My Sports Tees And Miscellaneous Caps, Part 1

A while back I counted the number of t-shirts (and jerseys as well) in my closet from the local sports teams and posted it on Facebook. The count is now updated as I bought another one recently: 41 Phillies, 10 Eagles, 12 Flyers (and Phantoms, from before they moved to upstate New York and back down to Lehigh Valley), and only 2 from the 76ers. A couple of them are over 20 years old (one looks it), while most of the rest are from around 2000 or later. I've decided to post pics of all of them, as well as my baseball caps (not all of them are sports-related, and I don't yet have a count). So over the next few weeks, assuming I keep up, you'll be seeing them.

I'm sure most of them don't have interesting stories or anything, but if I can remember anything I'll mention it.

Also, now I'm really regretting not keeping the old shirts and caps I had from the Phillies World Series championship in 1980 and Eagles first Super Bowl appearance a few months later.

So...

This is one that I bought somewhat recently. Not sure where. It's one of those shirts that's made of material designed to keep you dry when it's hot. I wore it the other day just because I hadn't worn it before and it was still pretty hot out. (Generally I wear the sports shirts only if I'm going to a game, or for every game the Eagles play and for every playoff game of any team.) Seeing as how it's 2XL and I've lost weight, though, I'm not sure the material would've made a difference even if I had been running around performing amazing athletic feats.

And this is the one I wore to Tuesday night's game that I teased online, asking if anyone could guess the last word in the sentence. This was from a few years ago when the Phils were just dipping into social media. They held what I'm sure was their first social media-related ticket promotion: with a code from Twitter, etc., you got an offer for a ticket in the Rooftop Bleachers (not the greatest view), this t-shirt (front and back depicted), and I think a food and beverage credit as well, all for $20 or $25.

This is my most recent purchase. $7 at Marshalls.

This one I've had for many years. I thought I'd share it since Pat Burrell was added to the Phillies' Wall of Fame last weekend. It's a prime example of my Sports Shirt Jinx: if I buy a shirt of a specific player, either he leaves via trade or free agency, or he gets hurt/slumps badly and his career goes downhill. That started, if I recall, with my Scott Rolen t-shirt (which I no longer own). I will probably buy a Cole Hamels t-shirt when they're marked down to $10 or less. Consider it a retroactive jinx, but it's okay as he'll get on the Wall of Fame quickly.



And finally, this is one I purchased a while back (I think at Modells, definitely at a discount or clearance price) but never wore, until last night's game. Size: Large. I can finally fit into an L again (as long as they aren't a really tight cut)!

Holy Cow, A Sports Blog Post!

I was planning to write a little post about the Eagles, with their season beginning tomorrow and all, but events have inspired me to make this post about a few different topics.

For one, the Phillies are 6 1/2 games behind St. Louis for the second NL Wild Card because the Cards lost while the Phils, after a long delay, were rained out. People think of last year, when other teams made huge comebacks to get into the playoffs -- that very same St. Louis team not only got in, but eliminated the Phillies and won the World Series -- and think that the Phils could do the same.

But it's so extremely unlikely. The Phils have to pass not only the Cards, but the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Pirates and Brewers. The Pirates are fading fast. (Sorry, Kurt.) They're 9-19 over the last month. But the Brewers are on fire, 15-4 in their last 19. In addition, the Phils have no games left against any of these teams, which means even if they finish strong, they'll have to rely on all of these other teams losing enough games to get the Phils in. So there's really no reason at this point to get excited.

On another baseball note, normally I'd enjoy a team that's been an underdog for so long making a strong run at a championship. But then there's the Washington Nationals. From this spring's sad attempt to keep Phils fans out of their ballpark, to Jayson Werth's various comments since he left town, to their butthead general manager whining like a baby when Cole Hamels hit their hyped rookie Bryce Harper with a pitch, to their continued mediocre attendance despite a new ballpark and a winning team, I've developed a bit of a dislike for the Nats.

And the last straw is how they've completely mishandled Stephen Strasburg.

Worrying About The Phils?

It's been a while since I've said a whole lot in depth about the Phillies, so let's do so now, in a point-counterpoint deal as my mind just goes back and forth with their issues...

Point: The Phils are 55-33, the best record in the majors.
Counterpoint: They had the best record last season, and look where it got them.

