Capt. Jim Fowler and crew with a nice haul of mahi and tuna.

There’s no better table fare than fresh tuna, and no, that’s not a reference to cans of Starkist the neighborhood ACME recently stocked on its shelves. It refers to fresh fish taken out of local waters by charter boats and offshore anglers, and this year has been an exceptional one regarding tuna and other large quarry caught off the southern New Jersey coast.

By “offshore” we mean the deep-water canyons about 60 to 80 miles out, among them the Hudson, Toms, Carteret, Lindenkohl, Spencer, Wilmington, Baltimore and Poor Mans that yield such big-game quarry as tuna, marlin, mahi-mahi, wahoo and swordfish. These are deep-water predators that you won’t find close to shore, and ones that put up the kind of fight you’d better be prepared to wage for a long time if the fish has any kind of size to it.

Last Saturday, Aug. 21, Atlantic City Weekly associate editor Ray Schweibert went on his second-ever offshore fishing trip aboard his buddy Jim Kay’s spectacular Viking sport-fisher Deep Blue out of Brigantine. For more on this thrilling adventure, go here.

Lou Pinella is restrained by an umpire.

I happened to catch the farewell press conference for retiring Cubs manager Lou Pinella on ESPN. Turns out the Tom Hanks character in A League of Their Own was wrong — there is crying in baseball.

Well known as one of the fiery and toughest son of bitches to ever put on a baseball uniform, as both a player and coach, Pinella lost it during the press conference at the thought of putting on a baseball uniform for the final time. He was originally going to wait until the end of the season to retire, but his mother has been ill and he felt that his lack of concentration on baseball was not fair to the team.

I happy ending would have included a win, but instead the Cubs got pounded by the Atlantic Braves 16-5.

Check out the video:

We already knew that college hockey is scheduled for Boardwalk Hall in 2011 with the ECAC Hockey Men’s Championship.

With an official announcement scheduled for Tuesday will come the news that the AHL and ECHL, the two major American-based minor leagues for the National Hockey League, will be playing several games at Boardwalk Hall. New Jersey Devils affiliates, the Albany Devils of the AHL and the Trenton Devils of the ECHL (who were known as the Trenton Titans when they battled the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies) will play a total of five games. We will have to wait for the announcement to find out if those games are taking place in 2011. The games are being sponsored by the Atlantic City Convention & Visitors Authority and Caesars Atlantic City.

The announcement at 11am Tuesday, Aug. 24, at Boardwalk Hall will also feature a demonstration of hockey skills for local kids from the Boys and Girls Club by former Devils Ken Daneyko, Bruce Driver and Grant Marshall.

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or what’s happening in the region. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly.

The Phillies are hot and are at home for their longest stretch of the season, with two more games against the Giants, three games against Washington and four games against Houston. Add in the return of Chase Utley, and the expected return of Ryan Howard later this week, and the Fightins should be in first place soon — at least on paper. Problem is, the games aren’t played on paper.

Roy Oswalt (Photos by: Tom Briglia / PhotoGraphics Photography)

During what looks like a soft stretch for the Phils, excluding the two games with the Giants, Atlanta is not exactly facing murder’s row themselves. They have two more games at home against Washington (where they are 43-16, the best home record in the majors), followed by a road trip against the fading Cubs and three against Colorado, ten games back in the west.

Both the Phillies and the Braves have great starting pitching and have done well despite major injuries (Chipper Jones is lost for the season). The Braves have the better bullpen but the Phillies have a much better offense.

When the Phillies still had their best players on the field, they had a horrible stretch beginning in late May. The entire team went in a slump that could really not be explained. Three shutout losses to the Mets was the nadir of that stretch.

In the same way, the Phillies going 19-5 while Utley was out, Placido Polanco was just getting back and both Shane Victorino and Howard landed on the DL cannot be explained either.

Sure, Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth got hot, Carlos Ruiz delivered key hits, GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. got Roy Oswalt, and the back end of the bullpen started pitching like it was 2008 again, but Jimmy Rollins was still popping up on the first pitch and the middle relief was no relief at all.

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Chooch Ruiz gets mobbed after winning hit.

The Phillies grabbed momentum by the throat last night and this time they are not going to let it slip away.

What an amazing comeback last night. If you changed the channel and never looked back after the Phillies slipped into a 9-2 hole in the top of the eight, you missed the most amazing win of the season. How amazing? Danys Baez was the only relief pitcher who didn’t give up a run and he got the win.

