Heading to NCAA Men's Lacrosse Semis in Philadelphia

In 1992, I recall going to a Phillies-Reds game at Veterans Stadium on Memorial Day weekend.  It was Saturday, we had friends in from out of town, and we went to Pat's Steaks at 9th and Passyunk (which the locals call "Pash-yunk").  It was about 90 degrees, we ate cheesteaks "with" on the metal tables cemented into the side walk, caught the local vibe and then headed to the Vet, where the Reds pounded the Phillies.  In '92, Dutch Daulton, Nails Dykstra and company looked much more mortal than they did the following year.

The following Monday, we woke up to a 63 degree day, a mist, and the first time Princeton had made the NCAA finals.  They were playing perennial power North Carolina.  Both the Tigers and the Tar Heels won high scoring games the previous Saturday.  I think one beat Hopkins and the other Syracuse, but I cannot remember for sure.  We decided to go, as the game was at Penn's Franklin Field, sat in the end zone on the East End of the stadium, watched the underdog Tigers race out to a 9-1 lead, only to have Carolina tie the game.  It ended up going into double overtime, when the Princeton faceoff man won the faceoff, scooped up the ball, sprinted downfield toward the goal, virtuallly unguarded, and scored the game winning goal. 

Sudden death for the Heels.

The birth of the legend of Bill Tierney, who came to Princeton after spending years as a Hopkins assistant.  His first of 6 national titles.

Fast forward to 2006, when the finals were also held at the Linc.  Again, a scorcher of a day, about 93 degrees, and UVA manhandled a game but undergunned UMass squad to win the title.  Memorable about that day was that they were out of kid-sized commemorative t-shirts, with the result that I bought an adult small for my then 9 year-old daughter.  It just began to fit her last year. 

Tomorrow are the semis, pitting unseeded yet very dangerous Cornell against Duke (with roughly 10 Philadelphia-area players on its squad) and then Tierney's Denver squad against a Syracuse team that was fortunate to hold off Yale last weekend (about as fortunate as Denver was to overcome a big Carolina lead at the half in the final minutes to earn the win and berth in the national semis).

The weather might hit 60, the rain should abate by the 2:30 start time, and the excitement should be there.  The Linc is easy to get to from the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions, which remain the hotbed for lacrosse.  Twenty years ago and more, the three major areas were New York's Central Valley (near Syracuse), Long Island and Baltimore.  Those areas remain strong, but other areas have emerged, including the Philadelphia area, northern New Jersey and others.  My guess is that Duke will be favored over Cornell and Syracuse over Denver, but my pick is for a Cornell-Denver final with Cornell and its magical Rob Pannell winning the national title.  Denver will have to ensure that it doesn't fall behind the way it did to Carolina last week, because comebacks like the one they pulled off are hard to repeat.  And Cornell has to ensure that it's the team that beat Maryland and Ohio State in the tournament, and not the team that lost to Princeton in the Ivy semis by a goal about four weeks ago.  The bet here is that Cornell has the goods and the momentum, and that Bill Tierney is getting his Denver squad closer to a national title. 

It should be a great day at the national semis -- and this time there should be enough t-shirts that fit.

Why Didn't the Phillies' Brass See What the Fans Did?

The Phillies had full- and partial-season ticket plans available before the season for the first time in five years.  Last year, their consecutive sellout streak ended.  This year, they're averaging at least 8,000 fewer fans per game at Citizens' Bank Park.  They are one game below .500, and that's after playing a schedule that has included cupcakes, creampuffs and twinkies.

Carlos Ruiz missed 25 games because of a using a banned substance.  He's now on the DL.

Roy Halladay had what looks to be season-ending surgery after the arm equivalent of gimping through much of last season. 

Chase Utley will miss 2-4 weeks because of a mild oblique strain.

Ryan Howard's gait hasn't looked right since he blew a tire in an NLDS-ending at bat after the 2011 season.  He's "day to day."

Set-up man Mike Adams, signed as a free agent after dealing with arm problems, also is on the shelf.

Sound familiar?

Hope was the strategy going into this season, and either it was the best Phillies' GM Ruben Amaro thought he could play the hand he had or he was lying to himself big-time that the Phillies, who finished .500 last year despite missing Utley and Howard for huge chunks of the season, would get healthy, rebound, and make the playoffs.  Either way, Amaro has botched the job.

