Horray Offense! Phillies Beat Marlins 7-3

The Phillies defeated the Marlins 7-3 as the offense finally came through.The Phillies just lost to the Marlins, and were coming into this game at 21-24, facing Jose Fernandez who has not allowed 1 single run in 13 innings against the Phillies this year.  Chase Utley was a late scratch, but Ryan Howard returned to the lineup to power the Phillies to a “nice and easy” 7-3 win.

Tyler Cloyd was looking for his first decision of the year as he faced off against Fernandez who again has owned the Phillies in 2 starts this year; Cloyd pitched well in his first start of the season on the road, and was looking to build off of that success.  If you …

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Short Term Fix, Long Term Fix: Phillies Edition

Chase Utley is looking towards the end of his career. Is it time to move him?I will be doing a series on each of the four major sports teams in Philadelphia over the next few weeks. Each will highlight what each team has to do in the short run and the long run to benefit each respective franchise. Each team will be treated differently, as the Flyers are closer to a championship than the 76ers, and so on. The first edition of this series starts with our beloved Philadelphia Phillies. Should Charlie Manuel stay? Should Utley be traded? What are the Phillies plans for Tommy Joseph?

Short Term Fix: The Phillies are a .500 team at the moment, and they do …

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Michael Vick As The Eagles Quarterback? So What?

Given health and protection, it’s possible that Michael Vick can do more things in Chip Kelly’s offense than Nick Foles or Matt Barkley. But, so what?After signing a new contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, the quarterback stood before reporters knowing he had something to prove to his new coach.  Last season he passed for 17 touchdowns, threw 20 interceptions and had a 70.2 QB rating, making the terms of the new contract a bit puzzling.  But the veteran spoke to the media with conviction.  “I’ve got tremendous faith in my ability,” he said.  “I expect to be there opening day. But I’ve got to do that on the field.  It’s not going to …

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Phillies Fall to Miami 5-1, Hamels now 1-7

Cole Hamels lost his 7th game of the season against the Miami Marlins last night.Things are starting to look up, well at least a little more up than average.  The Phillies just took 2 out of 3 against the Reds who swept them earlier this year while outscoring our Phillies 16-4, these same Reds were riding a 6 game winning streak when they came into town, and were in control of the wild card spot.  A nice follow up to a big series win like that would be to play the Marlins, even though it’s a road series, there would be more people at a Harlem Globetrotters game than there would be at a Marlins home game.  You are sending out Hamels and Cliff …

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Around the NFL: OTA Edition

Rob Gronkowski could be looking at a long road to recovery.With just over three months before the start of the 2013 NFL season, HighPhive.com takes a look around the NFL to survey the competition.

Starting in New England, TE Rob Gronkowski will have his fourth surgery of this offseason to repair a broken forearm, and may face an additional surgery to replace a possible herniated disc in his spinal column. Gronkowski is New England’s best offensive weapon not named Tom Brady. While Gronk is expected to recover in time for camp, his recent medical history indicates that nothing is set in stone for the fourth year tight end.

Staying in the AFC East, recent reports more bad news from the New York Jets as recently signed …

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SI Gets Played With its “Special Report on Penn State Football”

Sports Illustrated asked this week What Still Ails Penn State?I read this week SI article “Do Athletics Still Have Too Much Power at Penn State?” with my usual cynicism. Frankly if athletics-specifically football-have too much power at PSU there are at least fifty other colleges where that is true. Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@SportsChatChuck) know that I have always set forth my position on the events at PSU during the past two years and not backed down. That view can be summed up as follows: PSU stands for Pennsylvania State University, not Paterno State University.

Unfortunately the SI article in the May 20, 2013 issue reflects that there are still those involved with Penn State football (And make no mistake-this article is about football) who will go to pretty much …

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Can Chip Kelly Take the Eagles & the Fanbase Into the Next Era?

Chip Kelly has the chance to bring the Eagles back to greatness.Having gone to Eagles games since 1978, I can say with full confidence that this is the most exciting off-season since Hurricane Buddy blew into town. Chip Kelly has a rather large task in front of him. He has to change the mindset of a fan base that has been beaten into submission by the Andy Reid Era. For 14 seasons we were subjected to a weekly demonstration of trying to fit Square Pegs into Round Holes.

Since taking over in January, Chip, and his offense that he employed at Oregon, has been scrutinized, and put under the microscope by every analyst, talk show host, columnist, and bar patron in Eagles Nation.  ‘How can he …

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A Statistical Look Back At The Flyers Forwards

Jakub Voracek did it all this season for the Flyers include get into a fight.With the regular season being over, we will take a look back at the last season from a statistical point of view to see how the forwards on this roster performed. Now I know that stats are not everything but it is the best way to judge productivity after the games have been played. Each forward will have four subsections under his name:

2012-13 Stats: These are the actual stats for each player this season with games played (GP) , goals (G) , assists (A) and overall points (Pts).

2012-13 Full Season Projections: Here I just extrapolated the average goals and assists and points for each player based on their number listed …

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North Broad to the NFL: Interview with Martin Wallace

Martin Wallace is on his trip from North Broad to the Cleveland Browns.After enrolling at Temple University as a transfer student from Northeastern University, Martin Wallace quickly made a name for himself on North Broad street. In his second year on the team, he had established himself as the anchor of the offensive line and a leader on the offense. Here is his story about his journey thus far to the NFL.

Q: First of all Martin, thank you very much for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself. Before we get into your journey to the NFL, I wanted to touch a little on your career at Temple University. You obviously had a tremendous career at Temple but looking back over your career, is there a …

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The Science Behind The Use of Music by Chip Kelly

Chip Kelly's use of music in training camp raised some eyebrows & some questions.I was one of many Eagles’ fans following the Twitter updates during the team’s OTA Monday.  And I was probably one of the many getting annoyed by the flood of tweets regarding Chip Kelly’s music playlist (more football please!).  But as seems to be the case more often than not with Coach Kelly, there is a reason for everything.   Afterwards, Kelly was asked about including various rock and pop anthems on the practice field.  He answered, “There’s some science behind it…” He didn’t have the time to elaborate, but there are indeed football and non-football reasons for it, and I think they go hand-in-hand.

First, let me preface this by saying that my …

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