The Phillies made it a game in the eighth inning by scoring four runs to make the score 9-6. Then in the ninth the team got to torture Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton once again. He must have nightmares when he sees Phillies pinstripes.

He hit Placido Polanco. Mike Sweeney fought off some tough pitches and earned a nine-pitch walk. Jayson Werth then walked to load the bases for Ben Francisco. Ben hit a double play grounder, but … oops! Dodgers third baseman Casey Blake let it go through his legs for a two run error. Now the score was 9-8 with Mr. Clutch, Carlos Ruiz, coming to the plate. He scalded a Broxton slider off the centerfield wall and the Phillies celebrated a 10-9 victory as a nice appetizer before a three game set against the Mets in New York beginning tonight.

A small measure of credit goes to Larry Bowa, the Dodgers third base coach. According to Phillies broadcaster Tom McCarthy, Bowa told him before the game he was worried about “Johnny Bench” tonight. “Johnny Bench?” asked McCarthy. Said Bowa, “Yeah, Carlos Ruiz kills us!”

That he does, Larry, that he does.

Atlantic City might not have legal sports betting but the town becomes a central hub for two major fantasy football leagues in the fall. On Sept. 10-11, the World Championship of Fantasy Football will have its draft at the Sheraton Atlantic City.

Based in St. Louis, the WCOFF buy-in is $1,800 and the top prize is $300,000 and an all expenses paid trip to Dallas for the Super Bowl. This organization also has a  $25,000 buy-in Platinum League.

On Sept. 10, RosterDoc.com, which presents the RotoBowl, will have their fantasy draft at the Atlantic City Convention Center, with a $259 entry fee. The top prize is $20,000 plus two tickets to the Super Bowl.

The WCOFF also has drafts in Chicago, Orlando and Las Vegas.

The deadline for registering for the live RotoBowl draft in Atlantic City is Sept. 9, but players can participate in drafts online beginning Sept. 5.

Registration deadline for the WCOFF AC draft is Aug. 25, and two Main Event drafts will take place on Sept. 10 at 7pm and Sept. 11 at 1pm.

The schedule and national television coverage for the fourth annual Legends Classic men’s college basketball tournament have been completed. Go here for the story.

The Brigantine Beach Volleyball Association (BBVA)’s fifth annual Steve Hopp Memorial Volleyball Tournament is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 8.
For the second straight year, the BBVA is awarding two deserving Atlantic County senior high school volleyball players with $500 cash scholarships in Hopp’s memory. Additionally, volleyball camp sponsorships will be awarded to non-senior athletes to better their volleyball skills. (more…)

Join the AC Weekly Happy Hour Club starting 5:30pm Thursday, Aug. 5, at Game On!

The sixth exciting installment of Atlantic City Weekly’s summer Happy Hour Club series will take place this Thursday evening, Aug. 5, at Game On! sports bar on the third level of The Pier Shops at Caesars.
The AC Weekly Happy Hour Club series is open to the public, and takes place from 5:30-7:30pm on select Thursdays. It includes $3 beers and wines, $4 Red Bull mixed drinks and a complimentary light fare buffet. You can join our mobile list by texting ACWDRINK to 47201.

This week’s AC Weekly Happy Hour had been scheduled at Sonsie (Game On!’s Lyons Group sister property also located on The Pier Shops’ third level), but some schedule shuffling was necessary. We hope to see you Thursday at Game On! starting 5:30pm!

Nobody in professional sports likes to use injuries as an excuse for their team not doing well. But fans can wail and moan as much as they like. It is amazing that the Phillies are nine games above .500 (57-48) considering that nearly every position player has spent some time on the DL plus a bunch of pitchers.

Here is the DL list to date: Placido Polanco, Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Carlos Ruiz and Brian Schneider, with Ryan Howard soon to join the list. I know he said he didn’t think he had to go on the DL, but ankle sprains are tricky.

The pitchers who have spent time on the disabled list are Ryan Madsen, the since-traded J.A. Happ, Brad Lidge, Joe Blanton, Jamie Moyer (done for the season), and Chad Durbin.

Yet, with all these injuries, the Phillies managed to string together their best stretch of the season, winning eight games in a row, and nine of 11.

Now with the trade that brought them Roy Oswalt, the Phillies are poised to continue to make a run to catch the division-leading Atlanta Braves, who are three games up on the Fightins’. We won’t get Utley back for another month, but Wilson Valdez has done an adequate job filling in.

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