WHAT A MEETING-MCNABB, REID, BANNER

So you want to be a fly on the wall to hear what the combatants..hmmm..participants say when McNabb, Reid, and Banner meet to discuss a possible extension of the quarterback’s contract.  Here is your chance.  Let’s listen in, the meeting is about to begin.

Banner: I want you guys to know I have come to this meeting prepared with my usual arsenal of confusing financial expressions.  You know, like the kind I keep feeding to the press and the fans instead of actually answering their questions.

Reid:  Speaking of feeding, has anyone ordered lunch?

Banner:  If I did that now we would be net behind.

Reid:  Behind what?  Is that one of your confusing expressions?  Why don’t you save that for the fans?  Better yet, don’t even answer them at all.  I don’t.

Banner:  Okay.  I haven’t ordered lunch because it is only 9:00 in the morning.

McNabb:  Hey, when are we going to talk about my contract?

Banner: When are you going to lead the team down the field and score a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of a game?

McNabb (pointing to Reid): When the Pillsbury Doughboy over here let’s me call the plays during the last minute of a game.

Banner: Let’s not get offensive, Donovan.

Reid:  No offense taken. Besides, I prefer Betty Crocker anyway.  Can I call a timeout now?

Banner: Timeout for what?  We just began the meeting?

Reid:  Donovan and I think it’s always best to call timeouts right after you begin..like right after you begin the second half.

McNabb: Hey, are we ever going to talk about my contract?

Reid: Yes.  When you stop throwing passes that kill worms.

McNabb: Right. And when are you going to get the plays in faster?

Banner:  Hey guys, this isn’t getting us anywhere.  Let’s take a timeout.

Reid:  Uh-oh.  No we only have one left.

McNabb:  What else is new?

Phinally, We Begin A New Season

The Phillies and their fans are hoping for another scene like this in October.

 

With the Eagles, it was another season that ended in heartache.  The Sixers are now recovering from a bad start, and the Flyers appear to be leaning toward another February meltdown.

But our Phillies are still the World Champions.  Today, as pitchers and catchers report to spring training, the quest to become the first team in over a decade to repeat as World Series Champs begins.

There will be, shall we politely say, elevated expectations, when the team comes north to open the regular season.  There is no reason not to be optimistic.  The Phillies are basically bringing back the same roster that won it all last year. 

Ibanez replaces Burrell in left field, and should avoid some of the prolonged slumps that left a hint of a black mark on  Burrell’s stay in Philly.  While Ibanez may provide more consistency at the plate, he can’t measure up to Burrell’s power.  To that end, the Phillies will count on Werth, Victorino, and Rollins to have better power numbers than a year ago.  If Utley is healthy for the greater part of the season, his batting average and RBI’s should improve.  And offensively, Rollins did not have his most productive year last season, and should improve his output.  If Howard can cut down just a little on his strikeouts, his average has a good chance of improving, just by making contact more consistently.

The starting pitching is, for the most part, better off than last season.  This year there will be no Adam Eaton in the fifth spot in a rotation that will probably include Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Blanton, and Happ.

The bullpen cannot be as effective as last year, if for no other reason, because you can’t expect Lidge to be perfect again.  But Madson came on strong last year, and should be just as effective this year as he was in September and October.  Romero will be missed for the first fifty games, and Scott Eyre is a very capable fill in for that length of time.

The Phillies, at this point, look to be just as strong, if not a little stronger, than last year.  So did the Mets do enough to catch up to them?  We won’t know the answer to that question until the end of September.

With Elton Down There Is No Need To Worry

At some point, Elton will fit in with this Sixers team. It just was not happening in a hurry. Just coming off the achilles injury last year was not helping Brand with the transition either. Now, with Brand out for the season, it becomes a moot point. Brand is next year's challenge.

This year the challenge is finishing the season strong, and winning a round, maybe two, in the playoffs. Finishing the season strong and winning one round appears well within this team's grasp. But winning a second playoff round would require a victory over one of the BIG 3 in the East, Boston, Orlando, or Cleveland.

All three of these teams have one ingredient in common. A strong low post presence. Orlando also has a good inside- outside game where they can go inside to Howard, or outside to one of several three point threats. Of course Cleveland has LeBron, a free agent at the end of the year, who may command more money than our Gross National Product.

Where does that leave the Sixers? Without Elton, they may be better off this year. With 6-10 center-forward Marresse Speights getting more minutes and producing both offensively and defensively, the slack left by Brand's absence is already taken up. Add productive minutes by the energetic Evans, and more low post help by Ratliff and Dalembert, and the Sixers are pretty formidable inside themselves. And when the running game turns into a half court game in the playoffs, the Sixers are now moving the ball with more confidence in their half court sets. This gives Ivey and company more room to operate from the three point arc.

It could be real interesting basketball should the Sixers reach the second round. The Big 3 may not outmatch them as much as you would think.

IT SURE SEEMS LIKE DONOVAN WANTS OUT

Barely 24 hours after he told a Comcast reporter he wanted to finish his career in Philadelphia,
McNabb is reportedly trying to get repaid monetarily for being benched against the Ravens after a miserable first half. Put all that together and it makes one wonder about Donovan's sincerity.

