Phili City » Sports

Philadelphia to honor Danny Garcia

musiclover — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:01:58 +0000

Joining the esteemed ranks of Philadelphia boxing champions Joe Frazier and Bernard Hopkins is the newest world champion from the City of Brotherly Love, newly crowned WBC super lightweight titleholder Danny “Swift” Garcia. Garcia will be honored and recognized at a special reception with Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter, co-sponsored by Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez (7th Dist.) and Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. (4th Dist.) to be held on Monday, April 23, 2012 at 11:00 am ET. The reception will be held at the Mayor’s Reception Room, 2nd Floor, City Hall.

“I’m proud to be another Philadelphia champion, because this is a tough city,” said Garcia. “I’m ready to make a historic mark as a Philadelphia fighter and make my city proud.”

Philadelphia Eagles schedule analysis

musiclover — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:53:44 +0000

The Eagles will open on the road in the midwest for the second year in a row, beginning their 2012 season with a ho-hum matchup Sept. 9 against the Browns in Cleveland. But things get intense pretty quickly. Six of their next seven games, beginning with the Sept. 16 home opener against the Ravens, are against teams that made the postseason in 2011. The only one that’s not requires a long road trip to Arizona to play the Cardinals in Week 3. Last year’s disappointing record didn’t keep the Eagles from being a target of the networks that put games in prime time. They’ll appear twice on ESPN’s Monday Night Football — Nov. 5 at New Orleans and Nov. 26 at home against Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. They have two games (so far) scheduled for Sunday nights on NBC — Sept. 30 against the Giants and Dec. 2 in Dallas. And their turn on Thursday night on the NFL Network comes Dec. 13, with a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

If they’re in a race with the Giants for the NFC East title, the Eagles will get to play the defending champs head-to-head to possibly decide it. Their final regular-season game of the year is against the Giants at MetLife Stadium. The Eagles have beaten the Giants in seven of their past eight tries, and they haven’t lost at the Meadowlands since 2007.

Complaint department: Not a whole lot to complain about here. There’s a stretch from Weeks 11-14 in which they play three road games, but their longest road trips are spaced out and nestled between home games. They don’t go anywhere in December that’s likely to be any colder that Philadelphia is. They have to play 10 games after the bye week as opposed to six before it, and that’s not ideal, but even that could be worse. And the teams they play back-to-back on their short week are Tampa Bay and Cincinnati, which doesn’t sound overly intimidating.

Annual victim: As every Eagles fan and many posts on this blog will spend the middle part of October pointing out, the Eagles are 13-0 in games immediately following bye weeks with Andy Reid as their head coach. This year’s bye is Week 7, and the opponent who will come into Philadelphia to try and break that streak in Week 8 is the Atlanta Falcons.

Philadelphia Phillies win opener 1-0 over Pirates

musiclover — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:45:03 +0000

If only Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies had gotten this 1-0 win last October. Halladay was nearly flawless for eight innings Thursday and the Phillies showed off their pitching from the start, opening a new season by edging the Pittsburgh Pirates.Missing injured stars Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, the Phillies scored the lone run they needed on a sacrifice fly by Carlos Ruiz in the seventh. New closer Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth for his first National League save.

“It was a good game for us,” Halladay said. “It went the way we wanted and Papelbon came in and got his feet wet and got that out of the way. All in all I think it was a good way to do it.”

Philadelphia owes $877K for Boy Scouts’ legal fees

musiclover — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:08:25 +0000

The city of Philadelphia must pay nearly $900,000 after a failed effort to evict the Boy Scouts of America because of the group’s ban on gays, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

The post-trial ruling is just the latest twist in a decade-long legal dispute over the Boy Scout oath, which requires members to be “morally straight.”

The two sides have sought a compromise that would let the local Boy Scouts chapter keep its rent-free, city-owned headquarters without violating the national Scout policy.

However, a tentative deal struck since the city lost a court case last year has fallen apart. U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter therefore said the city must pay $877,000 for the Scouts’ legal fees.

