17 Kids and Boring

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I admit that I watch the show Jon and Kate Plus Eight routinely, although I will also tell you that I only watch it because my wife watches it and I feel it is only fair because she watches so much baseball and football with me. Whether you believe that or not is up to you. I have also seen on numerous occasions the specials on the Duggar family, a family with more children than a grape vine has grapes. Possibly addicted to the uniqueness of such a big family I always made sure to watch the specials as the documentaries explore how the Duggars get from their Arkansas home to a gathering for other large families as well as how they progress on the building of their next home, a task they complete as a family rather than pay anyone to construct it. It is rather impressive.


But now TLC has gone too far, giving the family their own series as opposed to special documentaries. Why is that going too far? Because this family is flat out boring when you watch them for so long. Putting aside any opinions you or I may have about their religious preferences and whether or not we agree on their parenting philosophy of "more is better", it is painfully obvious that this family provides no personality worthy of being on tv each week.

Meet the Duggars. From left to right: Jim Bob (holding some kid who's name starts with "J"), Michele (holding another kid who's name starts with "J") and a whole bus load of kids whose names start with "J")


In the debut episode of 17 Kids and Counting ("Counting"? Yep...more on that later) the family took an airplane trip to New York City to appear on The Today Show on NBC for Mother's Day. Imagine taking a family of four or five to New York City and all the things that can distract you or your kids patrolling through the city and hailing a cab driver and ordering some lunch. Now imagine doing so with 17 kids. This sounds like a cool idea for a show, but the problem is I have seen this all before.

Jon & Kate Plus Eight has already done this to death with shows in which they travel to Chicago to be on the Oprah show, or taking a plan to Utah for a stay at a ski resort. Sure, 17 kids can be a lot more hectic than the 8 on Jon and Kate, but what Jon and Kate has is personality. If you have ever seen the show you would know that Jon is very mild mannered but can have a short fuse while Kate is nervous and easily irritated and panicky when it comes to her kids. Kate won't even let her kids walk around a hotel room without shoes on.

Michele Duggar on the other hand is very easy going and calm, even when disciplining her children, which from what I have seen is rarely needed. Both families have great family togetherness and values, but if I am going to watch a show about raising kids and the trials and tribulations that ensue, I want to see the kids get in trouble!

17 Kids and Counting has no misbehaving children. I mean it! No biting, no fighting, no scratching, no stealing, no yelling, no arguing. They all just get along. The most interesting storyline in the whole episode was when one of the younger Duggars (I won't even bother trying to figure out what the name of the kid was because there are so many of them) walked off in the airport with none of the other Duggar family members noticing. Immediately I am thinking of Home Alone 2, but there is no panic from the father, who we follow in search of his kid after hearing an announcement. Is Jim Bob really that calm and patient? He seemed to think nothing of the situation. Perhaps he thought that if the kid got lost that he and Michele could easily replace him? I shutter to think. If they had happened with the Gosselins then Kate would be tearing the airport apart trying to find her kid.

All is well that ends well though as the kid was returned to the rest of his family in the airport. Whew! What a relief.

Of course the big news that was supposed to be a surprise to the 17 kids on The Today Show was that Michele was pregnant. It is beyond me why any of the kids, especially the oldest ones, were the least bit surprised. If I were in that family I could probably predict the exact birth dates of my next 12 siblings. The whole thing has become such a joke. If you didn't know, each child's name starts with the letter "J". And now you can cast your vote for what the Duggars should name their next child, possibly because they have run out of ideas. Ironically though, each option to vote for (one for a boy and one for a girl) starts with "J". No write-in votes either. I was seriously ready to cast my vote for Juanita for a girl or Joakim for a boy.

Future episodes will document the engagement of Josh, one of the older boys as well as the family dating rules. That pair of episodes will be next week. The following week the show will document when another big family visits the Duggars. The entertainment value behind these episodes seems to be lacking.

Bottom line is that I used to like watching the Duggar documentaries, but enough is enough. I don't know if I can take anymore of it. The problem with the Duggar family is that they are a great subject for a documentary, but not fit to be the focus of a prime time tv series.

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Hot Political Topics?

I think it is funny how Tina Fey is now included in the conversation of "hot political topics". This image was grabbed from the top of Twitter today...

That's right. Apparently the users of Twitter consider the hot politcal topics during this election time not to be Senator Barack Obama or John McCain but instead feel that the Emmy award winning actress who portrays Governor Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live.



