phils win opener

By the 4th inning the game was too boring to watch and I switched to radio, where the pauses were long and frequent. Cole Hamels was fine. He went two innings. In the end the Phillies beat the Yankees 5-4. The only reason to watch tomorrow's game, again against the Yankees, is that it will be in Clearwater. Joe Blanton starts.

sixers make it back to .500

It may not sound like much but with last night's win over the conflicted Detroit Pistons, the Sixers made it back to .500 for the first time in a couple of years. It's been a long road and all the credit goes to Doug Collins, a marvelous coach, and his team, for buying into Collins' system, which starts with defense. The Sixers are fun to watch. As Collins keeps saying, eight of the guys on the team are 22 or younger. Thank goodness that Andre Iguodala, an oldster of 26 and a true defensive presence, was not traded.

bits and pieces

Let's hope that this news is just a blip: Chase Utley will miss today's game with the Yankees with continued 'body soreness'. Jimmy Rollins will also be out but that's because his return from Washington was delayed.

The Phillies beat the Florida State team 8-0 on Thursday. The pitching, which included no regulars, was of interest. Relievers Michael Stutes and Justin De Fratus stood out.

After a buzz this week that Chad Durbin might be headed back to the Phillies, albeit on a minor league contract, Durbin signed a major league deal with the Cleveland Indians. Durbin was a good guy. I wish him well.

Bob Brookover finally had a worthwhile article, in Thursday's Inky, about the surprising role that Danys Baez had last year in helping Jose Contreras become a reliever, a role that Contreras is now prepared to relish. http://articles.philly.com/2011-02-24/sports/28623639_1_danys-baez-jose-contreras-phillies

inaugural game

Going through some flotsam and jetsam from baseball games past, I came upon this coupon from an A's-Devil Rays' game, then noticed that it said Inaugural Game. Sure enough, 1998 was the year that the Devil Rays, now the Rays, debuted. I don't even remember being at that particular game, the first played between the two team, but I must have been. I wonder if the ticket is kicking around somewhere.

The Phillies today play the first game of spring training, with Florida State University. Chase Utley will not play because of soreness and Jimmy Rollins will miss the game because he's been invited to the White House for a Motown gala. Wow! Amazingly, some people are actually questioning whether Rollins should be playing. Right, skip the White House for an inconsequential game with college kids.

On Monday Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals was the subject of debate about the Cards' opening day starter. On Tuesday, he was, sadly , being talked about for season-ending surgery. No rhyme or reason to these things. It could happen anytime to any pitcher on any team.

it should happen to you

The other night I happened to see an excellent 1950's movie called It Should Happen to You, starring the brilliant Judy Holliday and introducing Jack Lemmon. At one point in the movie, the day's scores are given, including St. Louis 10, Philadelphia 9 and Philadelphia 6, Brooklyn 5. Ah ha, this movie was made while the Athletics were still in Philadelphia---and sure enough, released in January 1954, the flick was made in 1953. Owner Connie Mack packed up his ball team at the end of that season and took them to Kansas City, which turned out to be a stop on the way to Oakland.

Even now, the Philadelphia Athletics are the most successful franchise in Philadelphia sports history, winning five world championships between 1910 and 1930. In 1996. Ernie Montella founded the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia. When Montella started the organization, which functions as a museum and gift shop, some 120 former members of the Philadelphia A's teams were still alive. That number is now down to about 40. The volunteers who run the museum and shop are also aging and fewer young baseball fans even know about the Athletics' history in Philadelphia, though some of it is featured at the Phillies' park.

Shop sales have been the main part of the museum's revenue but, thanks in part to the economy, those sales have declined in recent years. As a result, the society is now forced to think about closing down or perhaps finding a taker for its collection of memorabilia.