The order is a setback for the financially strapped city. City Council passed on a proposed deal to resolve the conflict — and avoid paying the legal fees — by selling the Scouts the building for $500,000, Mayor Michael Nutter told the Philadelphia Daily News.

“We do not as a city support that kind of behavior,” Nutter said Wednesday. “We’ve tried to take a number of steps to get the Boy Scouts out of a city-related building.”

The city insisted at a June 2010 trial that nonprofits given free use of its property must abide by local anti-discrimination laws, which include equal protection for gays. But the jury found the city’s reason violated the local Scout council’s First Amendment rights.

“The city defended this suit in a very principled way,” Buckwalter said after the verdict.

Philadelphia ends Penguins’ streak

musiclover — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:20:19 +0000

Scott Hartnell needed every last tick of the clock to score the timeliest of goals for the Flyers. Hartnell scored his second goal of the game with less than one second left in overtime to lift the Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the Penguins in Philadelphia Sunday, snapping Pittsburgh’s 11-game winning streak.

Hartnell took a nice cross-ice feed from Danny Briere to beat Marc-Andre Fleury with 0.9 seconds left on the clock.

Philadelphia Flynnie: No need to rush Ryan Howard

musiclover — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:55:18 +0000

First patient is Ryan Howard, the slugging first baseman of the Phillies. Howard traveled to Baltimore to see specialist Dr. Mark Myerson about a slight issue with his rehabbing Achilles tendon injury. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. couldn’t agree whether Howard was making a “what’s up with this, Doc?” visit or a routine follow-up.

The team even allowed head trainer Scott Sheridan to address Howard’s boo-boo, which apparently is a delayed reaction to the sutures used to close the surgical wound.

Until this, Howard had been making blazing progress in his return from his blown-out Achilles at the end of last season. Manuel even hinted that Howard, who was not expected to return before May, might be ready for the start of the season.

Our learned medical opinion is this: Slow down, speedy! Howard’s a big guy on the other side of 30 rehabbing the first significant injury of his career. While the Phillies need Howard in their lineup, they need him when the games really count, in September and beyond.

We need all of our fingers and toes to count the number of potential first basemen Amaro added in the offseason. Use those guys and stop thinking about having Howard back before he’s ready for the rigors of carrying this team when the playoffs come around.

Next patient is Robert Griffin III. The Baylor quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner and pretty certain No. 2 pick in the NFL draft has nothing wrong with his feet, unless they’re still on fire from the 4.41 40-yard time he clocked in last week’s combine.

The Eagles have a pretty fast, but pretty brittle, QB in Michael Vick, but like moths to a flame they apparently are intrigued by Griffin. The Eagles were the first team to sit down and have a chat with Griffin last week.

The surface question here is, why? The Eagles don’t draft until No. 15. Although they have two second-round picks, they don’t seem to have enough juice to lure the St. Louis Rams, who hold the second pick but wouldn’t likely choose Griffin because they already have Sam Bradford at the position.

But even if they shake the couch cushions at the NovaCare Complex and find enough to interest the Rams, Griffin would be a long-term luxury on a team that has to win now.

How could the Eagles, who have serious holes at linebacker and safety and could use some shoring up on both lines, explain this?

The rest of the rational football universe sees this as the year that Andy Reid either wins it all or moves on. If the Eagles draft Griffin, it ties him and Reid to the team for years to come.

Should this fantasy trip come to pass, Reid, Jeffrey Lurie, Joe Banner and the rest of the Eagles’ brain trust would have to develop Griffin-like speed to stay ahead of the restless natives.

Phili Eagles restructure DT Cullen Jenkins’ contract

musiclover — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:22:07 +0000

Defensive tackle Cullen Jenkins has agreed to restructure his contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. Jenkins signed a $25 million, five-year deal last offseason and had 5.5 sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 61 total tackles in his first season with the team. Jenkins spent his first seven seasons with Green Bay.

“We are very excited about having Cullen back on our football team,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said Tuesday. “Cullen made an immediate impact for us this year on and off the field. We look forward to a great future together with him in an Eagles uniform.”