I love Tina Fey. She's just awesome for so many reasons.

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Play Value on Gaming Copyrights

It has been a while since I last posted the latest Play Value episode here. I received a notice about the new episode this morning and as is usually the case, I wanted to share it with you.

This one is interesting as it discusses gaming copyrights and such. Enjoy.


My favorite line?

"Frankly, Pac-Man for the [Atari] 2600 was a big steamy pile."

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NLDS: Phillies vs. Brewers

Tomorrow the National League East Division champion Philadelphia Phillies will open up the National League Division Series against the wild card winners Milwaukee Brewers. A lot of people have not been mentioning it but I believe there is a ton of pressure on the Phillies this year.


Unfortunately for the Philadelphia faithful the Phillies ran into the proverbial buzz saw last year that was the Colorado Rockies. The Phillies had clinched the NL East on the final day of the season in 2007 and the Rockies rode an unbelievable winning streak that carried them to a one game playoff with the San Diego Padres for the right to be named the wild card of the National League. Matt Holliday carried the Rockies and their young arms to the playoffs and continued their story book-esque wild ride all the way to the World Series, sweeping the hometown Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks before the magic ran out against the Boston Red Sox.

That NLDS against the Rockies stung me as a Phillies fan. I had waited since 1993 for postseason baseball and I didn't even get to see a victory. The Rockies out pitched and out hit the Phillies and shocked me. Cole Hamels started game one against the Rockies and got beat around early, forcing him to remove his long sleeve shirt as he was exhausted too early. He pitched better after ditching the long sleeves. Kyle Kendrick and Kyle Lohse gave up too many hits and base runners in a blowout loss in game two. And Jamie Moyer did all he could stave off elimination, but the Rockies would not be denied once the bullpen came in. J.C. Romero gave up the eventual game winner and just like that the Phillies, who had celebrated just a week earlier by hosing the fans and dumping beer and champagne on one another and various female sports reporters in the locker room, were going home to watch the rest of the playoffs with the rest of us.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from that series a year later. I believe the Phillies have that same sentiment this year. Of course they had celebrated their division championship but it seemed to me that they were a little more reserved because they expected to be here and expect to do more this year.

As Jimmy Rollins said, last year they got a taste of the pumpkin pie and this year everyone else is craving it. Meanwhile, Rollins and company are looking for more of the pie. In order to do that they will have some ghosts to overcome.

Can you imagine what it would be like in Philadelphia if the Phillies were to lose in the first round again? Where last year you can take the defeat with a grain of salt because the Rockies were on a magical ride, losing again this year would be devastating.With all of the talk form the beginning of the season about taking the next step, winning 100 games, and now talking about going further than last year, and the hype all season about the likes of Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Cole Hamels and more the expectation from the start was that this Phillies team had the makings of a World Series contender from the National League. Really, nothing short of a World Series appearance would be acceptable. A loss in game seven of the NLCS to the Cubs would be the only possible exception. But this team has made us all believe that a World Series appearance is well within reach. It it time to back that theory up.

Let's take a look today at the pitching match ups for the first few games.

Starting Pitching
Game One
Cole Hamels vs. Yovanni Gallardo

As I mentioned above, Hamels had a rough outing in his first post season start. Hamels allowed three runs in the second inning following a lead off triple followed by RBI hits and a bases loaded walk. He walked four Rockies but didn't allow a run after the second inning, which is when he removed the long sleeves. I'm sure Hamels will be thinking about his last appearance in the post season as well as some of his starts coming down the stretch. I have mentioned before that I feel Hamels is coming up short of his potential, so hopefully the extra time off will give him the rest he needs for a stellar performance.

Game Two
Brett Myers vs. CC Sabathia
This is a game you can probably pencil in as a loss. Sabathia has been nothing short of dominant since being traded to the Brewers. In his short time with the team he has pitched seven complete games, including his last two outings on short rest. To put it simply, the guy is a horse on the mounds. This season he has thrown over 250 strikeouts and has an ERA of 2.70.

As if facing Sabathia wasn't going to be tough enough the Phillies will have to hope that Myers can come in pitching like he was before his last two games against the Marlins and the Braves. Since coming back from his stint at Lehigh Myers had been phenomenal. Then he started getting bashed by a pair of division foes. Who knows which Brett Myers will show up in game two. The Phillies will clearly need a strong Myers to show up as Sabathia will likely have a good game ready to go.