Point: The offense continues to struggle way too often. Of their 88 games going into this weekend's series with Atlanta, the last three games before the All-Star break, they've scored fewer than four runs in 46 of them. That's over half, if you're math-challenged.
Counterpoint: In those 46 games they're 18-28. That's a .391 win percentage, which is much better than most, if not all, teams. That's a testament to the performances of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. In their other 42 games, the ones where they've hit the magic four-run target, they're 37-5 (with two of those losses coming this week, oddly enough).

Point: That rotation is so formidable.
Counterpoint: If the offense continues to put pressure on them to be excellent instead of merely good so often, might they not weaken just enough so that, come October, they're not quite as excellent as they need to be? And with Roy Oswalt out with his back problem and Joe Blanton (remember him?) not yet ready to return, the Phils have to keep Kyle Kendrick in the rotation along with youngster Vance Worley. (By the way, with all the praise of Worley, how do we know that Worley 2011 isn't Kendrick 2007 -- promising now but ultimately not all that great?)

Point: The hitters who have been slumping so much will come around. And they'll get a big right-handed bat at the trade deadline to help protect Ryan Howard.

My Miserable Night At The Phillies

Tonight the Phillies rolled to a 7-0 lead over the New York Mets after 3 innings, only to see that lead disappear in the next two Mets at-bats against Joe Blanton. Then the Phils regained the lead and went on to a 10-7 win. If only there had been that kind of excitement last night, when I was at the game. Or any excitement at all, really. More on that in a moment. First, this public service announcement:

Dear Snapple: please don't give away free samples of your product outside a subway station near a stadium which doesn't allow glass bottles inside. As for you, people of America, you don't have to take every free sample someone offers you. I didn't take a Snapple before the game because I knew I couldn't take the bottle inside. I didn't take a free Powerade (outside the ballpark) after the game because I was frozen. I didn't take a Sun Drop (again, at the subway) after the game because, besides the cold, I had no idea what the hell it was.

So the game was pretty dreadful -- Cole Hamels gave up 6 runs in the third inning and was removed to a chorus of boos as the Mets went on to a 7-1 win. The volume of the booing was a real surprise, considering it was his first start of the year. And it wasn't like he was really crushed -- the Mets basically had a bunch of singles, with a couple of walks mixed in, and a number of them were softly hit and found a hole. One was a bunt single. Unfortunately, the first and last hits of the inning were by the Mets' pitcher, Chris Young. That's a big no-no.

But what was worse was the cold.

From 2010 To 2011

Since I'm starting this before midnight and will continue on it after midnight, this will become the blog post that took two years to write! (And it's definitely the post with more links than any other.)

I suppose I could just repeat most of what I wrote at this time a year ago. Much of it still applies, and certainly my closing advice -- "(I)f you want your life to change, do it. Don't just talk about it. Do it. Do it, do it, do it. Stop talking about it and DO IT" -- is still pretty smart, if I do say so myself. But unlike last year, I feel like looking back a little tonight.

In January I learned that there was a full-length version of the "Mad Men" theme. I started doing volunteer work, doing tax returns with the Campaign for Working Families. I took a shot at Perez Hilton (an easy target). I complained about politicians. (Haven't we all? And it continued all year.) I scooped the local media with the story of former Phillies coach Steve Smith's participation in "The Amazing Race." (And ended up doing recaps of the season that got more detailed as it went on, even after Smith and his daughter were eliminated.)

February brought me lots of snow and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. I found out that "Daria" was being relased on DVD (I eventually bought it when the price was seriously marked down.) I compared Tiger Woods to Andy Reid(!). And my scoop of the media re: Steve Smith and "The Amazing Race" was acknowledged in the newspaper!

Phils Sign Some Guy. Something Lee. Sounds Familiar...

I was going to write a "MixBlog" post touching on a few different things. I may still do that tomorrow. The following paragraph is something I planned to mention...

So there are these rumors going around that the Phillies are still in the running to sign Cliff Lee. It's ridiculous that people are actually getting their hopes up. How can the Phillies sign Lee if they couldn't sign Jayson Werth, whose pricey new deal still isn't going to earn him as much as Lee? The Phillies traded Lee a year ago because they didn't think they'd be able to sign him to a long-term deal. The Yankees have already made their typical big-money offer, and the Rangers are really trying to keep him in Texas. If the Phils didn't want to give Werth more than four years, and they definitely don't want to give pitchers such long-term deals, and Lee has been angling for five or more years, why anyone is getting excited about this "news" is beyond my comprehension.