First, aging teams don't typically get healthier.  It was wishful thinking -- dating back to 2010, when the Phillies had many stars on the DL for chunks of the season (Utley and Howard included) -- to think that Howard and Utley would sail through this season being able to play 150 games fully healthy.  Strike one.

Second, it was wishful thinking to think that there was not something wrong with Roy Halladay, both at the end of last season and into spring training.  Strike two.

Third, it was wishful thinking to think that the years of depleting the farm system and not developing position players would not catch up to the team.  Sure, Domonic Brown is showing signs of delivering on his prodigious talent.  But the rest of the team isn't all that patient at the plate, doesn't walk enough, doesn't hit well enough -- and hadn't last year, either.  The excitement around Freddy Galvis stems mostly from the young infielder's defense and energy, but not from his bat.  Perhaps it's the best excitement the Phillies can muster, but with a paltry on-base percentage, Galvis will disappoint pretty quickly playing as a regular.  Strike three.

The fans saw it, perhaps because they have the ability to walk away from a $3,000+ commitment (starting with a partial plan) than it is for management to "blow up the team" (what, with the 10-and-5 rule and contracts that make an albatross a relatively easier burden to bear), and they finally broke.  They were concerned when the team got older by signing Raul Ibanez in 2009 and then an oft-injured Placido Polanco in 2010.  They were concerned when position players didn't pan out, too.  Yes, there was much, much joy, and no one will dispute that.  There were lots of good times at the Bank from 2007-2012, a golden age, as it were.

But live in the present management and the fans must.  The rudder is damaged, the ship listing, the excitement -- the buzz at the park -- gone.  In 2008, the team was on the rise, no one had a big contract, and they played like there was no tomorrow.  Management honored the fact that many of the stars were between 29 and 31 and tried to "win now," adding pitching and pieces, trading prospects (none of whom has turned into a Jeff Bagwell or John Smoltz), and trying to win a second World Series.  But injuries developed, other teams got hot, and seemingly lesser talented teams found chemistry, timely hitting, a better ability to get on base and even more "lights out" pitching to take the title away from the Phillies.

Ironically, it wasn't the Moneyball team that beat them, but it's cousin across the San Francisco Bay that figured out a way to put together bits and pieces to build an elite team the same way Annakin Skywalker built his championship pod racer and win two of the last three World Series.  The Phillies -- with the stars and the big contracts -- turned into Moneyedball -- with a hefty payroll and players who seemingly lost some of that extra something, and perhaps it was the drag of the big pocketbooks they were lugging around.  Perhaps they lost some incentive because of the guaranteed money, perhaps they lost some of their zeal in training, and, yes, the nagging injuries got worse.  Whatever it was, other organizatons adapted, and the Phillies found themselves coming up just short.

As my teenager pointed out, in '08 they won the Series, in '09 they lost it, in '10 they lost in the NLCS, in '11 they lost in the NLDS and in '12 they completed the stepdown by failing to make the playoffs.  Now, they're trying to reverse momentum.

Without Utley.

Without Halladay.

With a gimpy Howard.

With almost no bullpen.

With almost no outfield.

And it's only May 24.

It will be hard to win with this lineup.  It doesn't scare anyone.

Opposing hitters will try to wait until the late innings to capitalize the way they did last year.

Fire sale signs beckon.

The Bank has more debts --  in terms of long-term contracts -- than deposits (in terms of fans).

It's still a nice building.

It has passionate customers.

But they thirst for a better product.

And they will wait a long time for it.

All because required forward planning that should have been thought through immediately after the 2008 World Championship season did not take place in sufficient detail.

Perhaps because the front office thought it would last forever.

Which in baseball is about five years.

Forever is here.

And it is not pretty.

Aggressive Play in the NBA Playoffs

Familiarity does breed contempt.

After a while, you just cannot out-run, out-jump or out-finesse another team.

No, you must get into their grills, hip check them when they run by and hope that you don't get caught, set a pick with your forearms, push people, hook people, start fights.

Sounds like the NHL.

The Bulls, quite simply, need to calm down.  Yes, they are short-handed, and yes, they still have some talent, but their losing of their cool will only hurt them.  Their heating up did not melt the Heat, who stood tall despite some ill-advised if not outright stupid play. 

