Snowy Series?

So we can all thank Paul Byrd for giving us a Colorado-Cleveland World Series. Really? Colorado will play Cleveland in the World Series in nighttime games scheduled in late October? Wow. Does anyone want to bet that the first-pitch temperatures never make it above 50 degrees? Better yet, will there be snowflakes falling during all the games or just the ones in Denver? Of course Cleveland hasn’t won anything yet. Though they lead the ALCS, 3-1, with the next game scheduled for Thursday night in Cleveland, it seems pretty academic. Then again, most people thought the same thing when the Red Sox went down 3-0 after losing by 14 runs to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. Look what happened then… yeah. It didn’t work out too well for the Yankees, did it?

Anyway, the interesting part about the Indians is what they did to get to the precipice of the World Series. During and after the 2002 season, the Indians got rid of Charlie Manuel as the manager despite the fact that he guided the team to the AL Central title in 2001. Then they allowed Jim Thome to walk away via free agency and used that money they saved to built around "system guys" like Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, Grady Sizemore and Jhonny Peralta on offense, as well as C.C. Sabathia, Jake Westbrook, Rafael Betancourt and Fausto Carmona on the mound.

This core group mixed with Phillies castoffs like Byrd, Jason Michaels, David Dellucci, Aaron Fultz and Kenny Lofton with a under-40 manager in Eric Wedge, appears set to knock off both the Yankees and the Red Sox in the playoffs.

And all it took was getting rid of Manuel and Thome?

That probably wasn’t the entire case. After all, Indians’ fans really wanted Thome to re-sign with the team instead of going off to Philadelphia for six-years and $85 million. But then again, Thome’s departure (obviously) didn’t hurt too badly, either.

But, it could be argued that for the Indians it was Thome and Charlie - no. But Byrd, Michaels, Dellucci, Fultz and Lofton - yes.

Incidentally, those "yes" guys were all players Ed Wade brought in (except for Dellucci) to help the Phillies get to the playoffs... was Ed Wade on the right path here in Philadelphia?

So we’re looking at a Colorado-Cleveland World Series… I wonder what the folks at Fox think about that? Do they have the modern-day, TV execs' version of smallpox and whiskey to thwart the Indians and get the big-market Red Sox to the World Series. Maybe when the World Series begins the Rockies will actually lose a game and make it interesting.

More importantly, what's the difference between the Red Sox and Yankees these days anyway?

*** Speaking of ballplayers getting and wanting six-year deals worth $85 million, I just talked to a “source” about Aaron Rowand (because talking to sources is actually better than talking to the man himself… after all, it’s better to be “well-sourced” than, you know, anything else) and it seems as if the free-agent centerfielder has lessened his demands a bit. According to the “source,” Rowand does not want six-years and $84 million as a well-sourced "sources" indicated. Instead, the Phillies likely will offer fewer years and money, but will trump all deals with a “One Free Backrub” coupon.

Also, according to the "source," Rowand wants all the brown M&Ms removed from the pre-game, clubhouse spread.

There will also be incentives for an All-Star appearance, home runs and fences run into and all that jazz, but apparently the backrub coupon is the deal breaker.

Stop yelling at me!

Who is Dane Cook and why is he yelling at me on my TV? And why does he sound like he has a mouthful of chestnuts? And why does it look like he spends four hours making his hair look so meticulously messy? Worse, why is MLB using Dane Cook to sell me on baseball? I’m already watching and because the games start so late, I’m also ready to fall asleep. Putting that loud, chestnut-eating guy on between innings to yell at me about how exciting baseball is is really, really annoying.

But give MLB credit for one thing – it made me want to (kind of) find out who Dane Cook is. Apparently he’s a comic. Perhaps he’s even a comic with no material that has swiped jokes from Emo Philips, Joe Rogan and Demetri Martin. But more than that he is a humorless comedian, which is worse than being a trickless magician. David Blaine is a trickless magician, as was pointed out by the adroit Chris Rock. This is an odd thing because, as Jerry Seinfeld once observed, magicians base their entire act on making YOU look stupid.

”Hey, here’s a quarter… now it’s gone and you’re a jerk!”

Who wants to be subjected to that? Worse, who wants to see a guy just sitting in a box for a month? He's just sitting there, in a box, in public. That's magic? What’s the big deal with that? People do it all the time, but they don’t call it a box – they call it a couch and they’re smart enough to put it in front of a TV. Sometimes people sit in their "box" so long that they actually feel their ass grow.

Top that, David Blaine!

Note: Here’s an idea for a David Blaine’s next trick – sit through Dane Cook’s HBO show. Afterwards, if he chooses, he can hammer six nails into his skull.

So not only is David Blaine trickless, he isn’t even original… which is kind of like Dane Cook.

Anyway, I suppose MLB hired Dane Cook to yell at me because of marketing and demographics and all of that stuff. The thought, I suppose, is that someone like Dane Cook blathering on about baseball with his messy hair on the TV will make younger folks in the key demographic to watch baseball games on Fox or TBS. I wish there was more to it than that, but that’s probably the depth of all of it.

But here’s where it doesn’t work:

Baseball, to that demographic, probably isn’t cool and even a shouting Dane Cook isn’t making it any cooler. Baseball, sadly, is what it is. Making it look "cool" is a lot like putting lipstick on a pig -- sure, lipstick makes ladies look pretty, but if a pig wears makeup, it's just a pig with hues that don't match its skin color or "season."

And no one wants to see that.

But if I worked for MLB and they asked me what idea I had in order to pander to the kids of the demographic they want Dane Cook to speak to, do want to know what I’d do?

Well, I’m going to tell you anyway…

Here’s the idea – I’d schedule the games for times where kids could watch them. That means Game 4 of the NLCS (an elimination game) would not start at 10 p.m. Eastern time. Why not? Because even people who don’t figure into the demographic (like me), but still want to watch the game, end up falling asleep on the couch during the fifth inning. When we come to after rolling off the couch and onto the floor with spittle attached to our cheeks, there he is – Dane Cook – shouting at us.

It’s not nice.

Yes, I know there are different time zones and just because something starts at 10 on the east means that it’s 8 in Denver. But you know what? Those kids have school the next day and they are going to fall asleep during the middle innings, too. Like the rest of us, they will get yelled at and, but then they will go off to bed where they will have nightmares about a sloppy, walnut-eating freak screaming at them about Troy Tulowitzki.

In other words, not even rumpled Dane Cook and his mouth full of walnuts is going to make us stay up late to watch baseball, and that’s too bad.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7lDaNhR4K4]

Sorry, that wasn’t funny either.

