Phightins

He didn't take it inside (obviously). But that sign made the hour long crawl out of the parking lot after the game somewhat entertaining.

That was a fun game, but every time the Lakers are in town it is fun. I thought the Sixers played pretty well. They kept it a hell of a lot closer than I expected, but of course Eddie Jordan had to use the worst possible lineup for most of the 2nd (seriously, Lou Williams Marreese Speights and Willie Green on the floor at the same time? Come on). Anyway, Lakers carved them apart and built that solid 8-12 point lead the despite the Sixers (Iverson in particular) playing well for a good part of the second half, it was not enough. Anyway, the Kobe fans (I say Kobe fans because 99% of the people in Lakers gear only cheered when Kobe did something and couldn't care less when anybody else on the team did) were annoying beyond belief. I don't think Kobe would get as much [expletive] from the Sixers fans if not for those obnoxious [expletive]s, to be honest. Most of the booing was directed at them, and when they tried to start a MVP chant. I was happy that the Sixers fans were able to shut that down. But the Laker fans came in and acted like they owned the place, and I HATE when opposing fans do that. Show some respect.

Basketball is way more boring IMO. But to each their own, don't want to fire this debate up again. Everybody digs their own thing.

Good. When they are 15-30 and have been mediocre (at their best points) for the past ten years with no signs of escaping this (and having two of the worst contracts in the NBA, to add insult to injury), there better be no untouchables.

http://www.the700level.com/2010/01/kobe-heads-back-to-lower-merion.html For those interested in a Kobe video...

Lol, you know him. Use your imagination...

I will be attending this game with our old friend "Diesel". The sign he has with him shouldn't be too hard to miss, but I wouldn't count on it making it on TV...

The Flyers picked an awful time to play their worst period of the year. That was a huge 2 points that they just pissed away. If the Flyers miss the playoffs by a point or 2, this will be the game I point at. Just horrible.

I wish we still had the 'Ho.

That is what everyone said about Chan Ho Park when we signed him last winter and he wound up being the most reliable guy in our pen. I dunno, small sample size to go on I guess, but he did look pretty good out of the bullpen in Colorado. We shall see.

I like it. This year's Chan Ho Park, minus wasting a month and a half trying him out in the rotation. He can seriously fill Park's role perfectly. He has been a starter for his entire career so he can definitely go multiple innings if need be, also has the "stuff" to pitch in the 8th or 9th inning if need be. Really nice hybrid pitcher.

+1

Lol I have no idea.

Howdy Smitty

Also today, Jim Thome signed with the Twins, Rich Hill signed with the Cardinals, and Jon Garland signed with the Padres.

I am happy because it means we are that much closer to March/April/May which is IMO the best three month span for sports of the year.

Ben Sheets signed with the Oakland Athletics today for 1 year and $10 million, plus performance incentives. Sheets didn't do too bad for a guy who did not pitch last season.

I am excited to hear Big Sarge's reaction in the Phillies broadcast booth the first time Little Sarge does something against the Phillies.

Yeah I saw that. That's probably how the Rangers should have handled it, but honestly Gaborik probably had more balls than any of his teammates on the ice at that time as unbelievable as that sounds.

They definitely have to come up with something. I would love to see the NCAA format but I can also see the arguments against it. I know most defensive coordinators would probably hate it.

One more thing. One of the local sports TV guys said that after the Carcillo/Gaborik fight, a scout for another team that he is friends with texted him saying that the league was not happy at all about it (well, clearly) and that the Flyers were going to have a hell of a time getting any favorable calls, at least for the immediate future. Yesterday, after the Scott Hartnell "goaltender interference" and Simon Gagne "high stick", he got a follow up text from the scout saying that was precisely what he was talking about. Now, I think those penalties were probably just as much a product of the game being NBC and the officials being under pressure to call more penalties in general, which I think is ridiculous as well, but needless to say this league has a lot of problems right now.

New poll... Who honestly gives a [expletive] about the Pro Bowl? And to answer the second poll question, yes moving it to before the Super Bowl made it an even bigger joke than it was before (I didn't think that was possible).

A couple notes for today... Ryan Parent had back surgery today and will miss 6 weeks. Apparently Mika Pyorala has been practicing as a defenseman so it will be interesting to see what happens. I had heard that Holmgren is trying to work a trade but maybe they will use Pyorala back there until Syvret/Parent come back if nothing turns up. Tollefsen has been horrible since returning from his injury. Also, ESPN can [expletive] themselves. Pierre LeBrun ripped up the Flyers PR guys for tweeting a link to the video of the Carcillo/Gaborik fight. Well maybe Pierre ought to do a little bit of research next time, seeing as the NHL provided flyers.com with the videos and encouraged them to be shared. And as I said earlier, most importantly, the national media needs to stop acting as if Gaborik is a victim here. He did not get jumped, he got exactly what he wanted. But that's how reputations work in the NHL I guess. The link to the LeBrun thing is below. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4853266&name=lebrun_pierre Also, John Stevens will make his broadcasting debut tonight with Versus for the Penguins/Rangers game. I for one am very interested to see how he does, he has never struck me as the media type.

Nah why would he do that, that'd kill all of ESPN's summer programming.

I think that the NFL needs a new overtime structure.