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Malcolm Jenkins Has Spoken. Will Anyone Listen?

Tim Reilly - June 7, 2018

Photo Credit: Kirt Dozier-USA TODAY Sports

“If you don’t like what is being said, change the conversation,” Don Draper once quipped on Mad Men. On Wednesday, Malcolm Jenkins took the advice.

As the local press surrounded Jenkins’ locker, fishing for a quote to color their stories about the Eagles’ scuttled White House trip, the Eagles safety and social activist tried a different mode of communication.

“Are you surprised that you guys eventually decided not to go to the White House?” Derrick Gunn asked. In response, Jenkins held up a poster board that read, “You Aren’t Listening.”

“More than 60% of people in prison are people of color,” read the ensuing slide in the presentation.

6 ABC reporter Jeff Skversky was the next to try to cull a sound bite from Jenkins. “Are you surprised you guys are embroiled in this controversy with the White House?”

“Nearly 200,000 juveniles enter the adult criminal system each year, most for non-violent crime. #stopschoolpipelinetoprison” was the written reply.

“Are you not going to say anything, or are you just going to use these posters?” Skversky inquired. It was a fair question in light of the unconventional display taking place.

“You aren’t listening,” came the silent retort.

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It’s Time for Josh Harris and the 76ers Ownership Group to Get on with it

Tim Reilly - June 6, 2018

Photo Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports

After the bizarre turn of events involving the Philadelphia Eagles and the White House-trip-that-wasn’t, it’s only fitting that the city turns its attention to the resolution of the Bryan Colangelo “Woodergate” scandal.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the 76ers’ owners convened in New York to discuss the fate of their president of basketball operations. According to Wojnarowksi, the decision to terminate or retain Colangelo could be announced today.

Thanks to the relentless sleuthing of various internet detectives, including Crossing Broad’s own Kyle Scott, it has become painfully clear that the man behind the curtain of the various Colangelo-linked Twitter burner accounts first investigated by The Ringer’s Ben Detrick is actually a woman: Barbara Bottini, the wife of the embattled Sixers executive.

Wojnarowski’s deeply-sourced reporting has corroborated the evidence gathered on social media; he asserted that the law firm that the 76ers hired to investigate the issue has interviewed Colangelo and Bottini during their own information-gathering process.

Given the deep embarrassment that this entire situation has caused the franchise, it appears imminent that Colangelo will be handed his walking papers.

There is simply too much at stake for the 76ers, who have only recently emerged from a painful rebuilding process that saw the team become something of a laughingstock. Armed with a talented, playoff-tested core, a lottery selection, and the cap space needed to reel in a prime free agent, now was not the time for the Sixers to once again become the butt of the joke. But the indiscretions of the Colangelo camp have eroded much of the hard-earned credibility the 76ers regained with their 52-win regular season campaign.

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Remembering Roy Halladay’s Perfect Game

Tim Reilly - May 29, 2018

via Youtube

Eight years ago today, there was no doubt in my mind the game I was watching would emerge as another chapter in Philadelphia sports history.

The contest in question was Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Flyers were in the midst of a miracle postseason run, which commenced when they punched their playoff ticket on the last day of the regular season with a shootout victory over the New York Rangers. After dispatching the New Jersey Devils in 5 games, the Orange and Black overcame a 3-0 series deficit to knock off the Boston Bruins in 7 games. Peter Laviolette’s squad skated past the upstart Montreal Canadiens in five games (never forget the shift), leaving the Blackhawks as the only team standing between the Flyers and the Cup.

It wasn’t meant to be on that night or in that series for the Flyers. But something special was brewing on a baseball diamond in Miami.

Roy Halladay, the Phillies’ prize acquisition of the offseason, was on the mound facing the Florida Marlins. The Marlins countered with Josh Johnson, a righthanded flamethrower whom the Phillies never seemed to hit. It was likely to be a low-scoring pitcher’s duel, but otherwise a nondescript baseball game in May. When the alternative is a Stanley Cup game featuring the hometown Flyers, there wasn’t much of a decision in terms of what to watch.

That calculus changed at some point during the first or second intermission, when it became clear that the Phillies’ ace had a chance at perfection. Philadelphia’s regulars had spotted Halladay a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the 3rd, and that’s all he would need:

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Trust the Process

Tim Reilly - May 10, 2018

Photo Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports

After four years of watching the Philadelphia 76ers step backward in order to leap forward, I forgot how frustrating it feels to witness your team lose when it is actually trying to win.

Sixers fans have endured multiple seasons of strategic tanking while the franchise positioned itself for long term contention. They told themselves and each other to “Trust the Process,” an affirmation coined by former general manager Sam Hinkie that became an homage to the exiled architect of the Sixers’ controversial rebuilding plan.

The 199 defeats compiled during Hinkie’s three-year reign in Philadelphia were much easier to swallow than the bitter pill the fan base was forced to ingest Wednesday night when the Boston Celtics eliminated the Sixers in five games. It’s easy to accept failure when you convince yourself there’s a master plan in place. For four seasons, Sixers fans stopped looking at the standings and started counting ping pong balls. Each loss got the team closer to landing an elite, franchise-altering prospect in the draft.

What happens, though, when the plan evolves from the abstract to the tangible? How do things change when a lottery selection morphs into an actual player? Will Sixers fans practice the same patience they showed during the Process years that will be required as the young talent coalesces into a formidable unit?

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The “Philly Fan” Myth Will Never Die, Will It?

