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.

Being a fan of Philadelphia sports teams really sucks at the moment. We haven’t said that in a long time. I’m talking about sustained depression, not the momentary agony of an Eagles defeat.

Before October rolled around, the Philadelphia sports fan was still in the glow of a Phillies team headed for a deep run in the playoffs and an Eagles team that had flaws but that figured to be in the postseason hunt. The Flyers were entering the season with a top goalie and a lot of changes but a load of talent. However, lingering in the back of our minds was the NBA lockout.

The newly signed Papelbon.

The Phillies led wire-to-wire in the National League East and finished with 102 victories. Three of those victories the final weekend of the season versus the Atlanta Braves doomed them to face the sizzling hot St. Louis Cardinals. Between Cliff Lee not being able to hold a 4-0 lead and an offense that never lived up to expectations, the Phillies lost in the first round. That championship season of 2008 is fading away fast and an aging team is headed into a season of uncertainty, despite the signing of all-star closer Jonathan Papelbon. (Go here for more pictures by Tom Briglia)

I picked the Eagles to be 11-5. Call me stupid but I wasn’t the only one. Nobody figured the Birds to be 3-6 at this point in the season. Going by my predictions in the final games, the Eagles will now finish 6-10. It could get ugly this Sunday night against the Giants with Vince “Dream Team” Young as the likely starting QB for an injured Michael Vick.

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After more than 70 years, the Maxwell Awards, a football awards gala, has a new Web site with video from last weekend’s event at The Pool at Harrah’s.

Check it out.

Snowed in Lincoln Financial Field.

I got up, took a shower and got dressed this morning in order to check out my car and see how bad it was outside. Managed to get about 10 feet from my car when I hit a drift and went hip deep into the snow as I looked up and saw that my car was pretty much plowed in.

So, it’s back to the computer and working from home today. I almost have that same giddy feeling I felt when I knew that school had been canceled. Of course there is no way I’m going out in that mess.

Even the NFL decided it was too dangerous to have fans going to the Linc last night for the Eagles game that could have been played if it had started at its original time of 1pm before the snow got too bad. So much for the flex schedule, now we get to look forward to Tuesday Night Football!

If you’re a football fan that bleeds Eagles green, you are smiling today, even if you have a pinched nerve in your back that hurts like a son of a bitch if you stand for more than a minute.

But enough about me. How about that Eagles offense? Let us recap perfection. First play from scrimmage, Michael Vick throws an 88-yard bomb to DeSean Jackson. After the 78-million dollar man, Donovan McNabb, goes three and out, the Eagles go 63 yards on five plays capped off by a Vick scamper into the house.
Next time Eagles get the ball, on a McNabb interception to rookie Kurt Coleman, Vick brings back a McNabb-Westbrook favorite, the shovel pass, connecting with LeSean McCoy for an 11-yard score. And, just to make new Eagles running back Jerome Harrison feel warm and fuzzy and part of the fun, he dances his way to an impressive 50-yard touchdown run for the record-breaking 28-0 first quarter.

Game over. The Eagles broke all sorts of records in the 59-28 win, including most points in a first quarter and most yards in a game, 592. Vick threw for four touchdowns and ran for two more, the best quarterback performance in a regular season game in the history of the franchise. I think it’s safe to say he will be named offensive player of the week.

This performance, which displayed all of the Birds’ explosive offensive weapons, will make for some interesting event planning for the Giants before they arrive at Lincoln Financial Field for a Sunday night showdown with the Eagles. And, just as an afterthought, the Eagles defense played well too, picking off three McNabb passes and controlling the Redskins ground game. Granted, their offensive did all the heavy lifting, but it will be very interesting to see the betting line for the next big NFC East match-up.

Eli’s coming but Michael Vick has arrived.

What a weekend for a fan of Philly sports teams and the Chatsworth Cranberry Festival.
A busy weekend started with the fabulous 27th Chatsworth Cranberry Festival Saturday (Oct. 16). Thank God I only buy sticky buns made with Craisins once a year — Mom and I had three buns a piece over the weekend when we brought them home from the festival.
The weather was grand and the bus tour to the Haines Cranberry Farm was informative and really cool.
The music by the country cover band Bullzeye (with a few original tunes thrown in) was entertaining and the food choices range from grilled scallops and crab cakes sandwiches to ribs, burgers, gyros, several variations on French fries and numerous other goodies.

Normally I wouldn’t bring this up but the port-a-potties at the festival are the cleanest I have ever seen.

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Werth homers (Tom Briglia/PhotoGraphics Photography)

Saturday evening Phillies fans had to deal with an unexpected 4-3 lose to the San Francisco Giants in the over-hyped Roy Halladay vs. Tim Lincecum duel. Check out my series preview here. The Phillies had not lost a game one in the postseason since they were sweep by the Rockies. I expected that ex-Marlin and Phillies killer Cody Ross would be a pest in this series but two home runs against Halladay? Really?

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Sunday afternoon started out with the Eagles playing their best game of the season while smacking around the 4-1 Atlanta Falcons, 31-17. Kevin Kolb is going to make it awfully hard for coach Andy Reid to bench him again when Michael Vick comes back from his chest injury. The Birds are 4-2 and tied with the N.Y. Giants in the NFC East. That horrible hit on DeSean Jackson aside (he has a bad concussion), the Eagles looked like a football that is going places, which cannot be said of the Dallas Cowboys, who lost to the Vikings and are now 1-4.

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Goodbye No. 5.