But this is what happens in seven-game series.  You just get to know your opponents too well.  That doesn't mean that they irritate you (although Joakim Noah seems like a human irritant at times), it's just that it gets harder to figure them out. 

As Robert Duvall said in "Days of Thunder, "It's not rubbin', it's racin'." 

Perhaps it's not pushin', shovin' and thuggin', it's just basketball. 

But then again, the smarter teams seem to get around those who resort to a style of physical play that goes beyond the acceptable. 

The Bulls' coaches can complain about the officials all that they want to.  But the fact that they are complaining in and of itself demonstrates that their leadership is poor, because their players are focused on the wrong things, such as playing too angry.  Instead, they should be focused on having the players channel their passion, play tighter defense, and figure out how to cross up and confuse the Heat.  Sure, it would be nice to have Rose, Deng and Heinrich, but they are not there, and histrionics will not bring them back (or the Bulls back, for that matter).

The intensity is great, and no one wants to take away that.  But in the Bulls-Heat series, it's time for the Bulls to play smarter.

Rest in Peace, George Sauer

The former Jets' receiver is dead at the age of 69.

A reluctant football player. 

Would have preferred to be a doctor or writer. 

Quit the game because he became disillusioned with it.

Perhaps paid the price of taking the wrong path. 

Divorces. 

Not much family to speak of.

Alzheimer's.

Congestive heart failure.

Not the life of the fictional football hero, but the life of a conflicted man.

What Next for Rutgers Men's Basketball -- Coach Jordan Has No Degree

Read all about it here.

Honest mistake?

Hard to not know whether you were registered or not for the coursework that led to your finishing your degree, right?

Will the Scarlet Knights simply turn scarlet and lump it, or will they part company with one of the heroes of the almost-undefeated 1976 team?

Once you take a stand on integrity -- which Rutgers should have done with Mike Rice -- it's hard to develop significant gradations without involving the best minds in your Philosophy Department?  What's a terminable offense?  What is not?

Stay tuned.

Why All the Fuss About Matt Barkley?

In the movie "The American President," the chief of staff (played by Michael J. Fox) once remarked to the President (Michael Douglas) that people dying of thirst in the desert might be so desperate that they would drink the sand.  

That scene came to mind -- and sometimes comes to mind -- when I think of Philadelphia Eagles' fans.  They can be as desperate as an employee of the U.S. embassy looking for the last chopper out of Saigon to emerge over the horizon and as optimistic as Sue Heck of Modern Family -- at the same time.          
A new tackle, a fast free agent, a new offensive scheme -- they'll latch onto it the way investors did to Bernie Madoff.  That's how desperate they are for a Super Bowl winner.

The latest in a long line of hopes -- from Mike Mamula to Jevon Kearse to DeSean Jackson to Nmadi Asomugha is fourth-round draft pick Matt Barkley, the USC quarterback who was the first player drafted on day three of the draft (last year, had he left college, he would have been in the top five players taken in the first round).  What's interesting about that, in and of itself, is that a college-educated press hails the decision to stay in college, instead of questioning the judgment of a guy whose career will be evaluated on his ability to make decisions within say three, four seconds of every snap he takes. So, out of the gate, one has to wonder what Barkley was thinking?

Was he thinking -- I really can get better?  Was he thinking -- boy, it's fun here in Southern California, the USC quarterback gets treated like a God, I want to be a kid for longer?  Either are okay, and my comments are not to judge Barkley the person, who by all accounts seems like a decent guy.  But it is to question the competitiveness, the "gotta/wanna/haveit" (as Sal Palantonio is wont to say) about Barkley.  Wouldn't you think that a guy who you want to play as though the house were on fire would have wanted to come out of college when his star was the brightest?  And doesn't the fact that he did not make you question his overall fire?  Atop that, he didn't get better last year; he didn't have a great season.

Barkley's own personal decision aside, it's not as though USC quarterbacks have lit it up.  Matt Leinart stayed an extra year so that he could take a ballroom dancing class in the fall and QB the Trojans after he could have been a higher pick after his junior year.  He has been a bust.  Matt Cassel, his back-up, had a good year subbing for Tom Brady in New England but then fizzled.  Mark Sanchez has had an enigmatic career, playing well in playoff games but sinking pretty far, especially after last season.  Carson Palmer also came out with great promise, but he's been an average quarterback at best.