Has any pro athlete ever displayed a memory as convenient as Donovan's? To this day, he still remembers being booed at the draft, while carefully forgetting that they were not booing him at all. They were booing the fact that the Eagles had decided not to draft Ricky Williams. Donovan often recalls the criticism he is subject to on talk radio here, but fails to remember that most of the criticism is aimed at his inaccurate passing, and his lack of clutch performances in general. Both points are fair. And now, the man that who wants to finish his career here wants to get paid for getting benched. He obviously doesn't recall that he was benched because he had just played as bad a half that an NFL quarterback can play while remaining with the team the next day.

Donovan only wants the glory of an NFL QB without any of the responsibility. Well it just doesn't work that way. Donovan may be saying he wants to play out his career here, but his actions are not showing that. Actions speak louder than words. I think that soon there will be a long line of people willing to drive Donovan to the airport. Now there is action.

Is There Any Reason To Give McNabb an Extension?

The short answer is no. Why would Joe Banner open up his checkbook and give McNabb another dime. He is signed for two more years. That's two more years of underachieving in clutch situations. That's two more years of taking no responsibility for his mistakes and shortcomings. That's two more years of blaming everyone but himself for Eagles' losses.

What we have here is a QB who doesn't perform when it counts the most. And I would be remiss not to mention that he is also a habitual whiner.

This is the one time the Eagles should take a stand. No more money, no extensions, and if he doesn't like it...then I hope the door doesn't hit him on the way out. If Donovan left town today, would it be a great loss? Probably not. I did not think he could take this team the distance anyway. And now that he has created friction between the defense and himself, by blaming them for the NFC Title game loss, his chances of success with a split locker room are less than zero.

Give Donovan an extension? No way. Donald Duck is as likely as Donovan to drive the team down the field with a must game on the line. If Donovan doesn't like that, starting over with any other QB is good option.

Ed Stefanski Is Not Afraid to Rub Elbows With The Fans

Unlike some of the General Managers, past and present ,who have graced our city, Ed Stefanski is a breathe of fresh air. Even when he, and everyone around him is holding their breathe because of collapses, like last Saturday night's 10:38 without a point, or last night's heart breaking loss to the World Champion Celtics when Ray Allen was left by himself in the corner with time to write his autobiography. By the way, Allen still had time to sink the Sixers with a game winning three point shot.

But in all fairness to the GM and the Coach he installed in December, you can only put people in the right spot, you can't make all the adjustments for them.

This GM is not like the Ed Wades, Andy Reids, and Joe Banners that this city knows and..well..actually doesn't love all that much. Ed Stefanski, in fact, is fan friendly, and is even willing to discuss hoops with anyone. I found that out last night. As a season ticket holder, I complained about Mo Cheeks' replacement, Tony DiLeo. So then, my son and I were actually invited to come meet Ed last night at Half Time of the aforementioned loss to Boston.

When we went to the Suite to which we were directed, we found a small gathering of other fans there. A spread of fresh baked desserts were waiting for us. No one enjoys fresh chocolate chip cookies more than me, but that was by far the least important detail of this gathering.

Linsey, the season ticket holder representative who invited us, was there to greet us, and not to short change Linsey, but more importantly, Ed Stefanski was there greeting both my son and I with a smile and a hand shake. He had no problem at all discussing the coaching change, or the mysterious lack of scoring in the last quarter this past Saturday night. We also talked about the lousy officiating that did not help the Sixers in the first half.

It is nice to know that we have a GM in town that doesn't mind talking about his team with the fans. We also know by now that Tony DiLeo, unknown to most fans before he replaced Cheeks, appears to have been a good choice to lead this team the rest of the year. The Elton Brand acquisition cannot be judged yet. The jury should stay out for at least another month to see what EB does when he gets healthy. But what we can judge is this: we finally have a fan friendly GM in town that has class, and who treats the fans like important people, and not a necessary evil.

So Now That Football Season Is Over...

If you are anything like me, you are probably going to go into withdrawal next Sunday. That's right. Every year the same thing happens to me. I wake up the Sunday after the Super Bowl and reality comes crashing in. No football today.

I ask myself 'now what am I going to do?' Well, there is always the Pro Bowl. Nah, all the smart players aren't even showing up for that anyway. So, what is a football fanatic to do at this crucial time of the year when real football is gone until camp opens in July?

Let's examine the possibilities that are on television the week after the big game. There is always the NFL Network. Nope. Can't stand Deion Sanders. Well, now baseball has the MLB Network if you don't mind watching highlights of the 1965 World Series. How about the NBA or NHL Networks? No, they are even worse than the MLB Network. Maybe it is time to check out Public Television. I don't think I want to see Music Man being interrupted three times to do fund raising for the Station. In fact, I don't want to see Music Man at all.

Let's see, spring training is still two weeks away. Oh, I know. There is the NBA and NHL Sunday games. No, can't do that either. Those leagues play the regular season and eliminate less than half of its teams. College Basketball doesn't heat up until the last week of February.

I guess I am stuck. For at least three weeks I am going to have to go out and get a real life.