Photo credit: Witters Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Witters Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Good morning, creatures. The Phillies have once again proven that their five-game winning streak was a random fraud, this time coming down from the mountain top with a resounding thud by way of two-straight losses, including a 10-3 drubbing by Jayson Werth and the Nationals. Annnnnnd that’s your local sports news for the week.

Let’s hit it!

 

But first, a word from our sponsors:

T-shirts. We’re From Philadelphia And We Fight. Now in green. Get one.

More. Already have all of our shirts? May I recommended checking out Philly Phaithful.

Perfect. Meet Roy Halladay and Jim Bunning at the Philly Sports Card & Memorabilia Show at the Valley Forge Casino Resort on Saturday, September 27. Details and tickets here.

Tickets. Concert tickets, too, at Crossing Broad Tickets— better deals than anywhere else.

 

The roundup:

Outstanding video from LeSean McCoy’s white party on the Battleship New Jersey:

Jimmy Kempski has notes from his charity basketball game, which presumably makes mention of this .GIF of him demolishing DeSean Jaccson courtesy of Sami Corrado:

JimmyKempski_2014-Jul-14

There’s almost no way Rihanna didn’t get double teamed by German soccer players last night:

Voila_Capture 2014-07-14_09-01-11_AM Voila_Capture 2014-07-14_09-01-25_AM

Suddenly Schweingsteigeerererergereger looks just fine and is not rolling around on the ground like a big, time-wasting bitch, or, you know, perhaps blowing someone. [I was rooting for Argentina, but mostly Messi.]

Voila_Capture 2014-07-14_09-03-25_AM Voila_Capture 2014-07-14_09-03-38_AM

Those players are looking for love in all the wrong places.

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Here’s an article about Tim Howard, the brand. That’s cool and all – I know he’s the best player on USMNT(eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) – but maybe his real brand is just yelling at all his defenders like a big asshole. That’s his shtick, even with Everton– yelling at his defenders. Cool, guy. Cool. Now, Alex Morgan’s brand… well, that’s one behind we can all get we can all get behind.

You’re doing it wrong:

pic via (@T_MUGGA_STACKS)

pic via (@T_MUGGA_STACKS)

I told you:

http://youtu.be/c4qBuEYciYc

Is it weird that I’m getting choked up thinking about LeBron returning home to a montage set to a live Sklar Grey performance for his first game? Tell me if it is.

Shoutout to this Philly.com commenter, who is either a subtle genius or the victim of an extraordinarily poorly-timed typo:

Voila_Capture 2014-07-14_09-11-41_AM

By the way, I have no idea what a malapropism is, but I bit it’s something I should really be concert about.

Man, this ink-stained take from Richard Sandomir of the New York Times about SI.com’s LeBron scoop is about as old-skool with a K as it gets:

By being the first to report on Friday that LeBron James is returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Sports Illustrated beat a journalistic pack that included 15 on-air people at ESPN.

Yet armed with the biggest news of the day, the magazine presented it as a 952-word statement on its website from the King, not a full-blown news story with context and breadth.

James got the byline for his first-person account (or was it an open letter, an essay or a news release?), while Lee Jenkins, a top writer for the magazine who got the scoop, received an “as told to” credit.

News value aside, the approach cast Sports Illustrated more as a public-relations ally of James than as the strong journalistic standard-bearer it has been for decades.

And while James’s words may have been all that the sports world wanted to hear, the magazine should have pressed for a story that carried more journalistic heft.

Say what? They weren’t a public relations ally, they merely understood that every other (useless) angle of the LeBron story had already been told. The one that hadn’t, the one the mattered, was still up for grabs, and they grabbed it. In 2014, Dick, it’s not necessary to rehash context that everyone already knows. I’m guessing 85% of the people on Earth have at least heard of LeBron James, about 80% know he plays basketball, and about 40% have some vague idea about his left-and-then-returned story. And virtually everyone who cared even the slightest about his decision had all the context they needed. Somehow canned press conference quotes and a fact-based lede would’ve made things better for Mr. Sandomir.

I’m told there will be a settlement conference tomorrow in a case stemming from Britt Reid’s road rage when he pulled a gun on a driver a few years back. So, that’s still going on. It could go to trial.

Mario Gotze’s boner.

Johnny Manziel. Blog me, baby.

Alex Rodriguez’s life has gotten decidedly normal.

Anze Kopitar and his dog eat cereal from respective Stanley Cups.

 

CBGA Tour

“The Open Championship” at Lederach Golf Club starts today.