phrustrated philly phan

Todays post consists of many different parts. Lets start with the Sixers

The Sixers open their season tonight at the Wachovia Center against the Atlanta Hawks. The Sporting News predicts these two teams to be last (Atlanta) and second to last (Philadelphia) in the Eastern Conferance. Despite that I am holding out some hope for the Sixers. Allen Iverson and Chris Webber sound dedicated and if Andre Iguodala can break out that would be a good trio. As a team they need to buckle down defensively as they surrendered over 100 points/game last year. All the players, coaches, and front office personel are saying the right things but we will begin to find out for ourselves tonight.

Hopefully some of you say Opening Night last night on TNT. The new look Chicago Bulls defeated the champion Miami Heat by fourty points. Quite a debut for Ben Wallace in Chicago. In the late game the LA Lakers stole one from the Phoenix Suns. Many experts have the Suns playing for the championship but a Kobe-less Lakers won 114-106. Maybe Phil Jackson is a genius and maybe the Lakers should begin exploring trade options for Kobe. The Lakers played as a team last night and looked good. Hopefully the Sixers watched and learned that playing as a team can take a team with marginal talent and make the team a contender.

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The Flyers have apparently offered their GM job to Colin Campbell. He is currently the dean of discpline for the NHL along with being a champion for the new rules in the NHL. I do not know much about Campbell but it shows that Ed Snider is being active trying to find a new GM and is looking outside the organization. It is reported that Campbell will respond in 48 hours. Most recently before moving into the front office of the NHL, he worked for the New York Rangers. There should be a follow-up story in a day or two.

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The Phillies appear ready to make a serious run at Alfonso Soriano. I have dreamed about that but never thought anything would come of it but apparently Pat Gillick has other ideas. The rumored starting point is 5 years and 80 million dollars. Aramis Ramirez has also opted for free agency and could become a target. Gary Sheffield had his contract picked up by the New York Yankees so a trade would be required to get Sheffield. The hot stove is starting to heat up and come November 12 it will get very exciting.

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I don't know if anyone else caught the All-Kruk team last night on Baseball Tonight. It aired at 12:30 on ESPN. From what I caught it was just John Kruk picking his favorite players to a team. He listed four criteria but they were general and hard to judge players on. First let me say that John Kruk is one of my favorite players and for the most part I think he does a good job analysing on Baseball Tonight. Last night though both ESPN and Kruk missed the mark. They could have selected players who played with heart and hustle the way Kruk played in his day. Players like David Eckstein and Eric Byrnes (he did make the actual team). These are hustle type players. Instead the team was all over the place from players like Eric Byrnes to Manny Ramirez to Roger Clemens to David Wells. There was no consistency. If anyone else saw this I would like to hear your opinion and maybe I missed something but it made no sense to me.

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Well that is all for today but don't forget tonight at 7 the Sixers make their season debut against the Hawks, a very winnable game.