FOOTBALL VOID

By Your Athletic Supporter, Jack Strap

I've been looking for sporting events to fill the FOOTBALL VOID with mixed results.

Basketball would be the natural filler for me, but in the NBA my team--the 76ers continue to be less than mediocre. The NBA All-Star weekend was disappointing overall with a weak slam dunk field (thought Lebron was going to spice that up?), a "Celebrity" Game where Michael Rapaport (who?) was the MVP with 4 points, H-O-R-S-E, and the most interesting thing about the NBA game was that they got over 100,000 fans in Dallas Stadium.

I've been getting more interested in College Basketball with March Madness on the way, especially in the Big East where Villanova (always want the Big 5 teams to do well) & Syracuse are at the top, although Georgetown recently beat Nova and this week almost finished a great comeback vs. Cuse. No March Madness ramifications, but We Are! Penn State! has won 2 Big 10 games in a row including beating Michigan (always enjoy beating the Wolverines in anything) yesterday.

Having worked for Penske at one time, I'm a casual fan of auto racing and tuned in to see Danica "Go Daddy" Patrick's NASCAR debut in-process last week just as she crashed out & this week she finished, but near the rear--3 laps behind the winner. I'm a "Tiger" golf fan, so his "sex addiction" has eliminated that as a possibility. Also Tennis never really captivates me until Wimbledon. Finally, I've not really gotten into the NHL (besides the Winter Classics which are very cool) since their Strike/Lockout.

This year we have the Winter Olympics to help with the FOOTBALL VOID. Our hometown hero, Allison Baver lost last night in one of her speed skating events, but will be watching as she still has a couple more shots at medals. Right now on ESPN, there's a 1980 Miracle on Ice (I was at a concert at Shippensburg when they announced that stunning upset of the Russkies) story that just got me warmed up for tonight's Team USA vs. Team Canada match-up, as we try to beat Oh Canada in the Olympics for the 1st time since 1960 (yes, 1960) which was actually The First Miracle on Ice. I know it's only a preliminary round game, but gotta fill the FOOTBALL VOID.

Donyell Marshall is Homeward Bound

While basketball, specifically the "professional" variety, gets very little attention on this blog I wanted take some space to talk about Donyell Marshall's homecoming of sorts. Marshall, a Reading High School graduate, is set to sign a 1-year deal worth $1.26 million (10-year veteran's minimum) with the Philadelphia 76ers. After graduating from Reading High, he attended the University of Connecticut and was named the unanimous Big East Player of the Year following the 1993-1994 season. He left college early and entered the 1994 NBA Draft and was selected 4th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves. However 40 games into his rookie seasons the Timberwolves shipped him off to the Golden State Warriors, where he would play for 5.5 seasons. He played 2 seasons with the Utah Jazz, and 1.5 with both the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors. He started the 2007-2008 season in Cleveland, where he signed prior to the 2005-2006 season, but was eventually traded to the now defunct Seattle SuperSonics. Marshall was released by the displaced SuperSonics franchise, now located in Oklahoma City, this summer.

For his career, Marshall has played in 932 games with 422 starts averaging 26.7 minutes/game along with 11.4 points/game, 1.4 assists/game, and 6.8 rebounds/game. Marshall never developed into the player scouts thought he would be but he can provide some push from the bench. This could be Marshall's last year in the NBA and it is fitting taht he got to end it for the team closest to his home town. Good luck in Philly, Donyell.

I got to meet Donyell Marshall in the summer of 1994, a few weeks prior to the NBA Draft. The local newspapers and broadcasts were hyping him for a while and my father and I happened to run into him at Red Caboose Park in West Lawn, PA while attending some summer outdoor basketball league games. Being only 9 at the time I was a bit scared to ask for his autograph but I finally did and have the mint, signe basketball at home to this day.