I've been to the museum a couple of times but not for several years. It was sad to read this news online. As soon as the weather shapes up, I shall have to take a drive to Hatboro.

jimmy does the hazelnuts

Well, Jimmy Rollins did not quite read hazelnuts, as Elif Shafak has a clairvoyant character doing in her excellent novel The Bastard of Istanbul, but over the weekend Rollins made his annual prediction for the season. What he sees is 100 wins, and most likely more, if all stay healthy and the pitching, hitting, and defense all do what they should do. Oh, and fortunetellers in Turkey really do read hazelnuts.

chooch love

This morning's Inky shows a lot of love--much deserved, of course--for Carlos Ruiz, all about how the rotation feels about him, which is pretty much how the fans now feel about him.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20110220_Inside_the_Phillies__Carlos_Ruiz_the_muse_for_the_Phillies__pitching_staff.html?viewAll=y

hockey day in america

When I went looking for the Flyers-Rangers game on TV at noon, I found out that today was Hockey Day in America, which meant a lot of hockey on TV, I guess. I ended up listening to the game on the radio, going back and forth between the Philadelphia and New York coverage. The Flyers won 4-2. To listen to the Rangers' broadcasters, the game hinged on what they called a 'terrible call', which gave the Flyers a power play and soon a 2-1 lead. That was in the second period, but I guess Ranger hockey stops there. The hometown team made it 3-2 but an empty-netter with a minute left in the third 'iced' the game. The New York crew kept belaboring the call. What a bunch of homers.

chase doesn't talk--so what

Chase Utley is in camp and doing his bland-best Derek Jeter impersonation. The media is again all over him for it, as if it really matters whether Utley bares his soul to the media or the fans. Does it mean he is less of a player? Last month one of the local media lowlifes attacked Roy Halladay for giving the media, and by extension the fans, little or nothing. Is the media an extension of the fans? Not quite the way I look at it but maybe others think just that.

Monday's presser with the starting five highlighted the 'lack of ego' among these guys. They don't buy into the hype and they don't seek publicity. All they want to do is play the games and win. So long as they are 'character' guys, I don't care what they do off the field. It's what they do on it that counts. All the rest is fluff. Interesting at times, amusing at times, dismaying at times--but fluff. What I have loved about these Phillies is that, despite their star status, they are more about team than about self-aggrandizement.

Covering spring training must be tough work if media members are already whining, before full-squad workouts even start, about Chase Utley's reticence. The only bad thing about Utley not talking much is that we don't get many chances to hear is voice, which has got to be the sexiest in baseball.

Interesting how the Albert Pujols' negotiations seem to vindicate Ruben Amaro and the front office for locking up Ryan Howard. They saw this day as a possibility, appreciated what they had in Howard, and went for cost certainty. By the end of Howard's contract, it may well look like a bargain. In baseball terms, that is. As for Pujols, could it be DC here he comes?

raring to go

Yesterday pitching coach Rich Dubee said that Cole Hamels is in such good shape that he could start a game tomorrow. Now, though full-squad practices start only on Saturday, it's the turn for position players. Jimmy Rollins, a perennial last-day arrival at camp, is already there and supposedly in great shape. The now-bearded Raul Ibanez is showing the results of his intensive off-season workouts, which he was not able to do last year coming off of surgery. Domonic Brown has added 10 pounds of muscle. Chase Utley too looks in muscled form. Placido Polanco, who played injured for most of last year, reportedly feels fantastic. Only Ryan Howard admits to his injured ankle being at about 90%, while lefty reliever Antonio Bastardo has a tender elbow. Stay healthy, my friends.

comings and goings

The Phillies claimed RHP Brian Schlitter off waivers from the Yankees and designated RHP Andrew Carpenter for assignment. Schlitter, a Phillie farmhand, was traded to the Cubs in 2008 in the Scott Eyre deal. Carpenter, a pitcher I never enjoyed watching, seemed stuck in Triple A, and he may just end up again in the Lehigh Valley. Ryne Sandberg managed Schlitter with the Cubs' Triple-A team.

hickory takes top honors

In something of an upset, a Scottish deerhound named Hickory won top honors last night at the Westminster Dog Show, the first time the breed has won in the 135-year history of the show. I saw little of the competition this year but wondered when I did watch why, if there are deerhounds, wolfhounds, otterhounds, harriers, terriers, dachshunds, and other such breeds, there is not a squirrelhound. There must be some way to deal with the squirrels, whom I now see as an insolent, defiant creature. The new squirrel-proof bird feeder had better work.

ya gotta have team

Beat writer David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News quotes Charlie Manuel at length this morning on his blog High Cheese. It's all about winning and team and certainly sums up what Manuel is about, what his team is about. Give the guy his money! http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillies/

presser with the starting five

The press conference held with the Phillies' starting five at 1:30 today was pretty much a waste of time. Most of the questions posed by the local and national media were lame at best. The media of course wanted it to be just the four aces, but the aces scotched that idea days ago. It's five or no one is their stand.

