By Warren Crossley on
3/16/2008
After staring at a city shutout just a couple of weeks ago, St. Joes, Temple, and Villanova all received berths to the NCAA tournament. All 3 are led into the Big Dance by terrific coaches. After 9 Ivy League Titles at Penn, Temple’s Fran Dunphy decided to try coaching scholarship kids two years ago in succeeding the legendary John Chaney at Temple. Dunphy had some rebuilding to do, but has Temple returning to prominence at least a year early. Villanova’s Jay Wright rallied his young squad after a 5-game February losing streak to just enough victories to grab one of the at-large berths. This is Villanova’s 4th straight appearance, which in today’s Big East is quite an accomplishment. Phil Martelli of the Hawks continues to get good players to come to one of the smallest schools around, and continues to field competitive teams. St. Joes also looked to be in trouble 2 weeks ago, but Martelli go ...
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By Warren Crossley on
2/25/2008
Last night’s rare shootout win over Buffalo stopped a seemingly endless 10 game skid. Combined with the acquisition of former Flyer Vinny Prospal from Tampa Bay, there is a ray of hope for the Flyers yet, who despite the worst month in recent memory, actually lead for the final playoff spot in the East. < ...
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By Warren Crossley on
2/20/2008
An arbitrator ruled in favor of Phillies 1B Ryan Howard today, awarding him $10 million in salary for the upcoming season, at the same time rejecting management’s offer of $7 million. Until today, MLB owners have gone undefeated in arbitration hearings, and this is the first time the Phillies have ever lost in arbitration. What does this mean for the Phillies? & ...
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By Warren Crossley on
2/18/2008
This past weekend’s sweep at the hands of Montreal leaves the Flyers perilously close to missing the playoffs despites being 2nd in the conference just 3 weeks ago. Mounting injuries and a relentless schedule, as well as continued strong play from the division rivals are big factors in the slide, but the continued sloppy play is the most alarming trend. Bad penalties and even worse turnovers are leaving goalies Antero Nittymaki and Martin Biron to have to stand on their head in order for the Flyers to have a chance to win. (Nittymaki almost did, playing brilliantly in Saturday’s 1-0 loss).
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By Warren Crossley on
2/12/2008
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By Warren Crossley on
2/6/2008
Catching up
I haven’t written for a while, and I plan to change that, so here’s a big blog to clear my head.
Where’s our title?
I hate to be a whiner, but the with all due respect to the Giants, their title win was a very improbable one, culminating in the upset of the undefeated Patriots. As I watched this Super Bowl not being able to pull for either team, I just got depressed at the thought of how the Giants seemingly pulled a championship out of thin air, wondering when we in Philadelphia can catch similar lightning in a bottle. The Phillies were poised to b ...
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By Warren Crossley on
1/8/2008
Last night’s victory over Atlanta brought the Flyers to within 5 points of 1st place New Jersey in the Atlantic division. The Flyers recent streakiness combined with the total bunching of most teams in the East has their respective playoff position changing daily. The presence of the shootout really hurts the Flyers in the standings, since they just aren’t very g ...
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By Warren Crossley on
12/13/2007
Names of 80+ players were named in yesterday’s Mitchell report on steroid use, including Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Gary Sheffield, and Miguel Tejada. With a lack of cooperation from the players and no subpoena power, Mitchell’s hands were tied. The fact that he still found 80 names has to be disturbing.
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By Warren Crossley on
12/5/2007
When the 76ers Fired GM Billy King and replaced him with Nets’ GM Ed Stefanski on Tuesday, most of us were caught off guard. After trading Allen Iverson to Denver a year ago, the plan was to go young and clear salary cap space for after this season. This season was expected to be a tough one, where a mostly young roster was going to have to take its lumps. King was allowed to make the Iverson deal, execute the buyout of Chris Webber, and make the 3 1st round draft picks last June, so conventional wisdom was that King would/should be around to finish the ...
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By Warren Crossley on
12/2/2007
Andy Reid obviously was one of the many who overrated A.J. Feeley’s performance against New England. I say this because he called 46 passing plays to only 28 runs. With his backup QB. On a miserable rainy day. Meanwhile, in a 4-point loss to Seattle yesterday, Brian Westbrook had only 7 carries in the Eagles’ final 8 possessions, while A.J. “not the messiah after all” Feeley threw 4 picks.
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