Maybe if Ryan Howard hits a

.... home run every time he steps to the plate, Ed's people will finally show him some love. Howard homered in his third straight game last night, leading the Phillies to a crucial 6-3 win over the Brewers. Say what you want about the strikeouts and his mediocre batting average, but the bottom line is that Howard leads the Majors in HR and RBI, while playing for a playoff contender. If the Phillies do manage to sneak into the postseason, how is "The Big Guy" not the NL MVP for the 2nd time in 3 years?

Here are some interesting numbers I dug up on #6:

* Howard has 23 HRs at home and 20 HRs on the road, putting to rest the ridiculous notion that he is merely a product of the Phillies hitter friendly ballpark. He hits the ball out of any park.

* Howard is hitting .303, with 10 HRs and 79 RBI with RISP.

* He's hitting .310 with RISP and 2 outs. Seems like a clutch situation to me.

* He's hitting .304 with 10 HRs and 46 RBI with men on base and 2 out. Another clutch situation.

* Howard's worst hitting numbers come when the bases are empty. He's hitting just .194 with the bases empty, whereas his batting average jumps up to .289 when his teammates get on base in front of him. In other words, Howard rises to the rare occasions when teammates like TGCU actually do their jobs and set the table for him.

What I'm trying to say is that all these (racist) Phillies fans need to get off Ryan's back, while he tries to carry his loser teammates back to the playoffs.


* It was recently brough to the blog's attention that LeBron James grew up a "Fan" of the Yankees, Cowboys, and Bulls. In Akron, Ohio. This guy's like a young Austin. Only worse. Much worse.

* I'll estimate that approximately 75% of Cowboys "Fans" are people who didn't really have an NFL team to follow so at some point decided, "Well, I don't have an NFL team to cheer for but I'd like to. I'll just root for the Cowboys." Whenever Dallas sucks, these people don't make a peep but when the Cowboys are good, they come out of the woodwork to support "Their" team. If Howard Eskin is right about anything, he's right about calling Cowboys fans "Cock-a-roaches." Easily the worst fan base in professional sports.

* The blog's take on the Beanie Wells situation is simple: Don't play him. Ohio State will most likely get run off the field by USC tomorrow night with or without their star running back and they are going to need him at 100% to navigate the brutal Big 10 sched.... Couldn't even get that one out.... Seriously, even if they lose to USC tomorrow night they will have as good a chance as any of being one of the two names pulled out of the BSC hat, as long as they run the table in conference play.

No, this has nothing to do with my Ohio State to win the Big 10 at Even money bet at Planet Hollywood. Why do you ask?

* Remember a few years ago when Miami (FL), Virginia Tech, and later Boston College all left the Big East to join the ACC and turn it into a 12 team mega-conference complete with a championship game? Well, I was student at West Virginia at the time and we had to hear from everyone about how bad the Big East was going to be without the Canes and Hokies and listen to public speculation over whether the Big East was still worthy of an automatic BCS bid. Since then, the Big East has gone a perfect 3-0 in BCS Bowls (WVU over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Louisville over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl, and WVU over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. All three teams also covered but whose counting?) while the ACC has gone 0-3 in the BCS.

Big East fans have enjoyed this very much and are quick to point out that our conference has greatly surpassed expectations. Until this year. WVU looks lost without RichRod and could be in for a long year. Louisville hasn't recovered from losing that scumbag Bobby Petrino to the NFL for a few weeks. Rutgers may have been a flash-in-the-pan program. I wonder if Greg Schiano wishes he had taken that Miami (FL) job while he had the chance? Pittsburgh is still coached by Dave Wannstedt. And he's still an idiot. South Florida may be the Big East's only hope in 2008. I'll definitely be rooting for them to hand it to Kansas tonight in Tampa.

No, this has nothing to do with my Kansas Under 8.5 bet at the Venetian. Why do you ask?

* The Saints have ruled out starters S Roman Harper, LB Scott Fujita, and CB Randall Gay for Sunday's Frolic at FedEx Field. Add those three to a growing list that already included starting WR Marques Colston and the now released DT Hollis Thomas. I know it's only Week 2 but if the Redskins can't win this game, at home, with three extra days to prepare, against a Saints team missing about 1/4 of their starting lineup, it is definitely time to hit the panic button.

* One thing I hate about being a fan in the NFC East is having to watch games between two of the other teams. For instance, on Monday night I'm sure I'll be rooting for the Eagles to beat the Cowboys even though I really don't want to. I hate rooting for the Eagles. I can't stand that team, their terrible, bitter fans, or DeMatha product Brian Westbrook. I don't want to root for the Eagles.

Maybe I'll just root for everyone to have a bad time.

And for several Cowboys players to be carted off the field.

* If I were to rank the NFC East teams in order of how much I hate them, it would go like this:

1. Cowboys

(Pause for effect)

2. Giants

3. Eagles


Cowboys at #1 is a no brainer. The Giants are ahead of the Eagles and always have been and I think it's because during my formative years as a football fan the Eagles were such a completely inconsequential loser franchise. From Buddy Ryan to Rich Kotite to Ray Rhodes, they were just utterly irrelevant. I remember them making the playoffs once with Ricky Watters and crushing the Lions in a wild card game but they were never really any good.

Plus, I just truly feel sorry for their bitter, bitter goombah fanbase.

(Don't worry. I can say goombah. I'm half-Italian.)


Maybe someday you guys will see a real football world championship in Philly.

(But I doubt it.)


With every day that passes, I feel worse and worse about my football bets for this weekend.

What did I do with that panic button?


Trivia Question for Friday: Name the player(s) in Major League history with more home runs in their first 1,000 career at bats than Ryan Howard.

Wednesday's answer: Colston went to Hofstra. Too easy.



If you thought today's blog felt like it was rambling and forced out then you are a very perceptive person. It was extremely forced out. I woke up this morning to watch Sprint Cup practice and qualifying and it's raining in New Hampshire. So I blogged.

Rain in New Hampshire during a Cup race.... I gotta go. I'm having terrible flashbacks.




Enjoy the game.