Oops.

They got the back page online before 2 a.m. Impressive.

Friday At The Phillies: Life Is (Sort Of) Tweet

There I was, sitting on one of those metal benches, with a crappy view of the game and annoying people around me, and I had no way to complain to you all!

Despite a bout of insomnia Thursday night, with only about a 3-hour nap Friday morning, I got myself to Citizens Bank Park for Friday's Phillies game vs. Milwaukee. As part of the Social Media promotion I previously mentioned, I got my special t-shirt (see photo at left). I got my $10 food/merchandise credit that paid for my jumbo hot dog and large diet soda -- well, not quite since it actually cost $10.25 -- and made my way to the Rooftop Bleachers.

The view from there is not really good. I think it's the worst place of all to see a game at CBP (see photo at right). Sitting above and behind Ashburn Alley, beyond the outfield fences, not only can you not see the area of the outfield closest to the fences, but the brick wall batters' eye in center field (one edge of it is in the bottom right corner of the photo) blocks even more of the view. And where I was, there's a light pole obstructing a bit of the view as well. Plus there are metal benches instead of individual seats.

All of this I knew already, even having never sat there before. Just walking by the area it was pretty obvious that it's not a prime location. The Phils first tried to market the Rooftop Bleachers just to groups, but now they sell individual game tickets and run special promotions (the Social Media one, singles nights, etc.) as well. Sitting there just confirmed what I already knew.

I figured that, being Social Media night, I'd be sending regular updates on Twitter, including the photos you see on this page. I thought I'd do score updates, mention the annoying people sitting around me saying and doing dumb things, and generally having fun. I figured wrong.

Phillies: Nudity And Possible Bad News

Before we get to the bad news, a little bit of frivolity. The Fightins, one of the big Phillies blogs, has a screen capture of an image from a locker room interview with Jamie Moyer on NBC10 yesterday. Check out the lower left-hand corner of the image: it's a rear view of a naked Cole Hamels. At least I assume that those who saw it live or via TiVo or DVR have made an accurate identification, because it's not obvious just from that image.

I wonder if Heidi Hamels likes her husband's ass as much as Jennifer Utley likes Chase's?

Speaking of Chase Utley, he took himself out of tonight's game, a 7-3 loss at Cincinnati, before he batted in the 9th inning. He's going to have an MRI on his left thumb tomorrow. He apparently hurt it sliding into second base in the 4th inning. Just when he's started hitting well again, and the team has gotten on a bit of a roll, winning 5 of 6 since their little hiccup against Minnesota...whether he is out for a while or is just hampered and begins slumping again, either way it's not a good situation for the Phils.

Are The Phils Finally Back On Track?

Interleague play has never been very kind to the Phillies (if you don't count the 2008 World Series, of course), but their recent swoon may finally be over as they've now won 3 out of 4 against two AL East powers. After a pair of drubbings by the Boston Red Sox to begin the road trip that ended tonight, the Phils got another strong start by Cole Hamels to win the finale at Fenway. Things looked bleak after the New York Yankees roughed up Roy Halladay on Tuesday. The Phils, losers of 15 of their last 21, have fallen into third place in the NL East and had Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick starting the next two nights. Both struggled in their last starts, with the word "struggle" being an understatement in Moyer's case: 9 runs in one-plus inning.

But Moyer got early offensive support and pitched eight very fine innings as the Phils won 6-3 last night. Moyer allowed just three hits, two of them solo homers. Kendrick went seven tonight, allowing just one run in the 7-1 win, and in a way his performance might have been even more impressive than Moyer's. While the Phils scored all 6 of their runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings last night, tonight the game was scoreless until the 4th. The Yankees had two on with one out in the 2nd. Kendrick has shown a propensity to lose his composure at times like this, but he got out of the inning without any damage.

The Chronicles Of Birthday: The Glee, The Flyers And The Phillies

As Fox was kind enough to air the special "The Power of Madonna" episode of "Glee" on my birthday, I decided to a) watch it and b) drink. I watched the show at Tabu Lounge and Sports Bar, a new hotspot in the Gayborhood (but one where everyone is welcome), in their lounge on their second-floor, while missing the end of the Phillies and Flyers games (which were playing on the TVs on the first floor). At the time I went upstairs for the show, the Phillies had just scored a run in the 5th to take a 2-0 lead over Atlanta, and the Flyers were trailing the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

So how did things turn out?