Sabathia does have some post season ghosts of his own though, evidenced by last year's melting down against the Red Sox when he pitched for the Cleveland Indians. Sabathia gave up eight to Boston in game one of the ALCS and also took the loss in game five.

Game Three
Jamie Moyer vs TBA

Moyers has been outstanding this season. In a pivotal game three there is nobody else I would rather see (from the Phillies) on the mound. Whether the series is 2-0 Phillies, tied at one, or an unfathomable 0-2 deficit, Moyer is the man I want to see take control of the game. He was outstanding in last year's game three in Colorado, limiting the Rockies to one run. Moyer just knows how to slow momentum on the other team and he gets inside the heads of not only the batters but also the base runners.

The Brewers have yet to decide who will pitch in game three. The loss of Ben Sheets from the rotation will be a huge obstacle to overcome. It could be a toss up between Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan.


Looking forward to watching game one tomorrow. For your information, here is the schedule for the NLDS between the Phillies and Brewers:

Game 1 - 3pm (Phillies)
Game 2 - 6pm (Phillies)
Game 3 - 6:30pm (Brewers)
Game 4 - TBD (Brewers)
Game 5 - TBD (Phillies)

All games will be shown on TBS (in high definition!) so get yourself prepared for more Frank Caliendo. Man is this comedian overdone yet?

Anyway, I am going on record and predicting the Phillies will win the series in four games. What are your thoughts on the series? Feel free to leave them in the comments section, along with your prediction for this series as well as any of the other series.

Blog note: As I did during the Flyers post season run, I'll be throwing up some open threads for each Phillies game so feel free to leave your comments on the games as they develop there if you wish. Stay tuned.

This is what you play for.

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No NLCS For You! One Year!


I was turned down for a shot at buying tickets to the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park and yesterday I received a similar message rejecting me for the opportunity to buy NLCS tickets...


NLCS Ticket Purchase Opportunity


Thank you for registering for a chance to purchase tickets for the Phillies postseason. Unfortunately your entry was not selected for our online NLCS sale.

Should World Series tickets be made available, you are automatically eligible for those random drawings. Additionally, you remain eligible for any potential NLCS second chance sales. Winners for potential World Series or NLCS second chance ticket sales will be notified via the e-mail address submitted on the phillies.com Postseason Ticket Opportunity form.

Thank you again for your participation.


None of my friends got good news for the NLDS, so did any of you get happy e-mails from the Phillies about the NLCS? Just curious.

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Super Mario Rescues the Princess

Monday, September 29, 2008

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Redemption

Perhaps the radio gods were with me this morning. I was listening to the 610 WIP morning show with Angelo Cataldi and they were giving away National League East Division championship hats and shirts to people that called in with stories of where they were when the Phillies clinched the division last Saturday.

I called in and told him about how I watched the final inning in a crammed bar area around a 19 inch tv with 300 guys from three different wedding receptions. Sure, they blasted Kevin and Kristin for having their wedding on that day but they applauded Kristin for her wedding gift to Kevin.

They liked my story enough to award me their last hat! So thank you to Kevin and Kristin for giving me such a great story and a memorable day!

Perhaps this makes up for my attempt to play with Weezer recently. Ironically, that Weezer concert was Saturday night. You win some, you lose some.

As for my Phillies, they are indeed the 2008 National League East Division Champions! The Mets lost and the Brewers won so that means the Phillies will play the Brewers in the NLDS. The first round starts Wednesday. More on the NLDS later.

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Wedding Bells Are Ringing Today

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sure, the Phillies may in fact clinch the 2008 NL East Championship today (magic number is one), but today is a big day for some friends of mine as well.

Congratulations to Kevin and Kristin, who will be getting married this afternoon. I'm looking forward to it!

Also, congratulations to Jessie and Tim! Today they will also be getting married.
I stole these pictures from various Facebook profiles. I forget who they were taken by so please don't sue me. Good luck to both of you happy couples! Look forward to seeing the pictures!

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Phillies Magic Number: Richie Ashburn

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Six Pack of Picks for the Weekend

Friday, September 26, 2008

With three weeks under the belt thus far I have been steady and consistent. My overall record stands at 12-6 going into a pivotal week four. Interesting is the fact that my record for three straight weeks has been 4-2.

Last week I missed one game in the college picks and one game in the NFL picks. Auburn let me down in losing at home to LSU and the Carolina Panthers came back to earth and lost to the Minnesota Vikings. Oops. Let's see if we can rebound this weekend.


