Baseball Opening Day!

          It's finally here! Today, baseball began, and even better, the Phillies play their first game of the season tomorrow! Months of waiting after a disappointing October have finally paid off, and now it is time for one of the most anticipated seasons in recent history. Originally, with the acquisition of Cliff Lee in addition to Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt, it was thought that the Phillies are the clear favorite to win the World Series. But now, after a spring training filled with injuries and offensive questions, it should turn out to be much more interesting and competitive. Honestly, I am very nervous for this season. Chase Utley, the best second baseman in baseball, is possibly going to be out for the entire season. Our rising prodigy, Dominic Brown, will be out for at least the first month. We lost Jayson Werth over the off-season when he took an absurdly overpaid salary from the Washington Nationals. The offense is going to be looking A LOT different this year. The crucial part is for Ryan Howard to live up to the money that he is being paid and to produce. Furthermore, the rest of the lineup needs to support him in order to score some runs. The dominant pitching staff will take care of the rest. I am just extremely nervous.

           There are plenty of doubters out there who are picking the Red Sox, Yankees, and Braves to win it all. But we have to believe. It is important to not let the great predictions get to our head, but we still need to pull through this. Of all years, the Phillies are being put up as the greatest team this year. In my opinion, this is the worst we've been in 3 years! Even though we have an amazing pitching staff, our offense is extremely shaky. And how many times have we seen the favorite go down. Look at this years NCAA Tournament! I hate the position Philly is in right now, especially since we have always been underdogs. We are a city of underdogs...always!  But we are still great, and need to just win this one to prove that we are the best. It should be an interesting season.

An overview of the Phillies' status and the current state of March Madness

          There are two things that I'd like to talk about in this post, so I'm going to begin with the state of the Phillies in their ongoing yet winding down spring training. Its beginning to get very close to April, and the regular season will begin before we know it. We all know that the pitching rotation is looking phenomenal. But right now there are two really big things to worry about. First is the amount of injuries. This mainly is referring to our star second baseman, Chase Utley. Throughout spring training, he has not played, due to tendonitis in his elbow. The problem is that it is too uncomfortable to play, but does not know how it can be treated. He was quoted a little over a week ago saying that, "I have to prioritize my career over this season." This obviously hints that he may be getting season-ending surgery, in order to save the rest of his career. From his standpoint, this is an obvious choice. But it couldn't be coming at a worse time! With the rotation we have, the Phils are promising to be the best they ever were! But the only issue is the current lack of offense, which is surprising because just a few years ago we were the premier offense in the majors. With Utley hurt, as he seems to have been for the past two years, it does not bode well for the offense to improve. We can only wait to see what happens, and hope for the best. Another shocking "injury" occurred yesterday, when pitcher Roy Oswalt was hit in the neck by a line drive! Surprisingly, he was ok, but there have been many instances in which people have been killed when drilled by line drives! We can only be extremely relieved and counting our lucky stars that he came out unscathed.

          In other news, I want to catch up on the NCAA tournament. In the background right now, I am watching the Duke-Arizona game, and both Florida and UConn moved on a bit ago by beating BYU and San Diego State, respectively. So far, the tournament has probably been one of the best in recent memory. The amount of upsets, buzzer-beaters, and surprises have been unbelievable, and I can only hope that it will continue to get better. The only negative is that my bracket is completely busted, and I lost a good amount of money. Oh well, I would rather watch really good basketball than win money anyway.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The time has finally come. My favorite sporting event of the year, and of most years, excluding when the FIFA World Cup happens every four years. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament began today! Nothing can compare to the competition, glory, suspense, and heart of the 64 teams who compete in the most perfect sporting tournament known to man. The first day of March Madness is definitely in my top three favorite days of the year.

So, I know that this is allegedly a Philadelphia sports blog, but all of the tournament is fair game, because Temple is in it. The is unfortunate for us at Penn State, because Temple beat us with a heartbreaking, buzzer-beating shot to move on to the round of 32. Furthermore, this happened just seconds after Talor Battle hit an amazing, deep three pointer to put the Nittany Lions ahead of the Owls. But in the end, even though we lost, I still feel good about our season. It was much better than anybody could have imagined, and Talor Battle proved himself as one of the premier players in college ball. It's too bad that he was not surrounded with any help at all, and has an idiot of a coach. I'm sure Ed DeChelis is a good guy, but honestly, his gametime decisions are absurd. My basketball experience is limited to 8 years of CYO ball for a team and school that doesn't exist anymore (Queen of Peace will always live on in my heart though), but I know that I could have coached the Nittany Lions much better than DeChelis. The only negative that comes out of this season is that he can't be fired since he led us to our first tournament in ten years. Oh well, another good thing that came out of today's game is that I do have Temple going to the Sweet Sixteen both of my pools, so my chances at winning a lot of money were not ruined.

The rest of the tournament has been going phenomenally. Every game has been extremely close, and there have been upwards of three buzzer-beating wins already! Probably the best game so far has been Morehead State's huge win over Louisville, who many predicted to go to the Final Four. Thankfully, I didn't but the game really was extremely entertaining. Morehead State has a big man who holds the all-time record for rebounds, and he truly did dominate the game.

So, I think I will end on that note, because writing this has been distracting me from watching, enjoying, and soaking in the continuation of the first round (which is technically the second round but I refuse to call it so). This weekend, if you get a chance, I highly recommend that you take a look at some of what I think is the best sporting games of the year. Till then, enjoy, and I'll check in on the tournament next week.

Spring Training Report: So Far So Good

          It's an exciting time of the year. The Phillies' Spring Training is in full swing down in Florida, and so far, things are looking great! Seriously, it's spring training, so it doesn't really matter how well we hit or pitch. It's just important to get back out there and get back into the swing of things, no pun intended. This being said, I'm going to give a quick overview of how things are going.

          So far the pitchers are looking great. Cole Hamels has pitched six innings in two games, and has not given up an earned run yet. He also has five strikeouts. Hopefully this shows a little bit of promise of him getting back to the same form that he was in during the 2008 regular season and playoffs, when he won the World Series MVP. Roy Halladay has pitched two innings in one game, in which he did not give up a run and had one strikeout. Even if he was doing poorly, trust me, there is nothing to be worried about with him. Cliff Lee has also pitched two innings in one game, and gave up two runs and had three Ks. Just business as usual in spring training. Roy Oswalt had a shaky first outing the other day when he gave up two runs and four hits in two innings, but once again he will be great this year. The only person I worry about is Big Joe Blanton, but so far he has pitched three innings without any hits or runs. Good for him. I still get excited like a child on Christmas morning every time I think about the Phillies' starting rotation this year.

          Offensively, the Phils are getting into a groove. Since we had such a poor offensive showing last season as compared to the phenomenal years in the past, I really hope that our big swingers like Utley and Howard can come through this year. So far, the most interesting thing in spring training is the battle between Ben Francisco and Dom Brown for a starting position in the outfield, to fill Jayson Werth's slot. I personally am a big fan of Dom Brown, who is one of the top prospects in the nation. The man has both speed and power, just needs to tweak his swing a bit. Good thing that he has one of the best swing doctors in the nation as his manager, none other but Charlie Manuel. The offense will be the most interesting thing to watch about the Phillies this year.

          So far, it promises to be a great year for Philadelphia baseball. I just can't wait until the season starts in April. It's just important to watch the team develop through spring training, but once again, it is necessary to realize that it doesn't count for anything whatsoever!