Elegy (R)
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Eagles lock up GM through ‘11
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| via Philly.com |
| Eagles GM Tom Heckert |
According to the Eagles official website the team has just extended the contract of GM Tom Heckert through the 2011 season.
They’re bragging about it:
[Heckert]’s first draft with the Eagles produced Lito Sheppard, Michael Lewis, Brian Westbrook and Sheldon Brown, the first three earning Pro Bowl selections. In 2004, the Eagles added two-time Pro Bowler in Shawn Andrews and another Pro Bowler Trent Cole in 2005. Prior to the 2004 draft, he also engineered the trade of 3rd-string QB A.J. Feeley to the Dolphins for their 2nd round pick in the 2005 draft, which was used to select wide receiver Reggie Brown.
The 41-year old Heckert has also shown a knack for finding key rookie free agents (safety Quintin Mikell, center Jamaal Jackson, wide receiver Greg Lewis and linebacker Akeem Jordan among others) who not only earned roster spots, but have been solid contributors to the Eagles recent success.
Heckert has been rumored to be up for various jobs for years, so its nice to get the personnelmen locked up. Details of the deal were not immediately available.
Great Moments in Baseball Fights
I figure that now is as good a time as any to post a legendary baseball brawl. This one starts out at George Bell v. Aaron Sele, but a certain power-hitting Red Sox first-basemen has other plans.
UPDATE: I’m putting the video after a jump because it seems to keep starting automatically
The Secret to Lenny Dykstra’s Millions: slave labor
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| Nails, in happier times |
If there is one easy way to assure yourself bad press, this is probably it — former Phillies All-Star centerfielder turned financial analyst Lenny Dykstra has stopped paying writers from his magazine:
A number of freelancers for Dykstra’s magazine, The Players Club, claim that they have not been paid for articles they wrote for the second and third issues of the magazine, which is at the center of a legal tussle between magazine publisher Doubledown Media and Dykstra.
The Players Club came out in early April and was the recepient of much positive press. Even the New Yorker wrote a positive profile of LD.
But issues No. 2 and 3 have been a source of heated disputes that have left freelancers unpaid as Doubledown and Dykstra wage a nasty legal feud over whether Dykstra was ripped off by Doubledown, as he claims, or whether the former baseball great stole the second issue of the magazine from Doubledown, as the publisher claims.
We used to love it when Lenny would mess with other teams’ heads and never stop attacking, but this is taking that sentiment a wee bit too far.
La Salle and the Olympics
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| goexplorers.com |
| Quigley, running faster than us |
As a former runner (ranner?) and a current Philadelphia sports fan, I knew that La Salle redshirt-senior distance guy Sean Quigley was nice — but I didn’t realize he was this nice.
From Joe Juliano in yesterday’s Inky:
Quigley, 23, a six-time all-American in indoor track, outdoor track and cross-country, no longer has the fastest time in the world, but he enters tomorrow’s NCAA East Regional in Tallahassee, Fla., ranked nationally at two distances — third in the 10,000 and fifth in the 5,000, with a time of 13:30.25 posted April 20 at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in California.
He will run the 5,000 at the regional but probably move up to the 10,000 at next month’s NCAA Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. It appears as if he also will compete in the longer distance at the Olympic trials on July 4.
The goal is to win, but the real prize for Quigley is at the trials — a coveted trip to China as a U.S. Olympian.
"I’m gearing toward the trials," he said. "Whatever happens at NCAAs happens. I’m definitely focused on both, but I don’t want to pack it in after the NCAAs and then not do well at trials."
So we could have an Olympian in our midst? Fantastic news. I’ll be keeping an eye on him from here, but if people have any updates on the kid, let me know.
The Friday Sports Page, May 30th
Morning Roundup: "I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok." - Shaquille O’Neal
First your national sports scene in three quick lines:
Kobe is headed back to the finals, Larry Jones keeps raising his average - he’s now 20 full points above the Conlin .300, and, um, hockey is back tonight. That’ll do as a third.
As a rule, the normal Friday Sports Page is pretty devoid of heavy intellectual lifting. The intro is all anecdotes and the follow-up posts are generally full of lists and youtubes. Today, that is magnified. No local teams played last night, baseball had a Monday schedule (because Monday was holiday they played a full slate), there were no games in hockey and only one in basketball (albeit a decent one) so we’re getting right down to business.