Tim Reilly - April 26, 2018

Photo Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Toward the end of the Flyers’ dispiriting Game 6 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, a number of fans saw the looming specter of another premature playoff exit and decided they had enough – to drink. As Penguins winger Bryan Rust slid the puck into the Flyers’ empty net to put his team up by a score of 8-5, beer cans rained down on the Wells Fargo Center Ice.

“There’s heavy artillery flying all over down here,” analyst Pierre McGuire reported. A lengthy delay ensued as the Flyers ice crew worked quickly to clear the playing surface.

It didn’t take long for the criticisms to roll in from the social media universe. “Flyers fans throwing things on the ice: a playoff tradition like no other,” Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski tweeted. Even Pittsburgh radio host and columnist Mark Madden, who is a big fan of Crossing Broad, took a shot at the Flyers’ fan base:

Madden’s assessment was more or less in line with other Twitter reactions to the scene. And then there were the media takes, like this offering from Pittsburgh 97.3 The Fan’s Colin Dunlap. “Flyers fans are trash. Philadelphia fans, by and large, are trash,” Dunlap declared in a piece that could have used an editor. The Washington Post‘s Cindy Boren called the display “one of the most Philly fan things ever.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Jason Mackey reported that Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford was incensed by the antics of the crowd.

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The Flyers Gift Their Fans (At Least) One More Home Playoff Game

Tim Reilly - April 21, 2018

Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

It was all but over.

After two listless performances on home ice, the Flyers limped into Pittsburgh facing a 3-1 series deficit against a Penguins team looking to hoist the Stanley Cup for the third straight season.

The patient clung to life – barely. All that remained was for Sidney Crosby to administer last rites, Evgeni Malkin to drive the final nail into the coffin, and the local beat writers to shovel dirt on the grave that would serve as the final resting place of the 2017-18 campaign.

And then something unexpected happened. The Flyers showed a pulse.

They didn’t deserve to win. The Penguins dominated large stretches of the 2nd and 3rd periods while the Flyers took bad penalties and relied on Michal Neuvirth to cover for poor play in the defensive zone. Pittsburgh claimed a big advantage in the faceoff circle, possessed the puck for much of the contest, and consequently had the Flyers chasing the game instead of dictating it.

Neuvirth was spectacular, except when he wasn’t. The two goals he conceded were incredibly soft. The first came after Neuvirth carelessly turned over the puck, leading to extended offensive zone time and a wraparound goal delivered by Penguins forward Bryan Rust. Neuvirth was able to get to the post to stop the shot, but somehow the puck squeaked through his pads.

The second goal was equally inexcusable given the situation. Jake Guentzel took a pass from Crosby, depositing the puck through the five-hole and into the back of the net. Neuvirth’s second period nadir put the orange and black in a 2-1 deficit. If they had put forth the effort they exhibited in Games 3 and 4, the series would have ended.

Instead, the Flyers battled back. A short-handed tally from Valtteri Filppula tied the game late in the second, while a Sean Couturier blast from the blue line late in the third pulled the Flyers ahead. Matt Read sealed the victory with an empty net goal, and the Flyers lived to play another day.

Given the evidence of the past week, the result seemed improbable, but in the context of the longer arc of the Flyers’ season, the Game 5 triumph was not unusual.

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Tony Bruno Launches a Crusade Against the Philadelphia Parking Authority

Tim Reilly - April 11, 2018

Like so many twenty-first century skirmishes, the war began not with a bang, but a tweet:

Tony Bruno, the erstwhile Fanatic and WIP host who retired from the terrestrial airwaves in 2015, lobbed a virtual grenade at one of the largest armies in the city: the Philadelphia Parking Authority, otherwise known as the PPA.

Bruno is no stranger to verbal combat. He might be best known to Crossing Broad readers as a prominent veteran of the Radio Wars that our intrepid leader, Kyle Scott, has documented for posterity. Thanks to Kyle, our grandchildren will write essays comparing Hannibal’s invasion of Italy to Josh Innes’ brief assault on the Philadelphia market; Dwayne from Swedesboro will take his rightful place in history alongside Uncle Remus and Al Jolson’s blackface characters; and historians will debate whether the Camp David Accords had the same impact as the Baldy Summit of 2017.

Although Bruno has retreated from the radio scene, he has created a podcast and maintains an active social media presence. It also appears that he has decided to spend his golden years living in his native South Philadelphia, which is the setting for the Bruno-PPA conflict of 2018.

Bruno’s troubles with the PPA began last week. It appears that Mr. Monday Night was assessed four tickets in quick succession, which made his car liable to be booted. Bruno contends that three of the tickets were issued in error by an aggressive parking enforcement officer who ignored the 24-hour permit sticker on his vehicle windshield.

Despite receiving assurances that he would be able to dispute the charges before his vehicle was impounded, Bruno found that his car was towed. And so he decided to record his Sunday afternoon trip to the PPA’s impound lot to recover his vehicle:

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Gabe Kapler Might Be In Over His Head

Tim Reilly - April 2, 2018

Photo Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Does experience matter anymore in baseball?

It’s a question that has nagged me throughout MLB’s Sabermetrics era, and one I entertained again as I watched Gabe Kapler stumble through his first regular season series as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Kapler’s hiring came as a surprise this offseason, but in retrospect it shouldn’t have been all that shocking. Kapler fits the profile of the type of candidate toward which teams are gravitating. He’s relatively young, bills himself as an excellent communicator, and takes an analytics-friendly approach to the game. In an offseason that saw the Red Sox jettison John Farrell for Alex Cora and the Yankees replace Joe Girardi with Aaron Boone, it’s clear that the Phillies’ selection of Kapler is not an outlier.

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