Philadelphia went 8-8 last season.

Phili hosts Miami in Eastern Conference Showdown

musiclover — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:46:34 +0000

All of the talk surrounding the NBA is in regards to whether or not the Chicago Bulls are Miami Heat are the best team in the Eastern conference. Both of these teams may have the upper hand in their divisions, but the Philadelphia 76ers feel as though they are right in the mix as far as being considered a favorite to represent the East in the Finals. NBA expertsdidn’t have the same point of view about the Sixers when the season started as they do now, but that’s all changing.

It’s not as though the Sixers are winning based on luck or lack of a solid schedule. Their statistics validate their 16-6 record, and make them a legitimate threat to win the Eastern conference this season. We all know that Philly has the scorers to keep pace each time they take the court, but the difference this season has been their attention to defense. The Sixers rank first in the NBA in points allowed with a ridiculous 85.9 point per game average. They may be ninth in scoring, but their 11+ point differential makes them the best in the league at outscoring opponents.

It all starts with guard play for the Sixers. After several years of not getting much production out of that position, Philly has a solid tandem that will keep themin the hunt for years to come. Lou Williams and Jrue Holiday combine for nearly 30 points and over 8 assists per contest. That combined with the 13 points and 5 assists that All-Star Andre Iguodala pours in on a nightly basis makes for a tremendous base to what is an extremely deep and well-rounded team. Philly is the only team in the league that has 6 players averaging in double-figures on a nightly basis, and will continue to succeed as long as they remain healthy.

This is a perfect opportunity for the Sixers to display their skills as they take on the mighty Miami Heat at home Friday night. Prior to the start of the year, many basketball experts anointed the Heat as the team to beat in the East, and a virtual shoe-in to make it to the NBA Finals. Chicago and Philly are both showing that they have something to say about that. Despite have what many call the “dream team”, Miami has flaws that make them vulnerable.

Having two of the most prolific scorers in the league on the same team often becomes counterproductive as there are not enough shots to go around. LeBron James and Dwayne Wade individually are phenomenal, but they often look confused when on the court together. This may be Wade’s team, bit LeBron is showing why he’s the king as he is putting up some ridiculous numbers thus far, and is leading the way in the MVP race. James fills up the stat sheet like no other in the NBA. He’s currently averaging nearly 30 points, over 8 rebounds and 7 assists per game, and is the main focus of opposing teams every time Miami hits the floor. Philly will need to do their best to contain James Friday if they are to keep this one close, but locking down the rest of the Heat’s starting 5 may be enough to get the job done.

NBA handicappersare listing the Heat as 2.5 point road favorites against the Sixers. This number is based on the public’s perception and not necessarily on how these teams match-up. Tune in Friday for what promises to be a highly contested battle between 2 of the top 3 teams in the Eastern conference.

Phili Union trade Le Toux to Whitecaps

musiclover — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:44:57 +0000

The Philadelphia Union have traded Sebastien Le Toux to the Vancouver Whitecaps in exchange for allocation money. Per MLS and club policies, the terms of Tuesday’s trade were not disclosed.

Le Toux was selected by the Union in the 2009 MLS expansion draft and quickly became the most productive offensive player on the team, scoring 14 goals with 11 assists in 2010. For his efforts, Le Toux was voted to the MLS Best XI and was named Philadelphia’s first All-Star selection. He started every match last season, scoring 11 goals with nine assists.

Philadelphia Sixers Sign Francisco Elson

musiclover — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:34:05 +0000

According to Director of Public Relations, Michael Preston, the Sixers have officially announced the signing of veteran big man, Francisco Elson.

With Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic out with injury, and Marreese Speights shipped to Memphis earlier this season, the Sixers were in desperate need for a big man. Since Vooch went down with a leg injury against the Heat Tony Battie and Lavoy Allen have been receiving significant minutes in the front court, leaving the Sixers vulnerable on the glass, which explains the team’s abysmal rebounding numbers in Wednesday’s loss against the Nets.