It is still baseball season in Philadelphia

Phillies 8-21-09

The Phillies just defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 12-3, Jayson Werth has hit 5 home runs in his last 5 games, Shane Victorino hit his 10th triple, the team is tied with the Pirates for top fielding percentage and only the Blue Jays have committed fewer errors, only the Yankees, LA Dodgers and Angels have a better winning percentage, and the pitching (starting and relief--minus Brad Lidge) has been great.

Now, the Eagles had their second preseason game tonight, and thankfully people were more interested in the NL East pennant race involving the defending world champions than if Michael Vick took any snaps in a Wildcat formation (more to come on that nonsense in a later post). The Eagles did lose 23-15 to the Colts though but don't panic. The preseason is all about avoiding injury.

Donovan McNabb did go 5-7, 77 yards, and a TD. DeSean Jackson had 2 catches, scored a TD, and finished with 46 yards. Look out for Bradon Gibson. The 6th round pick has a shot to be the 6th receiver kept with this group.

Back to the Phillies though, Citizens Bank Park witnessed it's 7th largest crowd last night and tonight's attendance was over 45,000...another sellout.

The culture in the this "town" (6th largest in the U.S.) may slowly be changing in a positive direction. (Not to mention we even have a MLS team coming..the Philadelphia Union but they actually play in Chester...close enough). But for many years all the average Philadelphia sports fan cared about was the Eagles, something Jimmy Rollins spoke about a few seasons ago. How quickly a team can become popular after they bring a title to a city that has been yearning for one for 25 years.

Quick, everyone jump on the Sixers bandwagon now while their stock price is low, then when they have big success in a few years you can say that you liked them when they were fighting to make the playoffs.

Little sports side note...Chad Ochocinco (Johnson) successfully kicked an extra point and had a kickoff go to the 10 yard line. That was one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time...or maybe the pure shock rendered me unable to speak for a few minutes.