What also isn’t funny is that baseball fans aren’t getting the chance to watch the Colorado Rockies win every single game they play. For the past month (Sept. 15), the Rockies have played 22 games and they have won 21 times. What’s more incredible is that the Rockies finished the regular season by winning 14 of 15 games, and if they had won just 13 of 15 games, they would not be in the playoffs. Thirteen of 15 is pretty darned good, but it wouldn’t have been good enough to get the Rockies into the playoffs.

Now, though, they’re in the World Series. Apparently Matt Holliday clubbed a three-run home run to help the Rockies sweep the Diamondbacks. At least that’s what the box score indicates… I missed it. I was asleep on the couch all worn out after being yelled at by a better demographic.

Not lookin' good

I didn’t want to say anything at first, but now that another publication finally pointed it out I guess it’s OK for me to jump in, too. Ready? OK, here it goes:

The people of Philadelphia are ugly. And by ugly I’m not speaking metaphorically, I’m talking pure aesthetics. Worse yet, I’m not talking about the infrastructure or the colonial era architecture – it’s all about the people.

Yes, according to the world-wise and high-brow folks at Travel + Leisure magazine, Philadelphia is home to the least attractive people in America. Actually, Philadelphia ranked dead last amongst the 25 American cities for attractiveness in a poll of travelers. It's all printed in the latest issue. Check it out.

Philadelphia also rated next to last in the stylishness of the people in the city, 23rd in safety and action/adventure getaway, 22nd or 21st in a place for a girlfriend’s getaway, cleanliness, athletic/active people, and a place for a romantic escape.

The city also rated poorly in the worldliness of the people, a place to go to relax, access to the outdoors and the friendliness of the people.

Yeah, it was pretty rough.

Be that as it might be, the attractiveness of the people is the one that hurts the most. After all, I can think of examples of how out-of-towners can get to some outdoorsy places to do their athletic-type things (though it might take a ride on the overly congested and unfriendly Schuylkill to get there), and romance is more of a state of mind than anything else. Plus, truth be told, there are friendly and unfriendly people everywhere. Perhaps Philadelphians are simply being penalized because they seem to enjoy taking delight in the failure of others more than any other group of citizens on the east coast.

And we generalize because we can.

But the ugly thing… ouch.

Here’s why that hurts: because it just might be true. Don’t believe me? Go hang out at the airport where folks are waiting to board plans. There one will find the craziest-looking array of people outside of a big top. Worse, when waiting to board my flight to Denver last week I didn’t have to wait too long to see the bearded lady – there were already three of them sitting at Gate C17.

I wish I was exaggerating, but it’s true – when at the airport last week I called my wife to ask her if there was a news report about a prison break or something. Later, when I arrived in Denver and checked in with all of the other baseball writers, I asked if anyone else had noticed the trend regarding Philadelphian’s uneasiness on the eyes.

I wish I had better results to report.

Fat, mean and ugly is no way to go through life.

Perhaps enhancing the epidemic of Philadelphia’s curse was the fact that I was jetting off to Denver where the folks rated in the top 10 in attractiveness, friendliness, fun and intelligence. In the athletic/active category, Denver was No. 1 overall.

Yeah, it was a tough room.

Nevertheless, I’ll apologize if I (or my relatives) ruined the city’s ranking. Certainly, I’m not the beau of the ball and truth be told, when the famous rock group KISS finally took their makeup off to reveal themselves, I said, “Look, it’s my uncles!”

But then again, Grace Kelly was from Philadelphia. So too were the Barrymores, Kevin Bacon, Will Smith, Tina Fey, Richard Gere, Maria Bello, Kim Delaney, Hall (but not Oates) and Wilt Chamberlain.

Just because Broderick Crawford, Ben Franklin, Norman Fell, Chuck Barris, Oates (but not Hall), W.C. Fields and Larry Fine come from Philly doesn’t mean it should be held against the rest of us. We’re doing all we can with what little we have.

Regardless, it wasn’t all bad for our homely brethren. Though we won’t be mistaken for the hottest Hollywood star or starlets, we have plenty to occupy our minds.That’s because when it comes to culture Philadelphia was hard to beat in the Travel + Leisure poll. Though Philadelphians might be boorish and rude and more interested in watching sports than actually taking part in them, the city ranked in the top five in classical music, museums, restaurants, cheap eats and farmers’ markets. Better yet, Philadelphia was No. 2 overall behind Washington, D.C. in the historical sites category.

In other words, Philadelphia is good to look at as long as one doesn’t look at the natives.

To read how Philadelphia rated in the categories of the Travel + Leisure poll, click here.

To see how travelers rated all of the American cities, click here.

Running on empty

Had it not rained on Nov. 12, 2006 in Harrisburg, Pa., I would have been in Chicago last weekend for the marathon. At least that was the plan, anyway. But the rain and bitter wind ruined my potential trip. How could a November rain in Harrisburg ruin a trip to Chicago in October?

Let me explain:

The plan last November was to run the Harrisburg Marathon well enough to qualify for the Chicago Marathon’s sub-elite program. That’s the program that allows guys who are almost good marathoners to start close to the front of the Chicago Marathon in attempt to burn through the pancake-flat course fast enough to get close to an Olympic Trials qualifying time. Baring that, it’s a good way to develop American marathoners, though the sport seems as if it is in good hands with dudes like Brian Sell, Alan Culpepper, Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein, Khalid Khannouchi and Abdi Abdirahman (amongst others) holding their own against the best runners in the world.

Anyway, it takes a 2:22 marathon to qualify for the Olympic Trials and though there is no way in hell that I would be able to average the 5:20 miles it takes to do that, it would be a lot of fun to try.

But in shooting for a 2:36(ish) in Harrisburg last November, the 30-mph headwinds and raw temperatures had the last say. In fact, I didn’t even come close to running my target time even though I believe I ran pretty tough over the final five miles of the course in which I went from 12th to 6th place.

That part was fun.

But since then I trained hard through the spring and summer with my mind set on running well in October and/or November with a time that could get me in position to get into position to one day run well at Chicago.

Or something like that.

Then the baby came, and then I traveled around to write about the Phillies, which further curbed my training. There’s a reason why most sportswriters are bordering on obesity and it has nothing to do with the preservative, carbohydrate and fat-laden garbage they eat at the ballpark. Sometimes it takes more time to watch a guy run than to actually do it yourself.

