The next era of Phillies baseball is upon us.

Yesterday, the Phillies officially announced the signing of Gabe Kapler as its new manager. From the team’s press release:

Kapler, 42, has spent the last three years working for the Los Angeles Dodgers as the club’s director of player development, overseeing their entire minor league system.  The Dodgers’ minor league teams went a combined 1,299-1,128 during his tenure with eight first-place finishes.  Their .535 winning percentage over that span was fourth-best among all 30 major league clubs and second-best among all National League teams, trailing only the Phillies (.548).
“On behalf of the entire Phillies organization, I am very pleased to welcome Gabe Kapler to Philadelphia,” said [Matt] Klentak.  “Gabe has a track record of leadership, winning, progressive thinking and working with young players, and we fully believe that he is the right person to guide this organization into the future.”
He is the first manager without previous ties to the organization that the Phillies have hired since Terry Francona in 1996.

Also, he is probably the hottest manager in Phillies history, scratch that, MLB history.

Let’s just hope he manages a baseball team as well as he blogs.

As for his staff? Already one interested candidate:

He will be officially introduced in a press conference this week.

Let’s go.

The Roundup:

The Sixers got revenge last night in a 115-107 victory over the Houston Rockets. J.J. Redick was out for the second straight game, but it didn’t matter as Ben Simmons led the Sixers with 24 points. Joel Embiid dropped 22 points in 25 minutes.

Simmons just looks so good right now:

The Sixers won both in the Texas two-step and return home to host the Hawks on Wednesday night at 7pm.

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The Flyers were in the Wells Fargo Center last night against the winless Arizona Coyotes, well at least they were the winless Coyotes. The Flyers fought back to force OT, but this happened with just seconds left in the extra period:

https://twitter.com/CFJastrzembski/status/925179254605795328

The team visits the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night at 8pm.

In a roster move, the team recalled Mark Alt from the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

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The Eagles won on Sunday, but the offense wasn’t happy with their performance. The defense played pretty well, according to our Kevin Kinkead and his takeaways:

With Jordan Hicks done for the season, the pass coverage of Walker, Bradham, and Najee Goode seemed like it would be a big topic in this one, but it really wasn’t. That’s because C.J. Beathard was being totally clobbered all game long and really didn’t even have time to get rid of the ball.

The Birds’ defensive line rag dolled the rookie QB, sacking him 4 times, hitting him 12 times, and ripping off a pick-6. They had 9 tackles for a loss overall.

Most impressive was their QB separation number, where four players were well under the league average.

That defense may be without Fletcher Cox on Sunday though, who is under investigation for his hit on Joe Staley.

Kinkead breaks down a certain type of play he wants Dougie P to toss out of the playbook.

Sadly, a former Eagle passed away yesterday.

The Eagles are preparing for a tough road trip to the west coast, with the team staying out there in between games, but the club may have an even longer trip next season:

The Philadelphia Eagles could be London-bound in 2018.

NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood told ESPN that the “desire” is to bring the final six teams who have not yet played in London overseas next season. The Eagles are among that group.

“It’s not the be-all and end-all, but you’d kind of like to get closer and closer to having all 32 teams over. That seems like a really nice narrative, and also for the fans of the teams that have supported us through thick and thin and haven’t seen the Eagles or the Titans or the Texans or…the Packers,” he said.

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In other sports news, the 49ers traded for Jimmy Garoppolo.

Ezekiell Elliot’s injunction was denied, but he could appeal and still play Sunday.

And another NFL trade, the Seahawks acquired Duane Brown.

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In non-sports news…

Google was attacked for it poorly built cheeseburger emoji.

A judge in Hawaii ordered a man to write 144 nice things about his ex-girlfriend.

Kevin Spacey had a day…he was accused of sexual misconduct, came out as gay, and saw House of Cards get canceled.

The first charges came down on three people in the Mueller Investigation.