Oh, and if you thought I was going to cover the Phils’ Chase Utley-led do-gooding casino night you were sadly mistaken. No story is worth having to go to F.U.E.L.
Storytime: The first one is mildly relevant I suppose, it involves those Detroit Pistons and (kinda) local boy Rip Hamilton. I’m stealing if from the Detroit News, but I’ve forgotten who passed it along.
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| Rip and Chauncey, viciously debating something |
During a preseason practice this year Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamiltongot into a shooting contest. Billups won. Hamilton complained that somebody, somehow cheated. (It has been said that Rip has never lost at anything, he’s either won or got cheated). The reporter didn’t know the details of the complaint, but he assured us that Bullups wasn’t buying it. The two continued to argue (good-naturedly) as they went to hit the showers. Some 15 minutes later - after they "ended" the contest and went back to the locker room - the door bangs back open and out comes Rip and Chauncey, carrying basketballs, clad only in towels and shower slippers. No word on who won the re-match.
No real point here from me.
The second is weirder, but apparently just as true.
You remember that ice-breaker game, where a group of people who just met will introduce themselves by associating with a characteristic, place and favorite item beginning with the same letter as their first name? For example: "My name is Aaron, I live in Alaska and I love Apples." (untrue, untrue, true). Well, research has suggested that there is more to that game than we could have expected. Studies show that people are unconsciously drawn to items that begin with their first name. For example, Doug is more likely to drive a dodge, move to Delaware and marry Daria than Fred, who would be more likely to drive a Ford, move to Frankford, and marry Francesca. I drive a Jeep, really want a JaRon Rush UCLA Bruins jersey and own a sick jump shot. Coincidence? Science says no.
Even weirder, people gravitate toward things that begin with their initials even when those things are undesirable, like bad grades (explains all my ‘Js’ in grade school …) or a baseball strikeout. (see where this is going?)
In what researchers Leif Nelson of UCSD and Joseph Simmons call "moniker maladies," although no baseball player wants to strike out, players whose names begin with K (scorecard shorthand for a strikeout) fan more often than other players.
If the preference for people, places and things that share one of your initials is conscious, then it shouldn’t work if the thing you’re choosing is basically undesirable. Strikeouts are undesirable. Yet based on data from 1913 through 2006, for the 6,397 players with at least 100 plate appearances, "batters whose names began with K struck out at a higher rate (in 18.8% of their plate appearances) than the remaining batters (17.2%)," the researchers find. The reason, they suggest, is that players whose first or last name starts with K like their initial so much that "even Karl ‘Koley’ Kolseth would find a strikeout aversive, but he might find it a little less aversive than players who do not share his initials, and therefore he might avoid striking out less enthusiastically." Granted, 18.8% vs. 17.2% is not a huge difference, but it was statistically significant-that is, not likely to be due to chance.
Knowledge.
Phillies, Sixers, Eagles, Flyers and more novel excuses for Ryan K. Howard, all after the jump
your 2007 NL East champs … the mets?
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| This headline? Still real |
As the New York Daily News reports, a recent NYC travel brochure made a few errors in this years edition:
Shea Stadium, built in 1962,
it read. WrongWrongWrong the NYDN says. In fact Actually, groundbreaking on the Flushing ballpark began in October 1961 and it didn’t open until April 1964
But I don’t think that I’d be linking to just that, after all, mistakes like that happen pretty much everyday. Is it the line right after that "built in 62" comma where the fun really starts:
home to the 2007 National League East Division Champion New York Mets professional baseball club
The best part is that the NL East Runner-up Mets’ front office actually partners with these guys, which totally allows me to implicate them in the error too.
What a fun division title we have.
h/t 700 Level
Thirteen Minutes with Harry Kalas
For our Two Minutes With … segment this week I had the privilege of sitting down with Phillies’ HOF broadcaster Harry Kalas. Be sure to check that link to hear Harry’s thoughts on the honor, the true origins of his signature "it’s outta here" call (not what you might think) and how long he plans on sticking around. Then be sure to come back here and get the rest.