Gregg Doyel added to my hate list

Gregg Doyel you are now on the list. Doyel, a national columnist from CBS SportsLine, decided to stick his nose in other peoples business last Thursday when he decided to write about Jimmy Rollins' remarks on Philadelphia fans being "front-runners". Here is the introduction of the slander known as "journalism" by Doyel:

Tough? My ass. Philly fans aren't tough. Philly fans are exactly what Jimmy Rollins said they are. They're front-runners.

Which means they're soft.

All front-runners are, by definition, soft. A front-runner is gutless. A front-runner gets behind a winner, sure, but only gets on a loser. A front-runner takes the easy road. That's what a front-runner does.

And so this is what Philly fans did Tuesday night when the Phillies returned to town for the first time since Rollins made his front-runner remark a week earlier. They showed their soft side.

They booed him.

You babies.

Look, Philly fans, you can't have it both ways. If you're going to dish it, you have to be able to take it. Flick a player in the nose all you want, but when one of them flicks you back, you have to smirk and let him know it didn't hurt. Otherwise, you're nothing but a schoolyard bully -- strong because you have all that size, but weak as soon as someone fights back.

Rollins fought back, and Philly, the tough town that it is, cried its eyes out.

You babies? Doyel, WTF?!?! Why is Doyel so bitter? And why the hell is he bashing a town like this that he has never lived in? Gregg Doyel has lived in Hawai'i, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida. Where does he get off ripping a city that he collectively knows nothing about? The entire article is swill. Go ahead an read it yourself.

Let's tackle a few points here.

1. Gregg Doyel uses rash generalizations throughout this column - He collectively calls all Philadelphia fans and city-dwellers "front-runners", "babies", "soft", and "idiots". How does he keep his job?
2. He blames the fans for teams ineptness in baseball, basketball, football and hockey...with no support of that notion

   Right, Philly fans? You idiots. There are lots of reasons your town hasn't won a championship in football, baseball or basketball since 1983 (ArenaBowl doesn't count), and why the Phillies specifically have won a single World Series (1980) in 124 years in the big leagues -- and you, the Philly fan, are one of them.

3. The whole "front-runner" thing should be addressed, for both Rollins and Doyel.

Phillies
Season 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
NL East 2^nd 2^nd 2^nd 1^st 2^nd
Attendance 4^th 13^th 11^th 8^th 4^th

Flyers
Season 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Atlantic 1^st N/A 2^nd 5^th 4^th
Attendance 4^th N/A 4^th 7^th 4^th

Eagles
Season 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
NFC East 1^st 1^st 4^th 1^st 4^th
Attendance 17^th 17^th 16^th 13^th 18^th

76ers
Season 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Atlantic 5^th 2^nd 2^nd 3^rd 3^rd
Attendance 4^th 10^th 21^st 29^th 23^rd

A few things. What I am looking for is consistency, not the ranking. The Eagles are a great example. They rank in the bottom half in means of overall home attendance but this can be attributed to the stadium size. There are 15 stadiums larger than Lincoln Financial Field. The Linc holds ~68,500. They have been over 100% capacity since 2003, the year the stadium opened. In contrast, the Redskins stadium, FedEx Field, holds a capacity of ~80,000. That means Washington is capable of adding an additional 11,500 bodies for every home game. That's over 100,000 more people if every game is a sell out. So it is indeed unfair to look at the attendance rank. Look at the number being consistent.

The only team that is extremely up and down - and arguably the team that garners the least amount of attention from Philly fans - is the 76ers. Of all Philly sports teams they seem to house the most "front-runner" fans. Attendance peaked at 4th in 2003 but was second-to-last in 2006. You won't see that from any other Philly team, specifically the Flyers and Eagles. You may think that each of those teams is consistently good and these numbers are irrelevant. To the contrary. The Flyers have experienced their worst season in history recently and the Eagles finished last in the division 2 out of the last 3 years. What did the fans have to say about that? WE SUPPORT YOU. The Eagles posted their 2nd best attendance record in the last 5 seasons in 2005, despite finishing in last place in the NFC East. The Flyers are the model of consistency. Through the last 5 seasons, the Flyers have been had the 4th best attendance record three times. During the worst season in franchise history the Flyers still finished 7th. 7th! Again, we are looking at consistency, not the rank.

