No April Fools In Philly
After the jump, Tony Carpenter enjoys the breezes of a near perfect April .
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, SIXERS…9, 8, 76’ERS: What a week to be a Philadelphia sports fan! Who would have thought that in April all 4 Philly teams would actually be relevant? This pretty much never happens so we all should enjoy it while it lasts. Try to forget about the fact that it will all come crashing down around us leaving us once again in the pit of despair that is Philadelphia sports fandom. First, the Sixers take their surprising 1-0 lead back to The Palace at Auburn Hills to face the Pistons in game 2. On paper and everywhere else, the Sixers are outmatched in this series. The Pistons are a veteran team with proven talent and match up favorably against the Sixers at nearly every position, but as the cliché goes, anything can happen in the playoffs. A Sixers win tonight would bring back the excitement that we can all remember from 2001, minus of course the off the court excitement that only Allen Iverson could provide.
WHAT THE FUCK IS A “HAB”, ANYWAY?: Meanwhile, the Flyers took their hands off of their own throats long enough to take the series from the surging Capitals in an overtime victory in Washington. They tried to choke completely and lose the series after being up 3-1, but managed to pull it out in dramatic fashion. Next up is the Montreal Canadiens, who despite being from Canada insist on misspelling “Canadians” and have the inexplicable nickname, “Habs”. In addition to being Canadian, which gives them an unfair advantage to begin with, they are also the top team in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers’ run will most likely end at the hands of the Candiens but the fact that they managed to win a playoff series for the first time since 2004 means that hockey is now officially back in Philadelphia. Washington fans were of course gracious in their defeat, and were kind enough to hit Jeff Carter with a beer bottle during his post game interview. Had this happened in Philly, the national sports media would use it as a reason to trot out the tired snowballs and Santa Claus stories to once again cast the Philadelphia fan as a out of control drunken buffoon. Since it happened in Washington, eh, no big deal.
NAME THAT HOWARD: The Rollins-less Phillies continue on their road trip and will be in Milwaukee to face the Brewers tonight following their come from behind win against the Rockies last night. Despite the fact that they are without Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino that makes 3 in a row for the Phillies for the first time this year, thanks mainly to the strong performances out of Chutley and Pat “The Bat”. They have also managed to break the .500 mark for the first time this year! If they can continue to score more runs than Charlie Manuel can give away with questionable decisions, they should be fine provided JRoll recovers fully from his ankle sprain and Ryan Howard remembers how to hit a baseball. I’m thinking that what Howard is missing is a snappy nickname. Any ideas what that could be? Submit them to the comments and we’ll pick the best one to be the official/unofficial Ryan Howard Nickname.
“Name me please!”
WHAT’S ON TAP FOR THE DRAFT?: It’s Draft Day again for the NFL this Saturday, and that could only mean one thing. The Eagles will disappoint everyone by picking an O-Lineman that no one has ever heard of that won’t play his rookie season so it doesn’t really matter anyway instead of picking an impact wide receiver like everyone wants them to. They will also drive everyone in this city absolutely fucking nuts for the rest of the off season by refusing to add said wide receiver insisting that the group of mediocre talents that they have is good enough, while everyone knows they are most certainly not. But get used to because, they are not going to draft a receiver nor are they going to give up anything more than a bag of footballs to trade for one. Why would a team that likes to throw the ball 70% of the time actually want someone for McNabb to throw it to anyway? Fuck that, its just too easy.
Tony Carpenter’s “The Sportin’ Life” now appears on Philebrity each Wednesday.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
>>have the inexplicable nickname, “Habs”.
The Habs nickname comes from “Les Habitants,” which means people of the land/rural people/locals/canadian hicks from the sticks…I think it was first used as an insult, but now it’s loved.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
>> who despite being from Canada insist on misspelling “Canadians”
this is the proper French spelling. Like “Je suis Americain.” or “Philadelphie” for Philadelphia. Or was this just to be funny?
>>In addition to being Canadian, which gives them an unfair advantage to begin with
Last time I checked, more than 3/4 of the Flyers roster is Canadian. Save for a few Scandinavians and a kid from Pittsburgh. Unclear on the so-called advantage that the Habs have based on this.
Also, Boston just took MTL to a 7 game series…and they were the 8th ranked team in the conference. The Flyers managed to eke out a 6th place position, granted through some missteps on behalf of the Penguins and Carolina, but still. Don’t rule anything out just yet.