Or something like that.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem as if there was anything fun about the Chicago Marathon last weekend. As some may have already read, the unseasonably hot temperatures turned the race into battle of attrition. In fact, it got so bad that the organizers had to stop the race when they were unable to properly take care of the runners on the course. According to published stories, there was not enough water on the course to take care of the runners on the course after four hours. Hundreds more suffered heat exhaustion and cramps because they were not properly hydrated or maybe trained for the race and the conditions.

Maybe there are too many people in the Chicago Marathon?

Believe it or not, marathoning is popular and it’s not just for the folks out there looking for good times. Over the past decade or so there seems to be a new breed of “runners” who run marathons in order to cross it off the “things to do” list. After pushing their body through 26.2 miles, is sky diving next?

Anyway, Frank Shorter wrote about the heat and what went wrong at the 2007 Chicago Marathon for The New York Times. But one thing Shorter and everyone else forgot to mention about the 2007 Chicago Marathon and the heat is this…

They moved up the race date.

In most years, the Chicago Marathon takes place during the third week of October. In most years, the third week of October makes for cool and comfortable temperatures that are perfect for running fast times on Chicago’s notoriously fast (easy) course. But for 2007 the race was pushed up to Oct. 7?

Why?

My guess is because the deadline for runners to achieve an Olympic Trials qualifying time was Oct. 7. In order to accommodate the handful of runners that wanted to go for one last effort to get that 2:22 on a relatively easy course before the Nov. 3 Trials in NYC, perhaps the race was pushed up two weeks.

If this is why the race was on Oct. 7 this year it’s not smart. Though I’m more interested in the fast runners and serious training and have little patience for the Oprahization of our sport, I understand where the bread is buttered. Shoe companies and sponsors go after the middle-of-the-pack and beyond runners because that’s where the money comes from. These are the folks willing to shell out top dollar for the fancy, high-priced shoes that no one really needs, or are willing to travel all over the globe to run/walk 26.2 miles over the same path that Phidippides may or may not have crossed at one point of history… or not.

Look, I’m not sure if that’s the reason why the race was moved up from its traditional date. And as a result, only one guy made the 2:22 to get into next month’s Trials. That's one person with a Trials qualifier and one person who died from heat-related stress.

Not exactly a fair trade-off, huh?

Meanwhile, what’s going on with the Chicago Marathon? Last year, as some might remember, Robert Cheruiyot slipped on the finish line decal and suffered a concussion:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWheGgqmq0A]

*** So the big race is just a little less than three weeks away… anyone have a guess on who the top three will be?

It’s hard to sleep on Khannouchi despite the 65:04 half marathon he ran last week. I’d be willing to guess that the top runners will be keying off him if he takes the starting line.

Otherwise, it’s also difficult not to like Ryan Hall or Ritzenhein. Plus, Culpepper always comes up big in national competitions and Brian Sell seems like a really smart runner. Either way, it’s bound to be one of the most exciting Olympic Trials marathons in recent memory.

Next: going to the B&N

The Rockies win again... ho-hum

Last night’s plan was to get everyone in the house to bed, finish up some work on my laptop, and then relax in front of the couch to watch Ubaldo Jimenez pitch for the Rockies in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The kid throws hard, and everybody talks about his stuff, but sometimes you don’t get to see the finer details when you are in the press box for a game. Though Ubaldo pitched against the Phillies twice in the past month and I was there to write about it, I didn’t get the chance to appreciate it. Hey, this is what constitutes as a wild Friday night these days.

Anyway, though I did get a chance to watch most of Ubaldo’s five-inning stint (5 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 6 K – 94 pitches, 50 strikes), that was about all I saw. Ubaldo finished up at about 12:30 a.m. EST. By that point I was fighting to stay awake – as I mentioned, it was a wild Friday night – and since the Rockies had a one-run lead, I figured that was enough. So I went to bed.

As I’m reading now, the game went on for another two hours when Manny Corpas and his shirtball couldn’t hold the lead in the ninth. In the 11th that wily Willy Tavarez – the guy who challenged Ryan Howard for the Rookie of the Year Award in 2005, drew a bases-loaded walk to send in the winning run.

That’s right: a bases-loaded walk in the 11th gives the Rockies the winning run…

But that was after Tavarez (apparently… I didn’t see it) made a diving catch in the seventh inning to rob Tony Clark of a game-breaking hit.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Rockies will not lose again for the rest of the year. What are they up to now? Nineteen of the last 20? And last night they did it will one extra-base hit in an 11-inning game with a 23-year old rookie on the mound?

Admit it, you didn’t have the Rockies vs. Indians in the World Series when the season began, did you? How about Rockies vs. Red Sox?

*** Speaking of the Red Sox, the erstwhile Paul Hagen had an interesting tidbit in today’s Daily News in which Curt Schilling admitted that he wouldn’t mind pitching for the Phillies in 2008 IF (and it’s a big IF) the Red Sox did not want him back.

My guess is that Schilling will return to the Red Sox for 2008. I’m not basing that on anything, but if a dude helps pitch a team to the World Series twice in four years, bringing him back for one year to sail off into the sunset is kind of the sporting thing to do.

Then again, it appears as if both the Phillies and Schilling are giving the matter serious thought. Plus, the big-mouthed righty has “reinvented” his repertoire by fine-tuning his changeup and off-speed pitches. Could that fact save some wear-and-tear and give Schilling, 40, a couple more years?

Could he be the loud yin to Jamie Moyer’s thoughtful yang in the Phillies rotation?

Maybe.

*** Meanwhile, it appears as if Jimy Williams might be looking for a gig elsewhere. According to Todd Cougar Zolecki of the Inquirer, the Phillies have reached an agreement with all of the members of the 2007 coaching staff except for Williams.

The team also will not renew conditioning coordinator Scott Hoffman's contract. Hoffman was the guy who led the team through its pre-batting practice stretching routine. He was also the most ignored man affiliated with the team.

Later: The Chicago Marathon and the trip to the B&N… I promise.

There used to be a ballfield here...

It appears as if the Nationals are out of RFK for good.

Look! It's a pitch now... a soccer pitch. They better make sure the Corporately-named Nationals Park is ready to go by Opening Day. There's no turning back now. More RFK photos

Paying attention is hard - Part II

While perusing the sports pages on the Internets today, one local report caught my eye. No, I’m not going to mention any names or give any links or anything like that, but the story contained a line in which the Phillies’ free-agent centerfielder, Aaron Rowand, was pursuing a six-year, $84 million offer from the team this winter. What?!?