"Glee" was fabulous. It was a love letter to Madonna, at times so much as to make me wonder if she had script approval. Besides the musical numbers, the rest of the show was enjoyable as well. However, I find myself wondering if I am truly finally getting into the spirit of "Glee" or if I was swayed by the Madonna influence and/or the alcohol.

Phils: Great Start, But...Phanatic: Great. Period.

It occurs to me that I haven't discussed my baseball team since the season started. There are lots of good things happening with the Phillies...and some things that are bad not so good.

Good: The Phillies are off to a 7-1 start, their best start since 1993. After the last few years of poor starts, this is a refreshing change.
Not So Good: All of their games have been against woeful Washington and hideous Houston (who still hasn't won a game).

Good: The Phillies are scoring runs in bunches. In their 8 games they've scored 11, 8, 5, 8, 9, 2, 7 and 14.
Not So Good: Again, all of this is against Washington and Houston.

Good: In the only game they didn't score 5 or more, the Phils still won 2-1 thanks to Roy Halladay, who pitched a complete game. He's won both of his starts, allowing just one earned run in 16 innings, walking 2 and striking out 17. Halladay has completely lived up to his reputation so far. J.A. Happ won his first start as well without allowing a run...
Not So Good: ...but Happ was in and out of trouble. He only lasted 5-plus innings, throwing 104 pitches. And the rest of the rotation has fallen far short of Halladay's excellence.

Phillies: Here They Come To Save The Day

It's been a long, tough winter. Budget crises at every level of government, not to mention in millions of households. The absurd path to something resembling health-care reform. The Pope and his church continuing to minimize the importance of doing something about the child molesters in their ranks. The earthquake in Haiti. The horror that is this season's American Idol. A slut named Tiger Woods. "From Paris With Love."

And in more "important" areas locally, a pro football team that ended the 2009 season in heinous fashion and looks to spend 2010 falling fast into mediocrity, a pro basketball team that fell fast from mediocrity into incompetence (but no one cares anyway) and a pro hockey team that was touted as a championship contender, only to fall into a desperate fight to barely make the playoffs so they can be first-round cannon fodder. Speaking of stuff falling, let's not forget Snowpocaplypse, Snowmageddon and Snowverkill.

Enough bad news. Winter, like Donovan McNabb, is gone. Spring has sprung. You can tell because the Phanatic (as you can tell by the photo above, taken on Wednesday) has gone red for a week. The Phillies are back! The 2010 season starts Monday at 1 pm in Washington, with Roy Halladay making his Phils debut. Halladay! Celebrate! Now we've got Roy Halladay...and it's time to celebrate...okay, no more channeling my inner Madonna.

Phillies Post-mortem

If you're wondering how I'm feeling in the wake of the Phillies' World Series loss at the hands of the Evil Empire, to be honest the cold I'm currently battling feels worse -- and it isn't that severe a cold.

The 2009 Phillies were a team whose bullpen was beset by injuries and inconsistency; whose young pitching ace apparently spent the offseason making stupid commercials for Comcast instead of working out; whose other starting pitchers at the beginning of the season were serving up runs at a ridiculous pace; whose leadoff hitter -- the so-called catalyst -- spent three months in a hitting "slump" (a week or two is a slump; half a season is a disaster); whose pinch-hitters were feeble pretty much all year; whose high-priced new outfielder got hurt and essentially stopped producing on offense after the All-Star break.

A team with such problems has no business contending, let alone winning the NL East for the third consecutive season and appearing in the World Series in back-to-back years for the first time in franchise history, with one championship to boot. So who can feel that bad that they lost the World Series to a team that isn't capable of winning without spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy up every possible player on the market?

So here's to the 2009 Phillies. It was quite a ride. Actually, the last three years combined have been quite a ride -- no Phillies team has ever accomplished this much over a three-year period -- and this particular one doesn't have to end just yet. With so many key players locked into contracts for at least the next year or two, if the Phils make the proper moves to shore up some weaknesses there's no reason they won't be back in the World Series again in 2010. The deal to get Cliff Lee prior to the trade deadline, without giving up their most promising minor league talent, indicates that such retooling is in capable hands. What needs to be done? Glad you asked...