Donovan McNabb will now try to take the Washington Redskins to the playoffs after the stunning trade announcement last night. Go here for the story.

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 my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

Phillies fans remember the pain of the 2007 playoffs. Back in the postseason for the first time since 1993, the team ran into a buzzsaw, the Colorado Rockies, who smoked the Phillies in a three game sweep.

The repeat bid begins today. Photo by: Tom Briglia / PhotoGraphics Photography

That was then. This is now. The 2009 Phillies are the defending 2008 World Series Champions. While many of the players are the same on both teams (Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins; Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, Brad Hawpe) there are key differences. The Rockies don’t have Matt Holliday; the Phillies have Cliff Lee, who starts today, and the home run pop provided by Raul Ibanez. The Phillies didn’t have “Lights Out” Lidge in 2007.

Ah, all right, the Phillies don’t have Lights Out Lidge this year either. They have a version of Brad Lidge that has 11 blown saves with a 0-8 record and a 7.21 ERA. The back of the Phillies bullpen will be the biggest concern as the series begins at 2:37 this afternoon. Damn that schedule that disses the World Champions.

The Phillies lefty-dominated pitching will be a big advantage vs. the Rockies. The Rockies are barely .500 against left-handed pitching. Lee cooled off after winning his first five games as a Phillie, but one of his early wins was against the Rockies. Cole Hamels has had a rollercoaster season, but he is still the defending World Series MVP. Rookie-of-the-Year candidate J.A. Happ pitched a complete game shutout against the Rockies, which is why he will not be in the bullpen for this series; instead, Phillies manager Charlie Manual added lefty Antonio Bastardo to the roster in a surprise move.

Both these teams can hit. The Phillies led the National League in homers and runs scored (224, 820); the Rockies (190, 804) were second in both categories. The Rockies have the “lights out” bullpen with set-up man Rafael Betancourt and closer Hudson Street.

The pick: The Phillies will need to out slug the Rockies, and they will, winning in four games.

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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 my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

This is the best time of the year to be a Philadelphia-area sports fan. Despite a few stumbles down the stretch, the Phillies will be in the hunt to repeat as World Series Champions. With the Eagles three games in, the Flyers opening their season this Friday (Oct. 2) and the Sixers soon to follow on Oct. 28, we could have a

I hope to carve another pumpkin this year.

four-team day of victories, assuming the Phillies make it to the World Series, scheduled to begin on Oct. 28.
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In addition to all the excitement generated by the Eagles and Phillies, we have some exciting sports news in the Atlantic City region. It has just been announced this week that ice hockey is returning to Boardwalk Hall. It is not a pro team, but college’s ECAC Hockey will have its Men’s Championship at the Hall rink in 2011 through 2013. The event will bring the elite ECAC Hockey conference, comprised of 12 of the most prestigious men’s ice hockey programs in the nation, to town. Schools in the ECAC are Brown, Clarkson, Colgate, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Quinnipiac, Rensselaer, St. Lawrence, Union and Yale.  The two most recent sites for the tournament have been Albany and Lake Placid, New York. Tickets for the tournament are expected to go on sale mid-2010. For more information about ECAC Hockey, visit here

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Ryan Madsen

I’m old enough to remember the Phillies collapse of 1964. I was only eleven so the details are fuzzy, but I remember the pain most of all. My dad was a sportswriter covering the team so like the rest of the Phillies fans, I thought the World Series appearance was in the bag. I felt fortunate. This was my first year as a Phillies fan. The year before I was devastated when my beloved Yankees (Mantle, Maris, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra) lost the World Series to the Koufax and Drysdale-led Dodgers. I had switched teams and leagues.

I’ve been feeling just a hint of stale ’64 around the edges this past week as the Phillies remained a team with no closer they could depend upon, while the Braves have been on a tear, winning fourteen of sixteen. It helps that the Phillies inflicted their only two losses in that stretch. The Fightins’ 5-5 road trip has reduced their magic number to three games with seven left to play. The Braves have conceded the division; they are concentrating on overtaking the Rockies for the wild card spot.

The starting pitching remains solid, but it seems that every pitcher audition for the closer role is suffering from a case of stage fright. Brad Lidge was not going to be perfect in 2009 but who could have imagined 11 blown saves? Ryan Madsen has looked decent in the role; he certainly has a strong enough fastball for the job.

With seven games at home to go, against Houston and the Fish, the Phillies should wrap it up in the next few days.

Forgive me, however, for not counting on it until the magic number is zero.

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The Eagles were awfully lucky to have such a weak opponent to face this week, following the horrible outing against the Saints. The Kansas City Chiefs were just what the doctor ordered to the tune of 34-14.

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It’s the opening of the NFL season for the Eagles, so I basically take the day off from the fest to check out the game at Hoops, my favorite Toronto sports bar. I might even ask them to set me up with both the Eagles-Panthers game and the Phillies-Mets. The Eagles are such a puzzle, especially with the offensive line and now I hear Brian Westbrook might not play. I have no idea what to expect.

I’m not skipping the fest entirely. I have a screening of the new Robert Duvall film, Get Low, at 10am and after football, a roller derby publicity event with the stars of Whip-It, the derby themed flick with which Drew Barrymore is making her directorial debut.

Below is a picture of the self-titled “Bench Babes,” a bunch of fun-loving friends from Ottawa who were in Toronto for the weekend and wanted me to take their picture at the bar where I had dinner. They aren’t a team or anything, they just all bought the same sweater.

The Bench Babes