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| Harry Kalas |
Before I go any further I should note that we sat down with him because he’s been nominated for the Radio Hall of Fame (he’s in the baseball HOF as a broadcaster, this is a little different). The vote for this one is determined by the fans, so if you’re a fan of Harry’s - and really, who isn’t? - make sure you click HERE and take a minute to make sure that Harry the K get in.
The Thursday Sports Page, May 29th
Morning Roundup: "The day you take complete responsibility for yourself, the day you stop making any excuses, thats the day you start to the top." - Orenthal James Simpson, noted attempted-author.
First, the national scene in three quick lines: The Celtics took game five of an inevitable seven-game series, the Penguins took game three of what had seemed like an inevitable four-game series and the NBA admitted that Joey Crawford hates the Spurs, which is fun.
And now, your local sports scene.
As Chase Utley launched a small, red-stitched white ball into the cheap seats of Citzens Bank Park last night, notching his major league leading 17th homerun in the process, Ru and I started to discuss the series in the past-tense. "Nice to get a sweep against these guys" He said. "We had to" I replied, "their entire team was on the DL." Our conversation went on like that for a few minutes, before we eventually switched the channel over to the Pistons-Celtics at the end of the inning and refocused our interest there, but it wasn’t until this morning that the implications of a conversation like that really hit me.
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| Michael T. Regan |
| Chase Utley, a solid baseballer |
Right now, when the Phillies take a three-run lead in the 5th inning I’m starting to count the game as ours. I’ve been a Phillies fan as far back as I can remember (actually I can remember the exact day, but as far as I’m concerned memories before the Phillies shouldn’t count as ‘real’ memories) and I can never recall being comfortable with a lead, or even ever really confident that the team is going to get a win. I’m going to touch on a few things this newfound confidence may mean …
- It means the Home Team is taking care of business. The Phillies threw out their 3,4 and 5 pitchers and I assumed a sweep. That’s new.
- It means the Phillies have a back-end of the bullpen that we can trust (really, actually trust) for the first time in memory. In my lifetime Phillies have had a run of decent-or-better closers but none I’ve ever been able to watch and relax in the 9th like I can with Lidge now - and I know that sounds crazy because he’s supposed to be so unreliable
- It means that Charlie is becoming an in-game manager we can trust, which deserves its own post so I’m not going to say more now.
But maybe most important, it means that this team is fundamentally different from how Philly sports teams are supposed to (and do) act. My hometown baseball team is likeable, reliable, and good. While the Mets are relying on noted steroid-abuser/90s superstar mediocre utility man Fernando Tatis the Phils are playing smart games, capitalizing on opposing mistakes and making teams pay. For the first time in a long time I get to sit back and watch the Celtics or the Penguins and know that guys like J.C. Romero are taking care of business on the other channel.
What THAT means, of course, is that an inevitable injury/team scandal of epic proportions has to be only moments away. It still is Philly here, right?
Phillies, Sixers, Birds, Flyers and complacent fear, after the jump …
Sixers’ Draft, a look ahead
Having traded their second rounder in the some random deal (2nd rounders get so casually thrown around in this league it’s hardly worth paying attention to who gets who and why. If we want a second rounder we’ll buy the pick (see Korver, Kyle)) and not getting the Utah pick until at least next year the Sixers are looking at starting draft night with the 16th pick. For the sake of speculation I’m going to assume that we keep it.
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| oh drafting |
Wharton 2, NBA 0
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| Justin Wolfers |
The study, in short, showed that white refs call more fouls on black players than black refs would have and that black refs call more on white players than white refs would have. Because almost two-thirds of NBA referees are white, the study in the words of Wolfers,
"Basically … suggests that if you spray-painted one of your starters white, you’d win a few more games."
The study and ensuing New York Times article got plenty of attention when it was released I won’t discuss the relative merits of it here, but I will say that it is certainly worth a read if you missed it the first time.
Anyway: as you might predict, the NBA didn’t exactly endorse the study. David Stern and the rest of the league officials denied its accuracy and pointed to their own (the Times looked hard and determined less accurate) studies as disproving Wolfer’s work.
Wolfers’, in an effort to refute the NBA’s denial, took his tests to Vegas and showed that he would be able to beat the book with selective betting.
Earlier this week Wolfers appeared on NPR’s Bryant Park Project to discuss the new findings. Check out the interview, it is worth a listen.