Citing the all-knowing “sources,” the story indicated that most in baseball place Rowand’s value somewhere in the 3-years for $30 million range, which is right in line with what Eric Byrnes got from the Diamondbacks earlier this year. Rowand, according to most folks who have actually spoken with him, will return to the Phillies for something in that price range.

But those “sources” claimed Rowand and his representatives were seeking a six-year, $84 million deal, nonetheless.

Really?

And no one called B.S.?

Here’s why they should have: Chase Utley did not get a deal as lucrative as the one Rowand reportedly wants when the All-Star second baseman and MVP candidate got a contract extension last February. Better yet, Jim Thome only got a six-year, $85 million contract from the Phillies in December of 2002 when the potential Hall-of-Famer was the top free-agent on the market.

Look, Aaron Rowand is a very nice player and if the Phillies re-sign him this winter they will be better for it. But Aaron Rowand is not stupid. He knows who he is and what he's worth. He pays attention to that kind of stuff. That means he is not going to be asking for a deal more lucrative than the one the best player on the team just received, or one in line with a guy who just hit his 500^th career home run.

If Rowand asks for six-years and $84 million the Phillies should tell him to go run into an unpadded outfield fence… again.

Pay attention, folks.

Matsui in the mix So, the National League playoffs carried on without the Phillies last night, but not without some of the spirit[1] that made the Philadelphia fans famous (infamous?), and that wily Kaz Matsui.

Oh yes… that Kaz Matsui is at it again.

Not only did he help the code orange, reactor-level hot Rockies beat the Padres in the wild-card playoff game last week, or to whip the Phillies in a three-game sweep by going 5-for-12 with that grand slam and six RBIs. But also, Matsui singled in the go-ahead run in the third inning of the Rockies’ latest victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at INSERTYOURCORPORATENAMEHERE Park.

The RBI single would have been enough, but Matsui, apparently, is hell-bent on putting his fingerprints all over the playoffs. The fact that the one-time maligned New York Met is so integral to the Rockies’ fortunes shouldn’t be lost on anyone. Hey, he isn’t as good as the New York media gushed when he came over from the Seibu Lions, but for the Rockies he blends right into a pretty good lineup.

Pretty good means they have won 18 of their last 19 games and likely won’t lose again for the rest of 2007.

But what everyone is talking about [2]is the play that caused the normally staid and late-arriving Diamondbacks’ fans to throw garbage onto the field at INSERTYOURCORPORATENAMEHERE Park. They don’t pull that kind of crap in Philly or Shea – plus, the game is sold out long before the day arrives. That’s not the case in Phoenix, where, according to reports, there were still tickets available for Game 1 of the NLCS yesterday morning.

ANYWAY, back to the throwing of the garbage… here’s how ESPN.com described the incident involving Matsui:

The play that drew fans' ire started with runners on first and second with no outs. Arizona's Augie Ojeda hit a grounder to Rockies third baseman Garrett Atkins, who promptly threw to second. Justin Upton slid hard into Kaz Matsui to break up a potential double play, but Upton hit the second baseman's leg with his shoulder. Second-base umpire Larry Vanover ruled that Upton interfered with Matsui and called both him and Ojeda out. Chris Snyder, who had advanced to third base, was forced to return to second.

And then:

Though the official attendance was 48,142, when the first pitch was thrown, there were thousands of empty seats, an embarrassment for a championship series game. Most of the seats were eventually filled, but that didn't mean the scalpers were having much success.

For an environment that usually doesn't elicit much intensity, watching the bottles hurled onto the field was a strange sight for most of the players.

"I was shocked because I've never seen anything like that from these fans," said Rockies reliever Brian Fuentes, who said it was equally bad in right field, where his team's bullpen is. "It didn't show very much class. ... Usually, I would expect that out of Shea [Stadium] or Philly."

Wait a second… how did Philly get involved in this? Do you think Fuentes heard a few good-natured barbs when warming of for the first two games in the NLDS at the sold-out CBP last week? That elevated vistors’ bullpen is in perfect spitting distance from Ashburn Alley. Not that anyone would ever do something like that, of course.

Sic semper tyrannus.

Next: the Chicago Marathon and a trip to the B&N.

---

[1] They like to call it “passion.” Others call it a $5,000 fine with up to three days in jail.

[2] At least those who watched the game and/or follow this sort of thing – for instance, no one in my house cares. Nor does anyone I converse with on a regular basis. In fact, if I were to bring up the name, “Kazuo Matsui,” they probably would think I was talking about that annoying little green dude from the Fred Flintstone cartoons. Remember that guy? He sucked. Nevertheless, the Fred Flintstone was a helluva actor.

Paying attention is hard

For the past four weeks I think I’ve spent 24 hours in one place two times. If I wasn’t at the ballpark, I was in a plane, train or automobile that was taking me to the ballpark or some baseball-related event. In those four weeks I’ve ingested enough coffee and diet coke to kill a Shetland pony. If the caffeine wouldn’t get him, the aspartame[1] likely would.

Needless to say, I have a newfound respect for the guys who travel around with the baseball team every day since the middle of February. Yeah, they get to go to the ballpark, but sometimes that’s no picnic either – work is work.

Anyway, because of the Phillies and their short run into the playoffs, I have been unable to follow too much else outside of that realm. Some of this is my fault because I’m not much a multi-tasker. And other parts are my fault because I don’t live closer to where I have to work…

Nobody forced me to move out to the sticks (well, not really forced, but really… who wants to live in Philadelphia if they have a choice?)

Part of what I missed and have not been able to get deeper into was the decision by the arbitration panel in the USADA’s case against Floyd Landis. When the decision came down I was in Washington for the four-game series at RFK Stadium against the Nationals. As I recall, that was a long day – I wrote about the decision, etc. and then took the Metro over to RFK just an hour before the first pitch (3½-to-4 hours before the first pitch is the customary time of arrival for baseball writers…) to write more about the Phillies’ push to the playoffs.

The plan, as I remember, was to ride the baseball stuff out until the end of the season and then revisit the Landis case. The trouble was the baseball season kept on going, which is a new phenomenon in Philadelphia. As a result, I fell out of touch a little bit. When people asked about the case/decision during the past few weeks, I couldn’t offer anything more eloquent than, “Huh? Who? Oh yeah… that guy. I pass his old house on my way to work. It’s quiet in that neck of the woods, and there are a lot of cornfields – apparently the corn crop has been really good this year…”

Plus, there have been a few new developments in the doping front.