#12 Penn State over #21 Illinois
Shippensburg over Millersville
#2 Oklahoma over #24 TCU
Philadelphia Eagles over Chicago Bears
New Orleans Saints over San Francisco 49ers
Pittsburgh Steelers over Baltimore Ravens



Suicide Pool Pick: Denver Broncos (over Kansas City Chiefs)

Last week: 4-2
Overall: 12-6

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Blog Updates

Hey everybody! I hope you are ready for the weekend, as I know I am. My friends Kevin and Kristin are getting married tomorrow, the Phillies can clinch the NL East this weekend (I'll be going to Sunday's game so part of me hopes they wait until Sunday to clinch), and Penn State has a white out game against Illinois Saturday night. Oh yes, and the Eagles have a Sunday night match-up with the Chicago Bears. What a weekend we have in store!


The reason for this post is just to know of what I've been up to with the blog lately.

If you have been a loyal reader for a while now you may have recognized the number of changes I have implemented recently. It may take some getting used to as it now seems much more cluttered and disorganized, but let me explain to you what's going on.

You may notice the advertising that is now taking up space. You may think I have sold out, but I assure you I have not. The advertising is a qualification for me now being a part of the Yardbarker Network. I had mentioned Yardbarkers in a recent post (Yard Barker and the Madden Curse Quiz) and have worked to get this site affiliated with their network. While I don't always post about sports I do expect to make a more routine habit of doing so to ensure I can expose the site to more Yardbarkers and build a readership of some sort. If you would like to support my efforts you can help me out by stopping by each day, and if you want you can help out even more by clicking on the ads that pop up. I'll have a banner on top of the page and this one on the left of the page.

Scroll down and look to your left for the Yardbarker widget, which will share with you popular storied that are on Yardbarker at the moment.

If you are a Yardbarker and want to help me out in exchange for some help for your own site, send me a message on Yardbarker or e-mail me.

The addition to Yardbarker is just one way of expanding my network of readers. Any dedicated blogger probably will agree that, depending on your purposes for blogging, gaining a loyal readership is hard to do. In my trials and errors I am currently attempting to make it easy for people to access, or remember to access, my blog. If you look at the top right corner of the site you will see some buttons under the Subscribe section. If you use any of these services to subscribe to a feed, then by all means click on your choice and subscribe to Ramblings 1.5! Alternatively you can subscribe to an e-mail list which will send you my posts when they are published.

Below that is a rating system. If you want to take the time to write a quick review of my site, or if you just want to give it a rating, click on that box and it will take you to another page where you can do that. You can be honest. If you think this blog sucks than go ahead and say so! Say whatever you want, but I appreciate constructive criticism. Plus I'll get to see what you guys think!

If you scroll down a little more and look to the left you will see my Syndication section. This will be a list of various networks my blog is associated with. You can add my site to your Technorati favorites, and also link to any articles I have up on Associated Content. If you are on Facebook you can also join my blog's Facebook network. Through the Facebook application you can view other readers of my blog, rate my blog or view my blog's feed in Facebook. The only problem is some of those features won't happen until I have enough readers join the Facebook group. For the ideal settings to take place I need at least 20 people, not that I'm here begging for your help.

Finally I am experimenting with getting connected through some other sites such as Twitter, Digg, and Stumble Upon, but once I get more of a feel for those sites I will put a post up about my different online profiles that we can connect through.

I believe hat is all for now. I have a busy day ahead of me so if you are here for my daily Phillies opinions or my Six Pack of Picks for the Weekend then stay tuned. My Six Pack of Picks is auto-scheduled to post at 12pm this afternoon. I honestly haven't had a chance to talk about the Phillies yesterday or today but I'll give you my quick thoughts...

Phillies magic number is still 3 after the Mets won last night against the Triple A Cubs. The Phillies still have a one game lead on the Mets and therefore control their own destiny heading into the final weekend against the Nationals. The Phillies are going to the playoffs as NL East champs because the Florida Marlins will beat the Mets two out of three and the Phillies will win two out of three against the Nationals. The Brewers and Mets will play a one game playoff game Monday.

I hate Shea Stadium. I would love it if the Mets got eliminated on Sunday when they are having a post game celebration to close out the toilet stadium.

Oh and for all of you people who criticized Penn State's strength of schedule, take THIS!