Still, someone asked Cole Hamels about being the only guy at the table with a World Series ring. Hello. If the casual fan has forgotten the role that Joe Blanton played in 2008, baseball media members should not. An outrage, as Tony Bruno might put it. Most of the other questions to Blanton were on the lines of are you surprised still to be here and when do you think you'll be gone. Sheesh.

Questions to Cliff Lee weren't much better, concentrating on when he made his decision to return to Philadelphia, why Philadelphia, etc. I just loved the one that started with, Are you surprised to be a Phillie? Uh, no. I chose to be a Phillie, was pretty much Lee's reply.

It was interesting that Lee, seated in the middle, volunteered more responses than anyone else, though Hamels, at far right, often jumped in to help out. Oswalt, between Hamels and Lee, looked as if he wanted to be far away, despite giving quite cogent replies to the stray question lobbed his way. As soon as the presser ended, however, he leaped to his feet and was the first to disappear. Blanton blushed when he spoke. Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi accents were on display, along with Colorado and San Diego.

At the end, someone asked which nickname did they like of the many being used for them. I haven't heard any nicknames, said Lee. What are they? Media members yelled out examples: R2C2, Mt. Rushmore, Four Aces, Fab Four, etc. Said Lee, All of those are about four. We're five. So you'd better come up with one that includes all five. If you can't do it, the fans will.

Give him a couple more months of bumbling questions of the kind on parade today and his reply might be, quite understandably, edged in acid.

workouts start today

Workouts for pitchers and catchers start today, and love is in the air. According to pitching coach Rich Dubee, Roy Halladay will open the season on April 1, not that that is a surprise. Also, Joe Blanton is the fifth starter.

My hopes for spring training: Everyone is healthy start to finish. All the guys competing for spots (Brown, Francisco, Mayberry, Worley, De Fratus, Stutes, etc.) make an all out grab for whatever spot they are playing for. Jimmy Rollins is single-minded in his pursuit of another contract with the Phillies. Charlie Manuel gets his contract before the season starts just because we don't need the drama the ever-snarky media will provide. Most of all, stay healthy, stay healthy, stay healthy.

I read this morning that the Phillies have already sold 3.2 million tickets for the 2011 season, and that's before individual game tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday.

get it on

Pitchers and catchers report today to the Bright House Complex in Clearwater, Florida. At last! Shown above is a vintage view of Clearwater.

"10, 9, 8....76ers"

Four games in five days and a 3-1 record for them, including two on the road. After a hard loss on Sunday in New York, the Sixers beat the Hawks in Atlanta on Tuesday, lost to the Magic in Philadelphia on Wednesday, beat the Spurs in a grinding game in Philadelphia on Friday, and rolled over the Timberwolves in Minneapolis on Saturday. No wonder Sixer fans have started singing.

after the sky has fallen

Works by Jill Larson. Photos courtesy of the artist.

After the Sky Has Fallen, a site-specific installation by Jill Larson, closes on February at 709 Penn Gallery in Pittsburgh. Larson, an artist who runs the Fe Arts Gallery in the city, shredded thousands of documents and records from her divorce proceedings, then wove them into a 12-foot cocoon. Also featured are photographs by the artists, showing the view from under her covers. Out of personal pain and devastation come beauty and rebirth. Life is a tapestry. Make of it what you will.

overabundance of detail

Two woven paper works by Jozef Bajus. Both photos are courtesy of the artist.