It is hard to quantify what would be a "front-runner" jump in attendance. For baseball I'd like to think that a +/- of 3 ranks is acceptable. A +/- of 4 to 7 is a little shady. And a +/- of 8 or 9 is bandwagon territory. +/- of 10 or more definitely classifies the group as "front-runnging". Unfortunately the Phillies fans in 2005, dropping 9 spots. However it is a tad unusual and it may be because 2005 was an anomaly (however not entirely sure because I didn't look past 2004). Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004 and the people were excited for the new team and the new stadium. The opening of CBP may have brought an abnormal amount of fans. I think the Phillies, on average at CBP, should finish between 7th and 11th in attendance rank. Putting 2004 into context the change in attendance from 2004 to 2005 is a bit more reasonable albeit a bit shady.

"Front-runners" and "bandwagoners" are unavoidable. They dwell in every city. However, Gregg Doyel's speaks as if this only happens in Philadelphia, which is bull. Philadelphia actually looks like a city of consistency when it comes to 75% of sport teams (sorry 76ers). Perhaps the city is just a team steeped with tradition (baseball) and the craving of grittier play (football, hockey), than finesse and conditioning (basketball).

The slander that Doyel provides is absolutely uncalled for and unnecessary. People love to hate on Philadelphia, for whatever reason. Perhaps its because the fans are blue-collared, die-hards that call it as it is. They don't hide their emotions nor do they sugar coat anything, for better or worse. Sure there are some that are out of line but just as "front-runners" exist in every city, so does the inappropriate fan. I have encountered it in Pittsburgh. I encountered it at the Orange Bowl. I even got the finger from an elderly lady in Hartford. Philadelphia fans are no different than any other city. Doyel, you're out of line.

P.S. - This post doesn't even address the question of whether it is right or wrong to boo a professional athlete. Short and sweet: it is right to do so in the right context and for the right reasons, i.e. a millionaire not performing to his abilities.

Out of Touch/Out of Reach

Hey everyone. Sorry it's been a while since I posted. I just moved to West Lafayette, IN with my fiancee and am finally settled in. I start work tomorrow. Anyway...

It's going to be tough for me to keep up with everything related to my teams. I'm now in the Mid-West. Keeping track of the Phillies/Flyers/Sixers were hard enough at Penn State since I didn't have Comcast (FSN-Pittsburgh? I don't give a tiny rats ass). The Dolphins are always hard to follow whether I'm in PA or IN. Now I won't even have Penn State stuff rammed down my throat. So I'm going to be relying even more on the internet and SportsCenter. It comes at a bad time since the Phillies are in the middle of a pennant race, and the Dolphins and PSU are preparing for kickoff. I'm out of touch. If anyone know how I can watch Phillies/Dolphins/Penn State games in Indiana let me know.

And out of reach. That would be what all my teams will be experiencing with their ultimate goals when their seasons end.

Phillies - probably will fall short of the wild card as a result of injuries/poor pitching
Penn State - solid, strong team but not elite; could win the Big 10...but won't
Dolphins - WILL surprise people this year by improving on last years record, possibly by 3 games...which still only gets them to 9-7; so no playoffs for a 6th straight year
Flyers - definitely will be improved (hard not to be), most likely squeeze into the playoffs between the 5-8 seeds; Lord Stanley's Cup will have to wait another year
Sixers - their 2nd half 'surge' this past year cost them a shot at Oden & Durant; solid draft but still a few years away from contending again; playoffs a long shot

Ugh. Doesn't look good. PSU football will be the only bright spot but even if they go 10-2 and play in a nice bowl game (Capital One, Outback again) it's not in the Big Easy or Pasadena. Bring on next summer...already?