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Associated Content: Facebook Backlash

Thursday, September 25, 2008

A while ago I posted about Facebook's new interface and what I like and dislike about it, mostly what I disliked. I decided to try putting it on my account over at Associated Content and low and behold, it was published. If you missed it you can click here to read what I thought.

Now if you want to help me out you can go click on this link and read it there. I actually can get paid depending on how many people view it, so it would be interesting to see how that turns out.

It you want, leave me a message on the AC site and leave your thoughts there. As I continue to expand on the blog here I would like to try submitting more content to AC so you can be sure I will update you on any content I get published on the site. You can check out my profile there as well by clicking on this link right................here.

Facebook Backlash
Facebook recently changed their layout for users but it did not sit well with many Facebook obsessed users. But what makes it so terrible that would cause such anger in the Facebook community?
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Need a Reason to Vote Obama?


Sometimes he doesn't want change after all!

This picture was from an article titled "What Campaign Ads Would Look Like if the Voting Age Was 6", on Cracked.com.

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Philles Magic Number: Abraham Núñez

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The Bassoon is a Cool instrument

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Clarification: The bassoon is a cool instrument when played well. Need evidence of that? Check out this video that I Stumbled Upon this morning...



Recognize the music? It is all from the Super Mario Brothers games. My favorite part is when they all flipped the pages in their music. Still though, pretty nice job by these kids. You have to love the kid who does the beat box percussion in the main theme, as well as some other noises.

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Cole Hamels Needs to be Better

Magic Number: FOUR

Despite losing to the Braves last night and watching Cole Hamels once again come up short of the billing of an ace, I still feel good about the Philies. They were due for a loss, and they lost last night 3-2.


Ryan Howard hit a triple which was cool and Chase Utley hit a double for his 40th of the year. Pat Burrell left the bases loaded though and and was out on a nice foul ball catch by Braves third baseman Martin Prado. Casey Kotchman seems to have Cole Hamels figured out as he hit his third homerun of the year off of Hamels. That was third of the year after he hit one in the last series in Atlanta and one with the Angels earlier this year. He has 14 on the year.

If the Phillies are going to do anything in the post season then Cole Hamels will have to better. It's tough being upset about a game in which he allowed three runs, but for him to be a superstar pitcher he needs to be stepping up big in these kind of games. He can be an outstanding pitcher but in situations like last night he needs to be automatic. Too many times early in the game he was struggling to get outs. He had thrown a lot of pitchers early and given up a run in the first inning. While the Phillies offense didn't help him out (they should be able to score more than 3 runs in a game in that ball park) it was Hamels who was letting Braves on base, and it was Hamels' throw to third that whizzed by Pedro Feliz, who was running to cover third.

Honestly last night's game isn't just on Hamels. I would like to see more of Hamels stepping up but the offense failed last night. I might sound really down but I am not. I still feel confident that the Phillies will clinch this NL East and be playing the Dodgers next week in the NLDS. This loss hurt but is by no means a heart breaker.

Meanwhile in Flushing, New York...

The Mets got to do their victory dance last night. As predicted, Johann Santana picked up the key win for the Mets, and their bullpen didn't blow the ninth inning. The big blow was Jose Reyes' bases clearing triple that put the Mets up 6-2.

Good job Mets. You won. You got to dance. And boy did you need that one...

...because the Brewers won their game against the Pirates in dramatic fashion. Prince Fielder hit a walk off two run homerun to help the Brewers keep pace with the Mets. The Mets still hold on to a one game lead on the Brewers.

As for the National League playoff picture, and the NL East standings...

Tonight's game is a must win for the Phillies as they have off on Thursday while the Mets play one more against the Cubs. Of course, the Cubs could help out by winning tonight but it is more fun to take care of your own business at home. Go Phills!

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HAPPy Days are here Again!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

See what I did there? See my last post after J.A. Happ's last outing...


What a game last night! J.A. Happ pitched another fine game in crunch time for the Phillies. Happ made one bad pitch and paid the price that was a two run homerun but it was the Phillies who would find themselves on top at the end of the night in the first game of a three game series with the Atlanta Braves. The Phillies offense got the job done in the eighth inning, scoring four times to take a 6-2 lead into the ninth. The big hit of the inning was Pat Burrell's three run homerun, but there were so many great plays for the Phillies last night.