The bullpen: The struggles of Brad Lidge, whether due to knee problems or not, and the multiple absences of J.C. Romero (suspension and injury) had a domino effect on the rest of the relief corps. They need Romero for the full season as the lefthanded set-up option, especially if fellow lefty Scott Eyre retires. More importantly, they need Lidge to return to something close to 2008 form -- or they need Ryan Madson to step up and become consistent enough to take Lidge's place.

The starters: Not much change here. Cliff Lee stabilized the rotation. J.A. Happ may end up as NL Rookie of the Year. Despite his 2009 problems, Cole Hamels isn't going anywhere. I think Joe Blanton is good enough for one of the remaining two spots; for a while he was the only decent starter. The Phils will have to decide on the final spot. Do they bring back Pedro Martinez for another year? See if Jamie Moyer can bounce back from his demotion and season-ending injury? Or will highly touted minor leaguer Kyle Drabek make the leap to the parent club, either at the start of the year or later on in the season?

The bench: Another year of Matt Stairs probably wouldn't hurt, as a lefthanded bat to provide the occasional home run, but if there's a better option -- someone who can also hit for average as well as having some power -- the Phils should explore it. For righthanded hitting, though, they absolutely need better options than Miguel Cairo and Eric Bruntlett. Sure, he scored the winning run in the 2008 Series and turned an unassisted triple play to end a game this year, but Bruntlett's got to go.

The lineup: The only possible change is at third base. Pedro Feliz is an excellent fielder but his hitting leaves much to be desired. The Phils have a 2010 option to keep him at $5.5 million, and it's not out of the question that they could decide against picking up that option. A better bat can be found in free agency, but it would have to be someone who has decent fielding skills as well. And he'll have to be a righthanded hitter, because there are enough (too many?) lefthanded bats already.

Phillies Repeat As NL Champs!

October 21 should be declared a new holiday in the city of Philadelphia: Phillies Day. Even if it's not an official shut-down-the-government, close-the-banks, paid-day-off holiday, it needs to be recognized. Just look at the record:

• October 21, 1980: the Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals to win their first World Series championship. Since I was at the Vet that night, I don't feel quite so bad about not being at any World Series games since.
• October 21, 1993: Curt Schilling's shutout keeps the Phils alive in the 1993 World Series against Toronto. It was a temporary reprieve, but we won't dwell on that.
• October 21, 2009: the defending world champions punched their ticket to the 2009 World Series, with a 10-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers finishing off a 4-1 win in the National League Championship Series. Ryan Howard was named the Most Valuable Player of the NLCS (he's shown here holding the MVP trophy).
  

Let's go, Mayor Nutter. Come on, City Council. Just make it a holiday already: Phillies Day.

It's hard to imagine sometimes how the Phils could be so successful this year. At the beginning the starting pitching was hideous. Coming off his stellar 2008 postseason, Cole Hamels was mediocre all year. The bullpen has been hit-or-miss most of the year, with Brad Lidge blowing more save opportunities than Madonna's blown...never mind. Their leadoff hitter, Jimmy Rollins, didn't show up until July. Their key free-agent addition, Raul Ibanez, was mostly MIA in the second half after a groin injury disrupted what had been an MVP-caliber performance in the first half.

Yet every time they seemed ripe for the taking -- when the Braves and Marlins started getting close in the NL East race, after a disappointing Game 2 loss to the Rockies in the Division Series, after a very disappointing Game 2 loss to the Dodgers in the NLCS -- the Phillies bounced back. The thrilling come-from-behind wins in the NLDS clincher and in NLCS Game 4 were just the most recent demonstrations of a resilience that was missing from the teams that fell short in this decade prior to 2007.

This is an unprecedented era in Phillies history. The 2007-08-09 Phils have surpassed the 1976-77-78 teams that also won the NL East three straight years. That team lost in the playoffs every year. This one will be appearing in its second straight World Series, with one championship already won; no other Phillies World Series team has ever been to the World Series in back-to-back seasons. These truly are the glory days for this franchise.

The Phils are the first World Series champs to return to the Series the following year since the 2001 New York Yankees and the first repeat NL champs since the 1995-96 Braves. If they win the Series again they'll be the first NL team to win back-to-back Series since the Cincinnati Reds did it in 1975 and 1976. Barring an epic collapse, they'll face the Yankees on Wednesday night. It should be a tough test, but it's not hard to imagine another Broad Street parade in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, with a week before the Series begins, let's get to work on that holiday.