While many of the press gets giddy (remember, they also were giddy about Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell and somehow overlooked the raw power of Colin Kaepernick and the field generalship of a "too short" Russell Wilson) about the prospects for Barkley (one likened him to Joe Montana), the history of USC quarterbacks and of those who waited a season too long to get drafted higher calls into question whether Barkley is an "absolute steal" and whether he'll be a superstar in the NFL.

Right now, the psyche of the average Eagles' fan is a mess.  Michael Vick has been a disappointment, and at times Nick Foles looks wooden out there.  They have some talent at running back and wide receiver, drafted a promising tight end and might have a healthier offensive line.  But that line still needs work, and the defense is a mess.  Linebacking has never been a strong suit, a once-proud secondary draws more references to sieves than stone walls and the defensive line gets pushed around.   So what a better way than to get one's hopes up than to pump up the prospects of a fourth-round draft pick with an average NFL arm who might have been a victim of circumstances than to face the fact that Chip Kelly isn't Merlin, the lines need work and the identity of the #1 quarterback remains a mystery.

It's a lot to put on Matt Barkley or on any fourth-round draft pick.  It's especially a lot to put on a USC quarterback, too, given their history in the NFL in the past ten years.  Sure, Barkley could be the best of the lot, but that doesn't mean that the best of that lot turns into a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback.  Then again, Barkley is a pretty smart guy, and he probably has thought about all this, and he's saying the right things.  Playing for an offensive innovator like Chip Kelly is a great opportunity.  Playing for a team that got close but didn't get there and is desperate for a turnaround is another great opportunity.  Playing in a city that is looking for another star to latch onto -- someone not named Bynum, Utley, Vick or Pronger -- is yet another opportunity.  So, there is plenty of upside for Matt Barkley.

But Eagles' fans have to be patient.   Because right now Barkley is a fourth-round draft pick coming off a so-so year.  He might have potential, but as one-time Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty once said, "Potential means you ain't done it yet."  So everyone should modify his expectations about Barkley, how quickly he can emerge and what he can do.

Or else, he'll end up on a heap with John Reaves and Bobby Hoying, among others.

But right now, history, hope and hype are colliding in a football fan's version of nuclear fission.  What will emerge?  No one knows right now.  

But something tells me that history has a stronger gravity pulls than the combination of hope and hype.

And that's why they play the games.

When the Hometown Teams Are Not Faring Well. . .

Focus on the big events in your town.

Memorial Day weekend in Philadelphia brings the national lacrosse championships.  Philadelphia has become a much bigger lacrosse town than a few generations ago, when the Baltimore area, Long Island and New York's Central Valley dominated the lacrosse landscape.  The sport has grown, Philadelphia high school teams have gotten a lot better and routinely send kids to all major programs.  The event at Lincoln Financial Field promises to be a good one.

As if that weren't enough, an even rarer gem will surface at a more infrequent interval -- 35 years -- golf's U.S. Open.  It will return to Merion, the legendary course, on the week leading up to Father's Day.  That also promises to be a special event.

So, yes, the Phillies are aging, the Eagles are rebuilding and the 76ers and Flyers are non-entities, but at least there are some special events that will keep our interest, at least for a while.

Put differently, assuming that the Phillies will not be a contender, those events will keep people buzzing -- or should -- until July trade deadline talk and Eagles pre-season talk start to dominate water-cooler conversations.

Then again, astute observers, those who will put this analysis under a microscope, probably will disagree with me and they have a point.  The average Phillies and Eagles fan probably doesn't care much about college lacrosse and probably doesn't care a whole lot about the U.S. Open, either, so for them the countdown until either trade talk about the Phillies or the Eagles' start of training camp must be torture.  Five years ago, the conversations were much different.  Today, well, times for the fan of the local professional sports teams are pretty bleak.

But the lacrosse Final Fours will be an event, and the game is fast-paced, so. . .

A Tale of Two Seniors

One girl smiles a great deal whether she succeeds or fails.  She's enjoyed all-league status.  The other girl doesn't smile out there at all, has struggled during her career at the toughest position out there -- pitcher.  They are close friends.  While their softball careers to some degree diverged during their four years of high school, yesterday they found themselves in a contest that compelled both careers to diverge quickly.  And it's probably something they'll never forget.