Let’s get this out of the way again: Floyd Landis got screwed. I don’t know if he used PEDs and I guess I really don’t care (or maybe I do seeing as how much coffee I have been drinking lately – drugs are drugs). The point is the testing process, the screening and the entire circus that went on with the French lab, the UCI, WADA and USADA is borderline criminal and completely unethical. I know there are some good people who work at those places, but they need to reevaluate what’s going on.

Besides, if the tests are performed incorrectly, then the results are B.S.. Even the two arbitrators hand-picked by USADA to deliver the desired result by the government-funded agency alluded to this in the decision.

In fact, in a strong rebuke, the two arbitrators who ruled against Landis wrote that more sloppy work by the French lab could lead to a dismissal of a case in the future.

Shudder the thought.

Dave Zabriske, Landis’ former teammate and current pro rider, summed it up perfectly.

“That's kind of strange to me,” Zabriske told WSCN.com. “Why could it be grounds for dismissal in the future and not now?”

However, Landis’ attorney, Maurice Suh, says it wasn’t a matter of a lab doing incompetent work, though that didn’t help matters. Instead, Suh told the Associated Press that the tests did not show that Landis tested positive.

“This wasn’t a technical defense,” Suh said. “It wasn’t: ‘You didn’t do this right. You didn’t put the beaker in the right case.’ This was a case that showed that they came to the wrong result.”

Travis Tygart, the new head of the USADA, stands by the result and says it will hold up on appeal.

“This is another sad example of the crisis of character plaguing some of today's athletes, which undermines the honest accomplishments of the overwhelming majority of athletes who compete with integrity,” he said.

Yeah, but what about the testers, the arbitrators and the alphabet soup organizations that base their funding on how many pelts they can nail to the wall?

So, after much consternation, Landis – like any stubborn dude from Lancaster County – decided to appeal the decision to the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport. A final, binding decision is expected in February.

“I hope that the arbitrators of the case will fairly address the facts showing that the French laboratory made mistakes, which resulted in a false positive. Although the process of proving my innocence has been difficult for me and my family, I will not stop trying to prove my innocence.”

It seems as if Landis’ appeal is as much about proving his innocence as it is proving that the anti-doping system is “cynical and corrupt.”

Certainly, if anyone has paying attention to the case, it’s pretty clear that Floyd has already shown the flaws in the system. Corrupt is a good place to start. But if Floyd wants the UCI, WADA, USADA, etc. to operate within a framework of the highest standards and ethics, forget it. He’s going to lose.

He’s dealing with career bureaucrats, you know, as in: “Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.”

Suh told WCSN.com that Floyd understands it.

“We had always embarked on this trial with the understanding that ultimately victory would be difficult,” Suh told WCSN.com. “There are so many arbitrators in the system that are against the athletes that it doesn't provide you with many options. It leaves the athletes in a difficult spot because of the small number of fair-minded arbitrators that are objective. Partisanship on part of the arbiters is a terrible thing. It doesn't give you confidence in the outcome. One of Floyd's primary goals was to expose flaws in the system and make known what some of the issues were. And we were prepared to deal with the fact that we wouldn't win.”

That’s fine, but I doubt this is a completely altruistic move – I don’t think Floyd wants to take one for the team. My guess is he wants to win.

*** Meanwhile, the new, popular argument is that Marion Jones’ admission to doping before the 2000 Olympics in Sydney also casts Landis in a bad light…

What does one case have to do with the other? Marion Jones was a notorious doper who left a trail of concrete evidence behind her. In fact, the book Game of Shadows is more damning to Jones than it is to Barry Bonds – and it nails Bonds pretty good with documentation and leaked grand jury testimony. What does Marion Jones and Barry Bonds have to do with Floyd Landis?

Are people’s attention spans that short? Is it really that difficult to pay attention?

Yes. Apparently it is.

---

[1] I’m going to name my lesion, “Donald.”

Hangin' out

Though the Phillies took care of the most pressing bit of business for the off-season within 72 hours of the last out of the season, they will surely have bigger issues to tackle this winter. That means there will be enough stuff to write about on this site about the team, its prospects in 2008 and what players will be wearing the uniform. In fact, we already addressed some of that here and here with a few stories over at CSN.com.

Meanwhile, I hope to fall back into the old routine on this site throughout the winter. Generally speaking, I write for what seems like 12 hours a day, so there will be plenty of posts coming up all year long.

Some of them might even be interesting, too.

Anyway, fret not. I’ll be around… I may even dabble in some of the other major league sports, too.

What’s the name of that game they play on top of frozen water?

Until we figure that out, tomorrow we'll see if we can get into the developments in the Floyd Landis case, Marian Jones and the Chicago Marathon. We might even have a little bit of stuff on Pat Gillick and Eddie Vedder, too...

I'm guessing that was the first time the names of Pat Gillick and Eddie Vedder appeared in the same sentence.

One man's ceiling is another man's floor

The thing about being a Major League manager is that it rarely ends well. For instance, take the situation in the South Bronx where Joe Torre is reportedly on the way out as the Yankees’ skipper. Even though Torre has guided the Yanks to the playoffs in every single one of his 12 years at the helm and has won the World Series four times, it doesn’t seem to be good enough. The fact is that Torre has won 1,173 regular-season games for a .605 winning percentage with the Yankees, and has gone 77-48 in the post-season. But Torre and the Yanks haven’t advanced past the ALDS since 2004 and they haven’t won the World Series since 2000.

Torre, it appears, made the mistake of successful managing a club too well for too long. He set the bar way too high because in the end, it always ends badly.

But the New York Yankees sure are different than the Philadelphia Phillies.

Yes, that really is an ambiguous statement, but when comparing the Yankees and the Phillies, grand, open-ended ambiguity is the safest bet.

For the Phillies, the “Golden Age” of the franchise started in the mid-1970s and lasted until the early 1980s. For about a decade, the Phillies were about as good as a team could be in the Major Leagues. They were so good, in fact, that in 1979 Danny Ozark was fired as the manager of the team because he didn’t win the World Series after winning 101 games in 1976 and 1977 and a 90-win NL East title in 1978.

It wasn’t enough to get it done.

In 1983, general manager Paul Owens bounced Pat Corrales from the managerial seat even though he had the Phillies in first place with 76 games remaining in the season. Owens came down from the front office and kept the Phillies right where Corrales left them before the collapse in the World Series against the Orioles.

Those were the days when it was either the World Series or failure for the Phillies, and it’s safe to say that a similar mentality never really occurred in the team’s 124-season history.

It would be interesting to see what fate would beset Charlie Manuel if he stumbled the way Ozark and the Phillies did in 1979. Or what would happen to Manuel if he were the skipper in 1983 when Corrales’ first-place Phillies were doing something wrong 86 games in to the season.