Phillies may be in trouble

The NL Division Series got off to a spectacular start for the Phillies, with a 5-1 complete game win by Cliff Lee on Wednesday. However, the Colorado Rockies bounced back Thursday, taking a 4-0 lead against Cole Hamels and hanging on for a 5-4 win.

The series shifts to Denver for Games 3 and 4 -- Saturday at 9:37 pm ET and Sunday at 10:07 pm ET. These starting times are ridiculous, especially considering the weather forecast Saturday calls for temperatures around 30 degrees with possible snow showers or freezing drizzle. The blame goes to MLB and to TBS (whose performance in televising the playoff games has been pathetic, by the way).

This weather may be a factor for the Phillies, but a bigger question is who will start those games. Hamels was lifted for a pinch-hitter after 5 innings Thursday. The Phils then used both Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ in relief. Blanton only threw 19 pitches and Happ threw 4, with the fourth being lined off his left leg. He has a contusion and x-rays are negative. He says he can pitch Saturday but the Phils are planning to go with either Blanton or Pedro Martinez (as I write this, the decision hasn't been announced). Martinez has struggled in the first inning of most of his starts. With it being so cold in Denver, it'll be that much harder to warm up.

Happ is lefthanded and the Rockies have more trouble with lefties, so if he's healthy enough and doesn't start Saturday he'd better be pitching Sunday. It could be that he'll be kept in the bullpen, but if he enters a game early because the Phils have fallen behind (the way Blanton did today), the Phils are in trouble.

Phillies: Time To Panic?

There seems to be a new trend for the Phillies: injuries to pitchers' obliques. Clay Condrey has been out since the end of July and is seemingly less likely to return at all this season. Today it was reported that Ryan Madson was unavailable for the four games the Phils just lost in Houston, and may not be able to pitch tonight in Washington. Most alarmingly, rookie J.A. Happ was supposed to start yesterday but suffered his oblique strain on Saturday -- during batting practice, of all things.

In addition, there's some concern about whether J.C. Romero will be ready soon, and today there are Twitter posts from local beat writers that Scott Eyre, who's inherited Romero's lefty specialist role, felt a pain in his left elbow. He said he's not worried about it, as it was "sharp and quick." The rest of us will be plenty worried for him, though.

Jamie Moyer stepped in as an emergency starter yesterday and, as he did with his three previous bullpen outings since being removed from the rotation, did a fine job. However, the team has stopped hitting. They've scored 4 runs or fewer in their last 13 games. They were 5-4 in the first 9 thanks to strong pitching. Then came the mess in Houston. Cole Hamels regressed (again), Brad Lidge blew a save (again), Cliff Lee got smoked for the second consecutive start, and yesterday Chan Ho Park coughed up the game in the 7th inning.

Despite all of that, the Phils maintain a 6-game lead in the NL East (7 in the loss column). The question is, assuming a Mets-like collapse isn't in the offing (and it likely isn't, because their opponents the rest of the way aren't that strong and the Braves and Marlins have weak spots as well), will this team be ready for the playoffs? The Phils were knocked out of the first round in 2007 by a red-hot Colorado Rockies team. That was not deeply depressing at the time. A similar result this year, after their championship run last year, will not be taken with good humor.

Phils enter September with a cushion

Outside of the two-loss glitch in Pittsburgh the Phillies continue to maintain their winning ways. They're doing just enough to win, but they'll have a 7 1/2-game lead in the NL East when they begin a series with the Giants on Tuesday (the Braves and Marlins are both 8 out right now, and they play each other tomorrow). They still have issues, though.

For one, the Phils still don't really know what they have in Pedro Martinez. He's started four games. In two he got wins but looked shaky at times, in part because the offense had long innings that kept him on the bench for longer than usual. In the other two rain delays caused his removal early. They'll have to figure out whether he's going to be reliable enough to stay in the rotation or if they'd be better off with Jamie Moyer (who relieved Martinez after both rain delays and pitched very well).

Other pitching dilemmas may or may not be getting sorted out. Brad Lidge got a pair of saves this weekend against Atlanta, both with 1-2-3 ninth innings. He needs to string together a bunch of these to show he's truly ended his struggles. Cole Hamels pitched 8 scoreless innings in his last start. Again, he needs to become consistent.