On a hot, humid day on a beautiful field, a .500 team played a non-league game to end its season.  While is has some talent, the best teams in the state are located nearby, play in much tougher leagues, and eclipse -- in on-field accomplishments and media coverage -- whatever this team does.  The behemoths' rosters are populated with travel players who spend 11 months of the year honing their craft -- indoor fielding, indoor hitting, hitting coaches, pitching coaches, trips to warm-weather climates -- none of which most of this team's players do.  The team has a few travel players, a few who might have played a season of travel ball when they were very young, and a few good athletes.  But most of the girls don't play softball regularly enough to play at an elite level.

But that doesn't mean that they don't enjoy it -- the rituals, the inside jokes, the rallying at the mound the infielders do with a high-five after a putout, the relay throws and the occasional long bomb of a hit -- any less than the kids who play under the lights and make deep runs into state tournaments.  It may be true that their program isn't as committed to the things you have to do to become an elite program as the behemoths, but when they kids go out there, they try their best to win.  

The season had some ups and downs.  Basically, at .500, they beat who they should have beaten, didn't lose to anyone they shouldn't have, and lost to better teams, not really coming all that close except in one game at home where they blew a four-run lead after five innings.  That game -- early in a very short season -- turned out to be a pivotal one in terms of making the playoffs, which they did not.  

But all that said, they played through bitter cold days -- forty-five degrees with twenty-five mile-an-hour winds, rainy days (one so bad that the pitcher had trouble gripping the ball, although she did so without complaint)  -- and humid ones.  They played through streaks, they played through long innings for both teams, and they enjoyed it.  Playing a kids' game on nice fields where the stakes weren't for seeding in a travel tournament or whether a college coach or two might spot them -- but just for the love of the game.  

The last game of the season was a see-saw affair, populated with close plays, bad calls (memo to file:  don't trust an umpire who cannot see his feet), great throws, good catches, physical errors, mental error, wild pitches, timely hitting, bases on balls. . . and the home team's pitcher, an outgoing senior, a girl who tried mightily to find her control the prior season only to fare better this season -- unable to finish the game.   She battled, but both she and her opponent struggled, and the result was that a sophomore relieved the senior, and the game went into the bottom of the seventh with the home team trailing 13-12.  

A freshman led off, walked, stole second.  The team's best player, a sophomore, popped out.  The #3 hitter, the starting pitcher's best friend, the kid who always plays with a smile on her face at third base, who enjoys every minute, rapped a double to right center.  Not born with speed, she ended up on second base, having knocked in the tying run.  Her joy while standing on second was palpable.  A two-time all-league player at third base, she carried herself with a humility that was as admirable as it was inspiring.  The girls just loves to play.  A wild pitch moved her to third base.

And up came her best friend, the pitcher, who had moved to second base when the second baseman relieved her.  A girl who struggled all day and at times during the season, but who battled gamely.  

She took a pitch, fouled one off, took another ball, fouled a few off, tried to get her timing.  Some fouls were cue-shot numbers that the bat barely touched, while a few others were line drives that were pulled into foul territory because she was ahead of a pitch.  After about nine pitches, she smoked a line drive into right field, scoring the joyous runner on third.  

Game over.

Season over.

Careers over.

Two close friends.  On a team that probably lost as many as it won (if not more), during their careers.   One had a lot of success during her career; the other had probably struggled more than she succeeded.  A program that once dominated its league, but does not do so any longer, as other schools have found one or two travel pitchers with blazing speed that most hitters in this league cannot catch up with.  But in the end, how much does it all matter?  They built character, they revealed it, they showed their frustration, but they continued to play, they laughed at times, and for them it didn't matter that they weren't in elite travel programs or on high school teams that the press flocks to.  

They play, purely, because they love the game.  They liked playing catch with their parents and siblings from the time when they were little.  They liked hanging out with friends they made on the team.  And they liked what they could accomplish individually with a hit, a catch or a throw, or, as a team, when on a given day different people in the lineup could contribute to a victory.

But on this particular day, everyone contributed.  A right fielder who sat on the bench most of the season hit a liner that knocked in two runs late in the game.  The second baseman leaped to her right, stole a double out of the air and turned it into a double play.  The shortstop who went into the hole and took away a single.  The center fielder who made a running catch in the top of the last inning to save a hit.  Everyone seemed to do something.