How can a team fire the manager when his team is in first place?

Make no mistake; there are a lot of people who don’t want Manuel to return to the bench for 2008 after three seasons in which he won more games than all but one manager in team history through this point in his tenure. With the Phillies, 262 victories in three seasons in which the team was eliminated from the NLDS in a three-game sweep is borderline historic. Actually, it’s more than remarkable – it’s unprecedented.

This is a franchise, after all, where only two (two!) managers have taken the team to more than one postseason. It’s a franchise that has been to the playoffs just 10 times in 124 seasons. For comparisons sake, look at the Atlanta Braves who… wait, nevermind. It just isn’t fair to compare the Phillies to any other franchise.

Anyway, one of those dynamic duo of managers was Ozark, who won the NL East three years in a row but was axed when he couldn’t do it for a fourth. The other manager was Ozark’s replacement, Dallas Green, who delivered the franchise’s only title in 1980 only to lose to Montreal in the 1981 NLDS.

That loss was enough to send Green on his way to Chicago where he thought he could break the Cubs’ losing curse. But Green quickly learned that even he isn’t that good. Sure, historically things are really bad for the Phillies, but even they don’t compare to the futility of the Cubs.

Can Charlie Manuel join the ranks of Ozark and Green? Well, we’re going to find out. After his first, three-year contract ran out when Shane Victorino grounded out in Game 3 of the NLDS on Saturday night at Coors Field, the Phillies quickly re-signed Manuel to a new, two-year pact with a club option for a third year. The deal was wrapped up on Tuesday night and then leaked out to the press. In fact, the staff writer for the team’s Web site had to learn about the news from a release on that very site.

Maybe Joe Torre is the manager the Cubs need to help them end 98 straight seasons without a World Series? After all, it appeared as if Torre was going to be out of a job after 12 seasons as the manager of the New York Yankees.

Torre apparently is headed for the same fate as Danny Ozark in 1979. But unlike Ozark, Torre didn’t miss the playoffs this year. Actually, Torre averaged close to 100 victories per season, won the World Series four times, including three years in a row, figured out how to charm the fickle New York media and even more, the erratic owner George Steinbrenner.

There is no way to categorize Torre’s time with the Yankees as anything other than wildly successful. In fact, there are some of those fickle and hyperbolic New York-media types who have deemed Torre’s Yankees’ career as Hall-of-Fame worthy alongside the all-time greats like Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Miller Huggins. Add Torre to that tribunal and get 21 of the Yankees’ 26 World Series titles, and 30 American League pennants.

In other words, Joe Torre has done a lot better than Charlie Manuel, but only one of them was truly on the proverbial hot seat for returning to the same team in 2008.

One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. Obviously, making it through Game 165 with a fighting chance is not a good season in the South Bronx. Steinbrenner, unlike David Montgomery and the Phillies, does not celebrate moral victories or potential. Because of that, Torre and his failure to deliver a World Series title since 2000, ends the season as a “sad disappointment,” as his boss stated. Those 1,173 victories, not including the 77 more in the playoffs, ring a bit hollow.

Torre, it seems, built expectations so high that anything less than perfection was not good enough. Is it his fault that his hitters picked a really bad time to stop being the best offense in baseball, or that the pitching staff he was handed didn’t live up to its old press clipping s anymore?

Of course not. But Torre made the mistake of having high standards.

We don’t have that problem here.

Instead, Charlie Manuel’s run in Philadelphia is still littered with hope and promise. For the Phillies, 262 victories in three seasons is nothing to sneeze at.

Better yet, it’s nearly a record.

Breaking...

Word on the street is that the Phillies re-signed Charlie Manuel for two years with an option for a third...

Hot night for the hot stove

It feels like a summer night out there. It's hot, humid and rainy, which makes me feel as if it's time to head to the ballpark or snap on the tube and catch the middle innings of a game from anywhere in the country. Strangely enough, even though it was 95 degrees today, there is no baseball on TV.

That doesn't mean we can't talk about it, does it? I think it does, so I wrote a story about what the Phillies should do this winter...

You know, because they should listen to me.

Anyway, click here for the entire story or continue on and read an excerpt of the bullet points explaining the proper course of action:

• Sign Aaron Rowand Yeah, he had a “career year” and likely won’t approach 30 home runs again (unless he plays at CBP), but Rowand is as reliable as they come. Not only can his teammates and coaches depend on him, but also he’s accountable to the fans and press. There’s something refreshing about that.

It could be costly to sign Rowand, though. It seems as if $30 million for three years is the starting point.

• Get some pitching Strangely enough, the bullpen seems to be in order if the Phillies re-sign J.C. Romero and Madson returns to form after an arm injury. With Myers set to open the season in the bullpen – the only place where he has shown any consistency during his career – the Phillies are on their way as far as building a top-notch ‘pen. Add Scott Linebrink, a free-agent sinkerballer, and all is set.

But relievers can’t pitch all nine innings.

As far as starters go, Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick are givens for 2008. Adam Eaton is also signed through 2009, but it remains to see where he is come next April.

Free-agent to be, Kyle Lohse, is expected to fetch approximately $60 million for five years when he hits the open market in November. Oddly enough that’s a bargain in the current economics of Major League Baseball and the Phillies would be smart to call up agent Scott Boras and make an offer.

• Don’t raise ticket prices Don’t do it. Three million folks walked through the doors in 2007 to see Freddy Garcia get one win and Jon Lieber eat himself to an injury. They also saw J.D. Durbin and Adam Eaton take the mound every five days. Get back to the playoffs in 2008 and watch people open up their wallets to hand over money like crazy for things like tickets, Schmitters, Phanatic dolls and t-shirts.

• Figure out what Ryan Howard’s future is with the Phillies… … and then pay him accordingly. Yes, Howard hit 47 home runs in 2007 even though he got off to a slow start and missed a month with an injury in May. The 47 bombs comes a year after hitting 58 and winning the MVP Award in 2006. However, Howard took a step backwards in the field and showed up to camp out of shape this season. History shows that big guys like Howard burn out faster unless they are American Leaguers. That’s why it’s important for the Phillies to figure out how long Howard will be productive – he’s 27 now – and pay him accordingly.

• Get a third baseman Yes, Greg Dobbs had a terrific season as a part-time third baseman. Then again, he only really started during the second half, and even then it was usually against just right-handers. Clearly, Wes Helms wasn’t the answer the Phillies were looking for, and Abraham Nunez seems to be locked in as a late-inning defensive specialist.

