 90's the Mario Lemieux led Penguins dominated the league. Jaromir Jagr elicited jeers, boos and whistles as he skated around the ice with his long locks and the hated Matthew Barnaby even had a short stint with the team several years ago. The stage is set for continued heated rivalries with Sid "the kid" Crosby on the scene.

#8 Atlanta Braves
How can you not hate a team that has won 12 straight division titles? We love to poke fun at Larry "Chipper" Jones. And how about that annoying chop by the pathetic Atlanta fans. Give it a rest. For as much as we hate New York fans, we can at least respect their passion, but Atlanta as a sports town is just second class.

#7 Boston Celtics
Now this is an interesting one. When I first became a sports fan, this was one of the biggest Philly rivals and one of Philly's most hated teams. The rivalry has cooled as the Sixers and Celtics have fallen out of the leagues elite for the past 20 years, but think back to the early 80's when the Sixers and Celtics would play on national tv each Sunday and we had to listen to the biased blabbering of Tommy Heinson. Then there was Red Auerbach, The Chief, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge and of course Larry Bird. I even grew to hate that parquet floor of the Boston Garden. You know the rivalry was great when Andrew Toney had maybe my all time favorite nickname, "The Boston Strangler." For those of you in your 20's and younger, you missed out on one heck of a rivalry.

#6 New York Mets
There were the '86 Mets with druggies Gooden and Strawberry and there are those annoying fans that flock down to the Vet and now Citizens Bank Park. As mentioned earlier, lets face it, we just hate most all New York teams.

Philly Sports: Week in Review - May 21

Flyers: In the sports version of E.R. the Flyers had 6 players undergo surgery this week (Forsberg, Primeau, Gagne, Kapanen, Esche, Rathje). In addition Umberger was sent home from the World Championships with dizziness and Niitymaki injured his groin.

Sixers: Nothing going on in Sixerland except rumblings from select groups of deranged fans who want the Sixers to consider rehiring the washed up Larry Brown if he leaves the Knicks.

Eagles: This week there is some Eagle news with the opening of the first mini camp. We hear that JR Reed and MacDougle look healthy and strong, but lets face it we will not know until they strap on the pads. News flash: Andy Reid thinks they need to run the ball more this year. Anyone who follows football even a little bit realizes this is true. Is Westbrook fully recovered and can he carry the load? Are Moats and Perry capable backups? Is Buckhalter in the mix. There are a lot of questions to be answered. One little bit of roster news - Billy McMullen was traded (or more accurately given) back to his old coordinator Brad Childress and the Vikings. I am probably the only one, but I still held out hopes that Billy could be a contributor to the team.

Phillies: When will I learn. Just when I let down my guard on my skepticism and think that the Phillies have a legitimate shot to make the playoffs, they do it to me again and go on a 5 game tailspin to the Brewers and Red Sox before salvaging Sunday's game. To watch the games and hear as many cheers for the Red Sox as for the Phillies is hard to swallow. Let's face it, the pitching is not strong enough to make a serious run, but despite the fact of the recent tailspin this team has showed me something that has been missing the past couple of years and that is some energy and heart. Who knows. I refuse to give up yet.

Horses: Although not a horse racing fan, I did get excited the past couple years cheering for "local" horses Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex and now Barbaro so Barbaro's injury during Saturday's Preakness was a heart breaking end to the Triple Crown bid.

Who's Hot: Flyer surgeons (6 surgeries), Bobby Abreu (.455, 7R, 8RBIs)
Who's Cold: Pat Burrell (.176, 6K's), Arthur Rhodes (0-1, 16.20 ERA)

The beginning

It is summer time. Life is good. I just finished the fifth grade. I watch Mo Cheeks rising up with the exclamation point dunk as the Dr.J, Moses, Boston Strangler led Sixers sweep the Lakers to win the NBA championship. Three years before, in my first year of following professional sports, I witness all four of "my" teams going to the finals, with the Phillies winning the World Series. From this point on, Philly sports becomes a passion and a way of life. Multiple championship appearances, rings and parades are inevitable right? Two years of junior high, four years of high school, four years of college, ten years of marriage and three kids later I am still waiting to experience that feeling of winning a championship that I had 23 years earlier.

This is my first post in a blog that will reminisce the past and look to the future, to vent the frustration and celebrate the passion of the Philly fan.

8377 days since our last championship.