And all that led to the bottom of the seventh and two good friends.

One knocked in the tying run and then scored the winning run.  The other knocked in that run.

In four, five months they'll be off to different colleges to begin the next chapter in their lives.  

But they always will have this day, fitting punctuation to their high school careers, evidence of their ability and an important part of the foundation of who they are, something to fortify them when they need it, and to inspire them that when they're down and behind, they can pick themselves up an finish with a flourish.

Roger Kahn once wrote that fans will remember who won, who lost, and how the weather was.

For these two girls, their families and their friends, they'll remember a whole lot more.

It might not have been a playoff game, a league championship or a state playoff game.

No, it was none of that.

It was a whole lot more.

Succession Planning, Premiership Style

There's no secret to why Man U keeps on winning. 

They know what they want, and they go get it.

In this case, just a day after Sir Alex Ferguson told the world that he's retiring, they hired the man that everyone expected they would -- Everton's manager, David Moyes.  While Everton hasn't had the resources to be a perennial contender, Moyes has done the best he could with the rosters he's had. 

And that's been, well, pretty well.  So, to quote the lyrics of a famous Liverpudlian:  "Imagine. . .." 

Give Moyes the talent, the prognosticators believe, and Moyes will help guide Man U to a continued level of excellence.

Man U didn't announce Ferguson's retirement and keep the whole world guessing who they would hire.  They didn't announce his retirement without a specific plan of action in mind.  They knew who they wanted, and they got him.

With much less drama, say, than Chelsea and even Tottenham. 

Perhaps that's why Man U -- whoever owns them -- has been as successful as they've been.

The Phil Jackson/Red Auerbach of International Soccer is Retiring

Sir Alex Ferguson, mentor of Manchester United, is retiring after this season.

Many American fans haven't heard of him.  Perhaps they've heard of Man U, but then again, perhaps not.  To put it in perspective, as best as I can, think New York Yankees, and think a combination of Casey Stengel and Joe McCarthy in terms of results.  Then again, if you're younger than say 65, the names Stengel and McCarthy won't mean much to you, either. 

Man U is the premier international soccer team brand (with apologies to Barcelona, Real Madrid, and, yes, even my favorite, Arsenal).

Alex Ferguson is a huge part of that brand.

This is big news.

He will be a tough act to follow.

Attention 14U Travel Softball Coaches -- Player Looking for Team

"I just got relocated from California and am looking for a team for my daughter.  She's a 13 year-old, finishing 7th grade, is 5'10", has home run power, but her passion is pitching.  She throws now in the low-to-mid 50's, can locate a fastball, change up, screwball and drop curve and is working on a rise ball.  We live in the Mercer/Bucks area, and we'd like to find an "A" travel team for her to compete on this summer.   We literally just arrived, so I'd be interested in any information you can share with me.  Thank you."

Interested?

I always wanted to post something like that on the regional softball message boards, making bets with my friends as to the "over and under" as to how many travel programs and then, within programs, how many travel coaches would contact me about, perhaps, the Sidd Finch of travel softball players.  After all, sending an e-mail doesn't cost much, although you must figure that if a dad had that elite a travel player, he'd have done his research and figured out which programs to contact.  Then again, all programs have their politics, their protected players, etc., but, then again, it would seem that most coaches would drop their worst pitcher to pick up a player like this.

And what does that say about travel programs?  About travel coaches?  About loyalty to organizations or the lack thereof?  Many would drop their best friend's kid if they could get a meal ticket like this who could help the team fare better on Saturdays (seeding day) and play deeper into Sundays (i.e., the more games you win, the better).  Many would take a kid with a 50-mile commute who couldn't practice with the team during weekdays instead of a neighborhood kid who practices hard if the player is a difference maker.  The reasoning?  "Everyone does it."  And since when is that a good reason?

The player, of course, does not exist, at least not that I know of.  Given that there are about 310 million people in the U.S., it stands to reason that some girl somewhere moved to a softball-mad area, has skills and is looking for an elite team.  My advice to the parents is to protect your player if she's that good and try to get on the coaching staff.

But if she did exist. . . what would the "over and under" be?  10 teams?  30 teams?