Mike Lowell is heading into free agency and likely will not return to Boston – he’s the popular name now, and has a good history at CBP, but do the Phillies need him?

• Do what it takes to get back to the playoffs… and win No one wants to wait another 14 years to get back to the post-season only to get swept. Building success is wonderful – turning success into a trend is the tact of champions. Every team in the NL East will improve in 2008…

Will the Phillies remain the team to beat?

Who turned on the heat?

ESTES PARK, Colo. – So I’m sitting at the tables closest to the door in Kind Coffee – my favorite coffee shop ever – with a view of the burbling Big Thompson River and the bundled up locals traipsing up Elkhorn Avenue for the October sidewalk sale with all sorts of thoughts running wild: “Is the baseball season really over?”

“Man, I can’t believe I made that drive from Denver at 1 a.m.”

“This coffee is so #$&*@% good!”

“I can’t believe I’m in Estes Park in October and it’s 35 degrees… it’s 90 degrees in Lancaster and Philly.”

“It’s hard to believe that Colorado is on the same planet as Philadelphia.”

“Hey! Look... elk!

“That guy is wearing a funny hat. I wonder where he got it?”

You get the idea. It goes on and on and on like this – sometimes for days.

Anyway, if I had to guess, I’d say that I slept for seven hours since waking up on Saturday morning to go to the airport in Philadelphia. That part stinks because sleep is vital. If one gets the proper amount of sleep (and a little bit extra just for fun), there is no need to inject silliness like HGH into one’s bloodstream.

Be that as it may, I’ve been infused with a steady stream of coffee since arriving out here at noon (local time) on Saturday. From the airport I went to the ballpark and watched the Phillies’ season come to an end. When that ended and I turned the ignition on my car at 1:01 a.m., I drove to Estes Park.

On the way to Estes, I saw exactly four cars on the final 36 miles of the drive after exiting I-25. I was convinced an elk or coyote was going to jump out of the thick, inky blackness of the night and into the path of my car.

Instead it was just cold and windy.

Get this: when I left Philadelphia it was 90 degrees and foggy, but when I woke up on Sunday morning it was 35 degrees and windy with a few snow flurries dancing about. By 1 p.m. it was 55 degrees with a gentle breeze and the sunniest and bluest skies anyone will ever see.

ANYWAY, one of my goals in Estes Park was to spend the morning at Kind Coffee, which is where I started writing this, as well as Sunday’s (or Monday’s… I lost track) reprisal of the Phillies’ season. Check it out by clicking here.

Another goal was to see if there were more elk meandering about town than during the summertime.

Here’s how it worked out:

As far as the coffee joint went, I made it to Kind Coffee three times in less than 16 hours of which four were spent sleeping. As mentioned above, I started writing this post from the table nearest the door with a full view of the Big Thompson River flowing within spitting distance. To the table to my right sat a bearded, 27-year old seasonal employee of the National Park Service, who was discussing his existential crisis with an attentive and patient young lady. I know all of this because I heard the conversation as if I had snapped on the TV and was just listening to it as background noise. As I tap-tap-tapped away, waxing on about Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Jamie Moyer, the young man described how he was ready to retire and was sick of seasonal jobs, though he was not at all interested in working in an office where he might have to sit in a cubicle all day under set, rigid hours.

He also didn’t want to have to spend the rest of his life working only to retire and find out that he didn’t make enough money or invest properly.

Join the club, buddy. And save as much of your fire watching money as possible now – sell that top-of-the-line iMac on eBay… better yet, stay away from anything that has a small letter in front of a capital letter. That type of [stuff] is expensive. Better yet, start buying Folgers at the Safeway up the hill. Buying that Kind Coffee every day adds up.

Trust me.

Famous last words, huh?

As far as the elk meandering about goes, I thought there would be more, though there were a bunch just chillaxing near the Lake Estes trail as well as a big ol’ buck and his brood hanging out behind the Stanley Hotel.

Oh yeah, I also bought a weird hat that no one else likes. In fact, my sister doesn't even like it and she's a bit odd (eccentric?).

To shorten this up a bit, the trip was too short. All of it. Time in Colorado is always much too short, and the Phillies’ run in the playoffs was almost criminally short. I realized this as I drove past Coors Field on Sunday night and saw that it was all dark. I said out loud: “Hey, this would be about the time the first pitch would be thrown.”

I’m going to dig into the off-season this afternoon, where I’ll attempt to offer what we could expect from the club this winter. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here’s what I was writing for this site when Jeff Baker singled off J.C. Romero with two outs in the eighth inning on Saturday night at Coors:

Game 3 of the NLDS has really heated up and, yes, we mean that metaphorically. Heading into the eighth, the Rockies have turned it over to funky lefty Brian Fuentes, who whiffed Jimmy Rollins, got Chase Utley to fly out harmlessly to left, and then struck out Pat Burrell to end the inning.

To punctuate the feat, Fuentes gave a strong fist pump with his left hand and a little leg kick.

But Burrell nearly had Fuentes hanging his head. His long, loud foul ball started its flight looking like it was going to land in the seats for a homer, but instead turned out just to be strike two.

The Rockies sent the meat of their order up against Tom Gordon in the eighth. Gordon started his second inning against Matt Holliday, Todd Helton and Garrett Atkins up.

I’m betting that J.C. Romero will face Helton…

And here comes Charlie with his lineup card to pull off a double-switch. Romeo to face Helton, Jayson Werth to left to replace Burrell. I imagine Charlie will use Brett Myers to face the righty Garrett Atkins even if Romero doesn’t retire Helton.

Uh… oops.

That's a wrap

It just got a little crazy and I have to get to work, so check back tomorrow where I'll deal out the full postscript on the most interesting season I've ever seen. Until then...

And then there was offense... kind of

It should be noted that there is a full Philadelphia media throng here in Denver tonight. All of the newspapers are represented in sizable numbers, including six writers from the Inquirer and a bunch from the Daily News. And get this: The Daily News doesn’t even print an edition tomorrow and the rest of the papers are already past deadline.

Ah, but they all have web site… that’s right guys – embrace the technology.

All of a sudden the offense shows up!

With one out in the seventh Shane Victorino knifed one through the wind and into the seats atop the high, out-of-town scoreboard in right field. Just like that and the Phillies have some offense.

They might even have a little spark.

Victorino knew it was gone as soon as he hit it. He reacted with a few short fist pumps as he dashed down the first-base line and was prodding on his teammates throughout the inning. Perhaps Victorino and his home run got the Phillies going? After all, Carlos Ruiz followed it up with a single to chase rookie pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez in favor of veteran Matt Herges.