Both of these pieces are in An Overabundance of Detail, a group show on at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, New York, from February 12 to July 3. www.burchfieldpenney.org

the game from where i stand

This week I finally got around to reading Doug Glanville's The Game from Where I Stand. Glanville, a first-round pick of the Cubs, had a nine-year career in the majors, including five years spent with his boyhood team, the Phillies. Glanville, a native of Teaneck, New Jersey, who attended the University of Pennsylvania, was a favorite of mine, though he played with the Phillies in a gray, dismal time. His book, published last year, grew from the excellent op-ed column he has been writing for the New York Times. Not surprisingly, the book is as thoughtful, articulate, and insightful as the columns.

As its somewhat clunky title indicates, the book is a player's view of the game, from the struggles of living up to being a first-round pick, making it to the majors, toiling on losing teams, and finally coming to grips with diminished returns on the field. This is not the usual book by yet another entitled, self-absorbed player. Glanville casts a broader net, covering the trials, rewards, pitfalls, and inevitable decline facing all ballplayers, while lacing his insights with wit, humility, and humor.

Glanville's career coincided with the steroid era and his chapter on steroids and PED's is candid and balanced. (So is his take on the media.) It is refreshing to read that many baseball players were truly conflicted about PED's, whether it was about using them or supporting, ignoring, or opposing those who did. PED usage was a big issue in the game and Glanville takes it on with grace and nuanced reflection.

On the lighter side, his take on Montreal made me think I should have thought more seriously about going to graduate school there. And who knew that players have regular buddies when they play catch before each game? His account of his one brush with play-off baseball, with the 2003 Cubs, is poignant. In the end, the closest Glanville got to a championship was being tabbed by the Phillies to bring out the ball for the ceremonial first pitch in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series. Jim Bunning got the honor of tossing the ball but Glanville, once again a fan, was on hand days later for the dramatic conclusion of the game and of the series.

Doug Glanville was a solid major league player. He may be an even better writer. That's impressive. Baseball and writing are the ultimate humbling endeavors.

yay, sixers!

Last night's Sixers' win, over the Knicks, was impressive. After a scorching first quarter by the Sixers, led by Brand and Iguodala, the team let the Knicks take control in the second and third. Then, down nine going into the fourth, the young Sixers blew past the Knicks. It came down in the end to a two-point game, making the win all the more impressive. It was the kind of game that the Sixers would have, and did, blow earlier in the season. If they can do the same in New York tomorrow, on the back half of the home-and-home, it would be even more impressive. Still, last night was a big step forward.

Brand scored 33 in what had to be his best game as a Sixer. Iguodala had 16 assists and zero turnovers. I do hope he is with the team after the trade deadline.

moving day

A bush warbler in a prunus bush. The photo was sent to me last year by Uomi Zenjiro, who took it in his backyard in Obama. Both the trilling of the warbler and the blooming flowers of the prunus are symbols of spring in Japan.

The big truck left Philadelphia early this monring, headed for Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida, and carrying bats, balls, hats, cleats, and everything else needed by the Phillies for spring training. It's scheduled to arrive on Sunday, then will be unloaded over the course of the next couple of days. Just another little harbinger of spring.

happy year of the rabbit!

It's the Year of the Rabbit! Gong xi fa cai! Health and prosperity for all! Ten days till pitchers and catchers is even more reason to celebrate.

takahatsu in obama

A line of priest trainees from Hosshinji disappear down a slushy back street in Obama, on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The photo is another recently sent by old friend Uomi Zenjiro. Hosshinji is a small Soto Zen temple in Obama. When I lived in Kyoto, I often stayed at Hosshinji, usually in December and February, for sesshin, weeklong meditation sessions.

The priests in the photo are doing takahatsu, or ritual begging for alms. In groups of 10 or so, priests walk single file through the streets, chanting and stopping at houses for alms in the form of money or food. January is the most severe time of the year for takahatsu, as they are out for hours, tramping through snow, slush, and ice in straw sandals.

I several times saw the Hosshinji priests doing takahatsu in Obama but observed the practice even more in Kyoto. Some of Kyoto's most famed Zen temples were in the section of the city where I lived and priests doing takahatsu was a common sight. Just as familiar was the non-stop chanting they did on their rounds.