Some of the htters (both in the lineup and on the bench) are also struggling. Raul Ibanez has slumped badly since returning from the disabled list just before the All-Star break. Offensively he looks more like Pat Burrell right now. Pinch-hitting has become a weakness -- Matt Stairs is now 0 for his last 27 at-bats. The Phils are at times having their usual difficulties with runners in scoring position. They need to be able to manufacture some runs now and then when the home runs aren't flying out.

There is still time for the Phils to resolve these issues, but not a whole lot. Fortunately, their lead gives them some leeway. On the other hand, they only need to look at the Mets to see what can happen to September leads.

Phillies' bullpen pain

Yes, I know that the Phillies still lead the NL East by 7 games, and that Ryan Howard is bombing opposing pitchers right now (9 HR, 25 RBI in the last 13 games). But unless they find a pitcher who can reliably close out a tight game, how are they going to repeat as champions? Their last two games in Pittsburgh both featured blown saves. Last night it took Brad Lidge just 6 pitches to give up 3 runs and blow a 4-3 lead in the 9th. Tonight, since Lidge had pitched 4 days in a row, Ryan Madson came into the 9th with a 1-0 lead and promptly served up a game-tying homer.

Howard's 3-run homer in the 10th saved the Phils tonight, but someone has to come in and close games. Lidge has been horrendous all year, even if he was bailed out by the Eric Bruntlett legendary unassisted triple play on Monday. Madson was throwing hard -- 99 mph according to the TV graphic -- but decided he needed to throw a changeup to Brandon Moss of the Pirates tonight, and the slower pitch was sent over the fence. And Madson's failed a number of times filling in as the closer this year, even though he's generally pitched well in games in which he's pitched the 7th or 8th innings. In theory, pitching in the 9th shouldn't be any different than pitching in any other inning. Tell that to Madson's psyche.

The hope here is that Brett Myers comes back in September and takes the job away from Lidge. Myers was successful in the role in 2007. From all reports on his rehab appearances he's throwing harder than he has since that season, thanks to the hip surgery.

A piece of good news, at least until his next start: Cole Hamels pitched 8 shutout innings tonight, managing to get out of trouble a number of times.

After tomorrow's final game in Pittsburgh the Phils are back home against Atlanta, as the Braves try and stay alive in the division.

Phillies vote for Pedro

Well, the Phillies have made one sensible decision: Jamie Moyer will go to the bullpen as Pedro Martinez will make his first start on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field. The question is why Pedro is going Wednesday and not Tuesday. J.A. Happ threw 127 pitches in his last start, and perhaps would benefit from an extra day's rest, but he's going on Tuesday, and Cliff Lee is being held back until Thursday, giving him 6 days off between starts. My guess is that ESPN bribed the Phils to hold Pedro until Wednesday, since they are televising the game nationally.

After being swept by Florida over the weekend the Phils' NL East lead is down to 3 1/2 games (since the Marlins won tonight). They continue to struggle at the plate, which is putting more pressure on the pitching staff. Cole Hamels still is floundering and Moyer, well, the fact that he's out of the rotation tells the story. The Phils are fortunate that Lee, Happ and Joe Blanton have pitched so well lately. The bullpen will get help as Chad Durbin is back from the disabled list, but J.C. Romero is going to rest for about a week before throwing again, so he won't be back soon.

Phils slumping before Gay Night

The Phillies finished their western swing with a 3-4 record, losing 4 of the last 5. Cliff Lee's complete game victory Friday in his Phils debut was their only win in four games at San Francisco; they played two sloppy games mid-week and didn't hit much with runners in scoring position the entire road trip. One night after 2008 AL Cy Young winner Lee shut down the Giants, his NL counterpart, Tim Lincecum, stymied the Phils. Cole Hamels was smacked around again in the series finale. It seemed he was getting his act together, but...still, the Phils lead the NL East by 5 games. No reason to push any panic buttons just yet.

Their first game back home is Tuesday, and it's the 7th Annual Gay Community Night. The Phils lost the first five Gay Nights before finally breaking through last year; perhaps that was a precursor to their eventual championship. Sadly, I won't be there on Tuesday unless someone has a ticket for me. The game is sold out. So, let's take a trip down memory lane with the article I wrote for Outsports after the first GCN in 2003 -- the only one held at the Vet.