The 2008 World Series celebration began in earnest again
Pat Burrell became the first player from the Phillies 2008 World Series championship team to be honored on the Citizens Bank Park wall of fame last weekend. This will become an annual occurrence for at least the next six years. I am guessing that "closer" Brad Lidge will probably be the next one honored.
The Phillies have to wait until all of the other very good players on that team are retired. At some point, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels will join their teammates on the wall.
This week Jimmy Rollins came back into town with his new team the Los Angeles Dodgers. Of course we all know the Dodgers are in first place in the National League West. I actually got to go to the last game of that three game series. When the Phillies offense scores 8 runs, they should win, but that was not enough against LA.
The Phillies lost 10-8, but went down fighting in the ninth inning by having the tying runs on base. Their hopes were sunk on a line drive double play by the Adrian Gonzalez. Even with the loss, it was a great game to enjoy in person. If the Dodgers make the playoffs, I will be rooting for them to go all the way.
The 2016 Summer Olympics are just one year away. Let's hope the Brazilian government has made much progress in terms of creating the infrastructure needed to host the games. For the first time in 112 years, golf will be part of the Olympics. It will be quite interesting to see how most of the players will react to having another huge event on the calendar. This will affect next year's major championship season in a big way. They will need to move the British Open up a few weeks and the PGA Championship into July.
Even though it is Chip Kelly's third season with the Eagles, this is a put up or shut up year for him. He has changed most of the key offensive personnel by having the often injured Sam Bradford replace Nick Foles as quarterback and took Demarco Murray from the Cowboys. It also seems like many of the departing players are full of sour grapes.
If the team is not successful, the talk radio chatter in Philly will be dominated with griping fans. Lets hope that doesn't happen. I'm counting on all the changes to be a positive payoff this season.
GO Eagles!