After Greg Dobbs pinch hit for Abe Nunez and grounded out, Charlie Manuel pulled back Jamie Moyer for pinch hitter Tadahito Iguchi with two outs and a runner on second. We all know that things tend to happen whenever Iguchi steps onto the field.

This time, though, all that happened was an inning-ending pop out.

Moyer's line: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 2 K - 88 pitches/56 strikes

Here comes the Phillies’ bullpen. Buckle up.

Coming up empty

My favorite pen finally ran out of ink. The Rockies drew first blood in the fifth when Pat Burrell misplayed a single – or maybe even a FO-7 – into a two-out, RBI triple for Kaz Matsui.

That cinches it: Kaz Matsui is officially the Phillie Killer.

In 2007, Matsui went 3-for-9 with a homer against the Phillies, which is up from a 4-for-23 in 2006 and 6-for-33 in 2005. But in 2004 when he was with the Mets, Matsui had 22 hits against the Phillies, including a bunch of really strong games at the Bank. In one series in June of that season, Matsui picked up nine hits before adding eight more in the return matchup at Shea.

Most telling is that of Matsui’s 35 career hits against the Phillies, 10 are for extra bases.

During the Phillies’ half of the fifth they finally got a base runner when Carlos Ruiz walked. But he was quickly erased when Abe Nunez grounded into an inning-ending double play.

The Phillies kicked up another bit of a fuss in the sixth by putting two on with one out (and letting Moyer lead off the inning), but Pat Burrell popped out to left and Ryan Howard grounded out.

Man… the Phillies had two on and one out with Burrell and Howard coming up and got nothing. Such a bad time for that to happen…

As it stands now, the Phillies have nine outs remaining in the season.

All quiet in the fourth

Every time I’ve seen the Phillies play a game at Coors Field, Pat Burrell homered. This afternoon he was launching some bombs during batting practice, which leads me to believe that he would probably enjoy playing in Denver more often.

I’m not saying anything, I’m just saying…

According to this site, the gusts are 39 mph here at Coors. That also seems to be the speed of the breeze generated from the swings and misses from the Phillies’ hitters against fireballer, Ubaldo Jimenez. Here in the fourth, the young right-hander has retired 10 in a row.

In the bottom half of the fourth, Moyer notched his first clean inning since the first. Interestingly, even though Moyer is pitching very deliberately, the game is moving along at a nice clip. If it hadn’t been for the lights going out, this game might be over.

Old man Moyer

This afternoon when I got to the park (something like 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time), I noticed Jamie Moyer sitting by himself next to the backstop, quietly taking in the pre-game scene. The Rockies had just started to take the field to stretch and loosen up before batting practice, and some of the folks from the TBS and ESPN were milling about and setting up their camera angles or whatever it is they do. Ever since Game 2 ended in defeat for the Phillies, I have been paying close attention to Jamie Moyer. In fact, I have been trying to parse his comments about how he wants to “have fun” and explaining how much “fun” it is to be in the playoffs. Anyone who asks gets told that Moyer is having fun and that the others on his team should understand that these games are fun.

It’s why you play the season, Moyer says.

Yet through it all I can’t find any deeper meaning. I even asked a few of the scribes who know the team better than me and they agreed that there isn’t more beyond what the 44-year old lefty is saying. Take his words at face value, I was told.

Or, look at them as a means to get some of the guys on his team – namely some of the pitchers and Chase Utley – to loosen up.

Perhaps Moyer’s tactic will work.

As it stands now, the last seven Phillies’ hitters have gone down in order. Moyer, meanwhile, is taking his time and being very methodical in his tactics. If a runner is on base he has been making throws to first even though there isn’t a threat of a steal, or he looks in at catcher Carlos Ruiz for a long time before coming to a set motion.

Yesterday, Clint Hurdle warned his team that Moyer would challenge their discipline at the plate. So far there haven’t been any surprises.

Wha' happened

What the… Hey, who turned out the lights?

Just as Shane Victorino was digging in to lead off the second, all of the power went out in the ballpark. I don’t know if it’s related to the windy conditions, or if it’s in the neighborhood as well. All I know is that my cell phone won’t connect with my number back in Lancaster.

Weird, wild stuff.

OK…

I’m told it was a computer glitch and not related to the weather or whatever else. Either way, the delay lasted 14 minutes and it’s getting windier and colder. What a weird day. When I left the house this morning there was pea soup fog with reports of record-breaking temperatures and nasty humidity. Then I get here and it’s a perfect, sun-soaked day with humidity at 9 percent.

If the locusts show up, I’m gone.

Have I mentioned that it’s windy here?

Back in the baseball game, wily veteran Jamie Moyer is throwing strikes. He also threw one that Garrett Atkins normally would have smashed up to the concession stand where the sell the Rocky Mountain Oysters, but the gale-force winds knocked the blast down so that Pat Burrell could make an easy catch on the warning track.

Moyer loaded the bases on a pair of weak singles and a walk before getting out of the jam on a close play at first on a grounder hit by pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez.

Oh, but it’s getting odder. I just had to move all of my stuff off of the table in front of me so that a man could walk on top of the rows here in the press box to close the windows.

Apparently, it’s cold and windy out there. I don’t know any more because the windows are closed.

John's town

These fans are so polite. As the Rockies were introduced, they all waved their little rally towels, but they all stopped cheering and yelling when the P.A. announcer spoke. When he stopped saying what he had to say, the fans cheered. So attentive.

However, when Jimmy Rollins stepped to the plate, they booed. I guess it’s the same reason why Matt Holliday was booed in Philadelphia. There was a wicked cheer when Rollins whiffed, too.

They went crazy with the cheers when John Elway appeared on the video screen to implore everyone to root for the Rockies. Denver is all about the Broncos – actually, Colorado is all about the Broncos. Take the way Philadelphians feel about the Eagles and multiply it by the highest number you know and then you will begin to understand the way they feel about the Broncos.

Knowing this, it makes sense that John Elway runs the place. The old quarterback is Denver royalty and I’m pretty sure that everyone in the state buys their cars from one of his 9,857 car dealerships in the area.

Anyway, the fans are polite and loud. They like to cheer for their team and not really against the opposition.

I missed the first two hitters of the bottom of the first because I went into the press lounge to get a drink and a bag full of a really tasty snack mix. Plus, Jamie Moyer got the first two guys out really fast.

It seems as if the wind is now blowing in very hard. It’s starting to get chilly... er, cold.