Why Bowa and not Wade

The Philadelphia Phillies came into the 2004 season with great expectations. There were picked by most supposed baseball experts to win the National League East and this was certainly to be the year Phillies had a chance to make some noise in the playoffs.

Instead, as is often the case in Philadelphia these expectations were not met and the answer according to owner David Montgomery and company was to fire manager Larry Bowa.

Bowa took over this team in 2001 after the horrific Terry Francona era and turned this team around with a 86-76 in his very first year, a 21 game improvement over the previous team's mark. Bowa proceeded to have winning seasons in the two of the next three years (80-81 in 2002), including back to back winning seasons in 2003 and 2004 for the first time in two decades. And with two games remaining in the 2004 campaign amidst swirling rumors that Bowa's days were numbered, Wade did the unthinkable and fired Larry Bowa. He fired the man that excited this town about baseball again and he did it to save his own skin.

Bowa was the scapegoat in a sinking ship that had problems from the top for years before Bowa even got here. More specifically, the past seven years in which Ed Wade was the General Manager of this franchise. Wade refuses to go the extra mile and do the things necessary to make this team a winner and this year was the culmination of all his mistakes in years past as he brought in Paul Abbott as the answer to fill the void after Vicente Padilla's went down with injury. Abbott actually pitched in 11 games for the Phillies that resulted in one lone win and Wade did nothing to help Bowa's staff.

In addition to the Abbott debacle, it was quite apparent a month into the season that Marlon Byrd was not the answer in the centerfield and the Wade did absolutely nothing to remedy this situation either. Phillies fans were promised years ago that the Phillies could not compete without a new ballpark, but for the second consecutive year Wade stood pat at the trading deadline and claimed he did all he could to pull off a blockbuster trade. Phillies fans are not stupid and are tired of hearing who the team went after or could have gotten. Just get it done and make no excuses!

Bowa is not a hall of fame manager and flaws he does have, but what more can you ask of a man than to finish 10 games over .500 with key injuries, Abbott on the mound and no centerfielder.

Bowa is not the reason this pathetic franchise failed to make the post-season for the tenth time in as many years. Ed Wade and Dave Montgomery alike have done nothing to change this team's misfortunes of only having one world championship in their over 100 years of existence. They are the reason the Phillies remain the worst franchise in the history of professional sports.

All Larry Bowa wanted to was change those years of losing and it he wanted to do it more than anything. The Phillies did not give the necessary weapons during the season to finish the job and simply put: the Phillies did him wrong.

T.O. and Donovan not the key to an Eagles Super Bowl

The Philadelphia Eagles are off to a scorching 4-0 start and fans across the Philadelphia area are once again talking Super Bowl.  And why shouldn't they be? 

After watching the rest of the NFC play for a couple weeks it is easy to think that this is the year for the Philadelphia Eagles to finally get over the hump and head into the Super Bowl.  The addition of Terrell Owens to the team has made the Eagles offense an instant force to be reckoned with and although it is early, Donovan McNabb is looking like an MVP candidate. He currently has 1168 yards passing, nine touchdown passes and only one interception through the first four games.

The Eagles defense has also been surprisingly strong thus far, with the additions of Jevon Kearse, Hugh Douglass and Jeremiah Trotter.  They have helped solidify the Eagles front seven and in effect given the young cornerbacks of Lito Shephard and Sheldon Brown more margin for error.

However this Eagles season does not rest on the ability of the Eagles to stop the run, or contrary to popular opinion the McNabb to T.O. touchdown machine.  The key to this Eagles season and the man that makes this offense click is running back Brian Westbrook. 

Westbrook is the most valuable player on this team and he is the guy the Eagles can most ill afford to lose.  The Eagles could survive for a couple games without Donovan or even a T.O., but without Westbrook this Eagles ship would surely sink.  Now obviously a season ending injury to any of these big three would spell trouble for the Eagles, but losing Westbrook would be the most difficult loss to over come. 

  His ability to catch and run with the football keeps opposing defenses honest and defensive coordinators around the league are unable to just tee off on Donovan and double team T.O.  They are forced to account for this little kid from Villanova, and even though he does not have a touchdown this year his 557 total yards on 87 opens up a number of things for the rest of this offense.  Unfortunately, unlike last year Westbrook does not have Duce Staley and to a lesser degree Correll Buckhalter to help shoulder the load. 

  This season it is Brian Westbrook or bust for the Eagles 2004 Super Bowl campaign and as long as Andy Reid can limit his touches to about 20 or so a game there is no reason to believe that Westbrook cannot lead the Eagles past the NFC Championship game this year.

Thumbs up to WIP

All talk, all sports radio is a great thing and 610 WIP has been a great radio station in Philadelphia over the past couple decades.  In recent years though, they have gone backwards, resembling more of a circus that a sports-talk radio station in certain instances.

However this was the case for about the past six weeks from the 3pm -7pm shift on the radio.  Host, Howard Eskin who usually occupies this time slot was suspended for remarks he made on the radio in regards to Allen Iverson's attorney a couple of years back, and WIP did more than just fill the air ways for those four hours.

They went back to the past having more player interviews and brought back some old favorites that have left in recent (and in some cases not so recent) years. 

One week they had current WIP host Glen Macnow host shows with current Eagles Freddie Mitchell and Hugh Douglas.  That same week Glen worked with former Eagles great quarterback Ron Jaworski for a show and they even had good old Buddy Ryan on the for a two hour stretch, who is always a joy to listen too. 

It was refreshing to actually hear sports talk and analyst from those who have played it, but WIP did not stop there.  They had a week with "S" and "M" on the air, the duo of recently retired Steve Fredericks and Mike Missanelli (who had previously left to join 93.3 FM, WMMR) that is, with the two arguing amongst each other, it brought back fond memories of years past.   Fans also had a chance and the pleasure to listen to "Mac and Mac" again as the station brought back the popular Jody "do me a favor" MacDonald to the station to work with his old partner in Macnow. 

It has been an enjoyable several weeks and hopefully the station listens to their listeners and gets rid of some the garbage on the air like Angelo Cataldi's morning show.  Philadelphia fans are passionate, not stupid and want to hear their sports talked about in a knowledgeable, informative manner.

 
Have and questions or comments?Agree/Disagree?Send all responses to blkovack@yahoo.com.