What kind of sports fan would drop well over a hundred dollars for the jersey of their hated rival? An Eagles fan with a deviant idea, of course.
One loyal Birds fan who contributes to Bleeding Green Nation thought it would be a good idea to purchase a Tony Romo jersey and have it altered a bit. He writes about putting the jersey on for the first time:
i almost threw up ... im dead serious ... my gag reflex kicked in like 3 times putting it over my head but i still didnt have second thoughts of my purchase ... and i want to know the oppinions of you guys would you honestly rather have romo then mcnabb ?
Now, we're sensing a tinge of sarcasm from our fellow Eagles fan.
Follow the jump to see the final product with the custom name clearly displayed.
Brett Myers made no secret of his desire to remain in the role of closer for the Phillies but once Brad Lidge came to town it was back to the rotation. His recent demotion to the minor leagues tells you how well that's worked out and Lidge's contract extension means that he won't close in Philadelphia any time in the near future. Naturally, that's given rise to discussion about Myers's future with the team.
According to Ricky Bottalico, television analyst for the Phillies AAA affiliate, Myers told him that he wants to be traded somewhere he can close.
"He's banking on getting outta there. You know it as well as I do that he doesn't want to be with the Phillies anymore. He's made that perfectly clear."
That would be understandable. Beyond the desire to relieve, Myers might also feel a change of scenery would help him recover what's been missing in 2008. Thing is, he denies saying anything of the sort.
"I never asked for a trade. I've got a house and everything in Philly. Why would I want to leave?"
You hear that Bottalico, he's got a house! A man doesn't just walk away from roots like that. Myers could have refused to go to the minors but did it without issue and is even dropping to AA to make another start this weekend while the AAA is on All-Star break. That doesn't sound like someone who is looking to blaze a trail out of Philadelphia.
What had come to hurt the Clippers' chances of retaining Brand has been the organization's refusal to offer anything but a "take-it-or-leave-it" deal since Golden State made its $90-plus million offer. People close to Brand say that "it pissed him off," and made him question his original desire to stay a Clipper.
What strikes me on first glance -- wasn't the reported $70 million, five years offer from the Clips the max they could offer after reeling in Baron Davis? There has some dispute over whether the Clippers renounced Brand to sign Davis; if not, the Clippers could have offered a sixth year. However, there were reports last week that Brand wasn't after a sixth year. (There were also reports Brand's agent had set up L.A.'s Davis snatch to help get Brand a good team around him, but obviously that one wasn't so right.)
One more thing strikes me: how can it be about money when Brand takes $8 million less from the Sixers than he would have received from the Warriors? Brand's mad about the Clipper offer, but takes the one from Philly when Golden State is showing it values him more? It doesn't make any sense, unless Brand refused to consider Golden State for other reasons. This story should be fun to follow for a while.
For much of the last week, most basketball fans assumed that Elton Brand was either going to a) re-sign with the Clippers; or b) grab the pile of money that Baron Davis left behind with the Warriors. Instead, he surprised everyone by choosing c) none of the above, leaving behind the Western Conference entirely in favor of the 76ers. From the Los Angeles Times:
Elton Brand has reached a verbal agreement to sign a multiyear contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, according to an NBA source who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on player movements.
The deal is believed to be in the $80-million range and expected to span five years.
Okay, this wasn't a complete surprise -- there were rumblings last night that this might be a possibility, and Philly's salary dump of a trade earlier today was obviously setting up a larger move -- but it has to feel like a kick in the ribs to Clippers fans dreaming of Brand and B.Dizzle leading the Clips back to the playoffs.
Until the last 48 hours or so, the Sixers were believed to be focusing most of their interest on Hawks restricted free agent Josh Smith, but the addition of Brand, who's much more polished offensively, and the expected return of Andre Iguodala, who's a restricted free agent himself, makes the 76ers instant contenders in the East with an intriguing core of youth and experience. This is a team that gave the Pistons fits in the first round this past year even without a legitimate low-post scoring threat. If Brand regains his All-Star form and Philly's youngsters continue to develop, there's no telling what kind of damage they can do in 2007-08.
Via The700Level, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports a rumored deal between Philadelphia and Minnesota has gone down, sending BeautifulCalvin Booth, Rodney Carney and a pick to the Wolves for nothing but a $2.8 million trade exception. The real prize for Philly general manager Ed Stefanski: even more salary cap breathing room to chase someone like Elton Brand or Josh Smith. Here's Woj:
Getting Carney and Booth off the cap gives the Sixers the chance to offer a starting salary of approximately $14 million a season.
