A CITIZEN'S BLOG

The Phillies loss to the Padres last night runs their record since June 8 to six wins and nineteen losses. C’est la vie.

Jon Lieber starts tonight for the Phillies against the Pirates. I expect Lieber to have some rust, so I am just hoping for a solid five innings out of him tonight. Bottom-line though is that the Phillies really, really need to win this series and start to make a little ground. The Phillies are presently six games out of the wildcard. There are seven teams ahead of them. Now is the time to start winning.

I see that the Eagles training camp starts on July 20. This time of year I am sorely tempted to bring back The Bird Blog, my old Eagles blog that I ran off-and-on back in ’04 and ’05. Sure, they are coming off a 6-10 campaign, have some holes (why doesn’t this team add a running back or two?), and need to clean up from the T.O. mess, but you feel like the Eagles organization has the intelligence and skill to make things happen. You look at Andy Reid, Joe Banner and Donovan McNabb and you have to think: “These are pretty savvy guys, they’ll get the job done.” You don’t feel that with the Phillies, do you?

What to look forward to? The All-Star game is being played five miles from my house (I live in the South Hills of Pittsburgh), but I am curiously uninterested in it. I have no clue why. Tuesday I am planning on my annual State of the Phillies Address. (Click here to read 2005's version.) I am also working on a post about the Phillies bullpen.

Have a nice weekend.