I am a conduit of uninvited criticisms and counter-arguments

The Phillies are fun when they win, but that bullpen will bite them because it is just empty of real talent, and I think Brad Lidge will get his chance to blow a big game, and Antonio Bastardo, the rookie lefty, will also be pressed into the primetime spotlight. I don’t know when “trap game” became the football cliché of the day, but Tampa Bay at Philly with McNabb back in the lineup could be that game. Bengals, 3-1, at Ravens, 3-1, is everyone’s upset special, and before you all say no way, remember that Carson Palmer is among the league’s elite quarterbacks and is already a seasoned veteran.

Delaware, 3-2, will host 3-1 UMass at 6 p.m. Saturday, another great battle of the bands. I’m picking the Hens in a shootout.

Delaware State will host Buthune-Cookman in a 7 p.m. game that is a tune-up for the team’s trip the following week to the Michigan Big House. Now there is an upset special. The Sussex Tech at Sussex Central game will come down to the health and fitness of the primetime players, and injuries and a circulating strain of the flu have some players questionable for the game. I don’t pick high school games, but until the Ravens beat the Knights they haven’t beaten them.

INSTANT EXPERTS - In the world of sports those who are out there doing stuff are often in the crosshairs of the chronically critical. I am a conduit of uninvited criticisms and counter-arguments as I negotiate a world of analysts and pundits who seem to know everything from the best offense against an even-front defense in football to the best back-line alignment in soccer to protect a goalie.

But as the saying goes, regardless of the sport, “If their folks are better than your folks, then their folks win.” I always tell coaches of good teams the better their team performs, the more people who want to coach them.

I try not to be “that guy” but there are times when I think, ”Well, that’s not what I would have done,” as if I know the first thing about how to coach a field hockey, soccer or volleyball team, which I don’t! The latest are the safety patrol people who know things about pylon placement and grass height, always backing up arguments with “what’s best for the kids.” So many people are so nice, but a relative few are all the way out of their minds.

THE PROJECT - You know the political process is flawed when men who shop for trombones at the Earle Teat music store in Delmar are allowed to cast votes on zoning-change requests here on the east side. I always told my students as they squirmed and sank deeper into their seats to just drive around the resort area, and whatever they saw probably wasn’t here in 1975. Developers have won 90 percent of the pitched battles; just thank the Coastal Zone Act for giving us ordinary citizens access to the ocean and keeping out The Wild Mouse. Remember how building a bike trail inside the state park was a bad idea for the environmental twins – flora and fauna – until it was realized that includes us, and chiggers got to suck and hog-nosed snakes got to slither, and life attracts life, so it’s all good. Turns out deer like us if we’re not armed to the teeth. Heck, they even pose for pictures. And what is a shopping center if not a human zoo? It will give the Cadbury crew somewhere to roll. Who knows I may be living there in a few years? Quiet is way overrated!

GOOD WILL HUNTING - Will Leonard just turned 24, graduated from Cape in 2004 and is working toward his psychology degree matriculating at Delaware Tech, specializing in human services in Georgetown, where he carries a 3.7 GPA. Will is one of my heroes, a self-sufficient, literally roll-with-the-flow, soul-of-a-poet dude plagued by an exotic, progressive illness called spastic paraparesis. Will has a pump embedded under the skin of his abdomen, which releases nuclear medicine into his system.

On Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Food Lion in Milton, there will be a bake sale to raise money for Will to re-outfit his car with hand controls so he can continue to be independent and drive himself to college. I think the cost of rigging his car is $1,400, so if you are reading this, please cut and paste on your refrigerator door and make it over to Food Lion in Milton on Oct. 17, pick up a cupcake or make a donation.

Lots of fundraisers out there - perhaps too many - but this is one person battling back and we can help him.

End of story!