If Atlanta wasn't going to match a contract starting at $11 million for Smith (a disputed rumor), will they even be able to play a straight face if the Sixers offer something like a flat $13 million per year, five-year contract? Or, Philadelphia could go big in year one -- $14.75 million is the max for a four-year veteran, but Stefanski expects to have $14 million as stated above -- and taper the contract down to $12 million by the final year.
For Brand, the 76ers could now offer about five years, $80 million ... which is right in the middle of the Clippers' ($70 million) and Warriors' ($90 million) offers. Watson wrote about the expanded interest in Brand last night; now, that interest has a feasible outlet.
All of the turmoil surrounding the Mets in June cost Willie Randolph his job but it didn't cost them a chance at winning the NL East. After beating the Phillies 10-9 yesterday, they are just two and a half games out of first. The Marlins, no one's idea of a contender at the season's start, are a game closer to the Phillies. All that means there's a lot of pressure on Pat Gillick to make a move to shore up the questionable rotation.
He's trying. The Phillies were in the CC Sabathia bidding until the very end but didn't have a hitting prospect to equal Matt LaPorta. There probably won't be another pitcher of that ilk on the market, but that's okay. The Phillies don't need Sabathia, they just need someone better than Adam Eaton. Eaton, via this clip from the 700 Level, says all that needs to be said about yesterday's miserable shelling.
Hindsight is 20/20 but the Phillies look pretty silly for not making more of an effort at signing Kyle Lohse during the offseason. No one may have predicted how well he'd pitch for St. Louis but it didn't take a crystal ball to see him outperform Eaton.
Elton Brand has a generous offer on the table to stay with the Clippers, and an even larger offer on the table to bolt for the Warriors. But while most of the discussion surrounding his options has centered on those two teams, it's at least possible that he might bolt California completely and head back east.
That's crazy talk, right? Probably, but according to ESPN's Marc Stein, the 76ers have officially thrown their hat in the ring. It's true the Sixers have been connected to restricted free agent Josh Smith since the offseason began, but the team wants to do it's due diligence by gauging Brand's interest before tying up their finances by signing Smith to an offer sheet and waiting seven days while the Hawks decide if they're going to match it or not.
I can't say I'm completely surprised -- Smith has all the potential in the world, but Brand is a proven product and (when healthy) one of the most consistent big men in the game today. Smith would make the Sixers a joy to watch; Brand would get the Sixers out of the first round.
This summer has been relatively quiet in terms of Eagles news and drama compared to years past. Aside from the issue of what the team will do with talented corner back Lito Sheppard, about the only thing Eagles fans had to talk about was Donovan McNabb's sore shoulder.
With McNabb's health once again entering the conversation, it's no suprise that Fox Sports list McNabb as one of 10 NFL players on the hot seat in 2008. But they didn't stop there, oh no, they had to resort to the tried and true way to make your article lose all credibility. They went to sit on Santa's lap.
First of all, hooray to phonetic title semi-puns. Secondly, this video has everything you would expect out of the scene at the CBP for a Phillies game. You have to fast forward a little ways to see the fat man dance (2:20 to be exact), but if you do that, you'll miss Philly fans booing (1:00 and nooooo, you don't say) and a quick camera glance at a ballgirl which gets awkward (1:50-ish).
What a perfectly generic baseball fan: fat, mustached and willing to skin up in about 3/4 of a second.
I'm guessing a lot of you are like me in that as soon as you hear the name Brad Lidge, you immediately think about Albert Pujols hitting a ball about 750 feet off of him in the 2005 NLCS. Of course, I also think about the walk-off that Scott Podsednik hit off of him in game two of the World Series about a week after that as well. The Pujols one sticks out more though because it's not often that we get to see a man's spirit crushed on national television.
After that home run, Brad just wasn't the same for the Astros, he'd been ruined. So when the Astros sent him to Philadelphia this offseason, I thought it would be a nice change for Brad. I had no idea the change in scenery would affect him as much as it has though. A 2-0 record with a 0.77 ERA and 19 saves in 19 chances, yeah, the Phillies will take that. In fact, they'll take three more years of it.
Philadelphia Phillies closer Brad Lidge has signed a three-year, 37.5 million-dollar, contract extension.
Lidge is 2-and-0 with 47 strikeouts in 35 innings and set a club record by converting his first 19 save opportunities this season. He didn't allow an earned run through his first 17 appearances (17 innings), which was the second-longest by a Phillies pitcher to start his career with the team.
Lidge would have been a free agent at the end of the year, but considering how things have been working for him in the City of Brotherly Love, you kind of figured a deal would be worked out sooner rather than later.
Brett Myers
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