In the top of the eighth Rudy Seanez, who entered the game in the seventh in relief of Happ, gave up a lead off triple to the Baves' Kelly Johnson, although it was scored a double and an error on Shane Victorino. After getting Omar Infante to line out to shortstop, Jeff Francoeur hit a chopper to Jimmy Rollins, who played it as perfectly as you could imagine and threw home to try and get Johnson who was running on the play. Carlos Ruiz did an excellent job of blocking the plate but Rollins had it played so well that he got the ball home with time to spare. Huge play. That made the situation a tie game with a runner at first and two outs, where it could have been 3-2 Braves with one out and a runner at first.


Earlier in the year I was as frustrated with Carlos Ruiz and anybody else, but I have to give him props. He has been pretty solid behind the plate. He isn't throwing as many balls into the outfield when trying to catch runners sleeping on the bases in the second half of the season and his batting has improved since the all star break.

By the way, that was a weird play in the ninth when the ball apparently stayed in play rather than being a homerun. Just another reason why I believe that someday all outfields should be uniform. Oh well. Tough break for the Braves, but that's ok with me. Maybe not this guy though...

Meanwhile in Flushing, New York...
...pitchers from the Windy City possessed the ability to hit grand slams. Seriously! The Mets lost to the Cubs by a final score of 9-5, but it was Cubs pitcher Jason Marquis' fourth inning grand slam that would prove to be the game winner, putting the Cubs up 6-2.

Believe it or not but that is the second time this season that the Mets gave up a grand slam to an opposing pitcher. The other was Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. In all seriousness, has a team ever given up two grand slams to pitchers in the same season before?

The daily look at the situation, courtesy of ESPN's Hunt for October;

The Mets loss decreased the Phillies' magic number to four for the division. And the Mets better wake up soon because the Brewers are now only a game behind and they also finish up at home against the Pirates for three games starting tonight and the Cubs who will likely be playing most of their key guys since Lou Piniella has verbally committed to playing his regulars for the sake of competition. Good man that Lou.

Tonight Cole Hamels takes the mound for the Phillies and Mike Hampton will oppose him for the Braves. You have to like the Phillies' chances tonight, right? You can probably pencil in a win for the Mets tonight with Johan Santana taking the mound for the Metros. Of course, he'll have to pitch a complete game to ensure that...

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Phillies Magic Number: Lenny Dykstra

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Phillies Magic Number: Pat Burrell

Monday, September 22, 2008

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No NLDS For You! One Year!



Well, I guess that rules me out going to an NLDS game. Stef got the same e-mail. Anybody get some good news???

Mike? I'm looking your way. Deissler? Eckert?


NLDS Ticket Purchase Opportunity


Thank you for registering for a chance to purchase tickets for the Phillies postseason. Unfortunately your entry was not selected for our online NLDS sale.

Should NLCS and World Series tickets be made available, you are automatically eligible for those random drawings. Additionally, you remain eligible for any potential NLDS second chance sales. Winners for potential NLCS, World Series or NLDS second chance ticket sales will be notified via the e-mail address submitted on the phillies.com Postseason Ticket Opportunity form.

Thank you again for your participation.

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Monday Recap: Phillies, Eagles, Penn State

It was a good weekend for my sports teams, going 4-for-4 Saturday and Sunday.

The Phillies lost Friday night's game against the Florida Marlins, but rebounded with two straight victories over the pesky Fish. Brad Lidge continues to be the man in the closer spot. The Phillies now have a magic number of six, which you can continue following through photo form on this blog. The Phillies, thankfully, are finished playing the Marlins this year. The only way we play them again is if the Marlins somehow make the wild card.

Oh, speaking of the Wild Card...


...Anybody want to buy these guys a closer? Nah, me neither!

The Mets lost two games against the Braves over the weekend and once again watched a half game lead transform into a game and a half deficit to the Phillies.


Yeah, it is safe to say that the Phillies are going to be playing in October. I am confident. Three more tough games against the Braves are still to be played and the Nationals come to town to play spoiler, but it will be difficult for the Phillies not to make the playoffs. They have a three game buffer on the Brewers, who are 1.5 games behind the Mets for the Wild Card.

Does anybody think the Brewers can overtake the Mets? Wouldn't that be something? The Mets have four games against the Cubs this week before finishing with the Marlins.

Football real quick...

There was this...

...and there was this...



Penn State looks pretty darn good. The Eagles look pretty darn good too. Could the Eagles be one of the best teams in the NFC? It sure seems like it. After watching some of that Cowboys-Packers game last night I have to think the Eagles are ahead of Green Bay. Am I right people? Am I right?

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Phillies Magic Number: Ryan Howard

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