RIP David Montgomery.

The Phils are holding a June service for the late Phillies chairman at Citizens Bank Park, and it’s open to the public.

Details:

.@Phillies David Montgomery’s Celebration of Life info pic.twitter.com/sKeixuRfEk

— Cindy Webster (@CindyWeb94) May 10, 2019

This is an off day. The Phils do not play, so this isn’t going to be wrapped into a game, it’ll be a standalone event that coincides with the draft, as mentioned in the press release.

Gates open at 2 p.m. and parking is free.

Today in Instagram errors, we’ve got some model trying to slide into Bryce Harper’s direct messages.

However, “Jordan” accidentally slid into Kayla Harper’s DMs instead, which resulted in Kayla producing this #content via Instagram story:

Someone chick tried to slide in Bryce Harper’s DMs but accidentally sent it to his wife I AM DEAD pic.twitter.com/qMQ94QBFA0

— JF (@Jferrie23) May 4, 2019

Kayla:

“If you’re going to try and go after a married man, the least you could is be smart enough to message his Instagram account and not his wife’s”

Words for all of us to live by.

Consider this a lesson learned, Jordan.

Secret’s out!

Matt Breen and others reported this more than a week ago, but now you can officially put this on your 2026 desktop calendar.

From MLB Communications:

Baseball’s Midsummer Classic will be held in Philadelphia for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence and follows suit from 1976, when Veterans Stadium hosted the All-Star Game in the year of the nation’s bicentennial.

Hell yeah, America. Can’t do this in New York, because the Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed there. Wasn’t signed in Washington or Boston, either, so suck it Nationals and Red Sox fans.

The announcement was incredibly boring, like worse than watching paint dry, but if you care to watch it, here you go:

We’re LIVE from Independence Hall with a very special announcement! https://t.co/CO5yrLBGjM

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 16, 2019

(Editor’s note: This story appears under Kevin’s name, but Bob wrote it)

This baseball season is still young enough where it’s way, way too early to draw any definitive conclusions about what we’ve seen so far. It’s easy to get caught up in the results of a small sample, particularly after a big win, or a bad “L” like the Phillies took from the Mets last night.

For instance, Aaron Nola wasn’t effective, again. He looks nothing like the Cy Young candidate he was last season. You probably have heard by now that Nola didn’t allow five runs in a single start last season. Well, he has now allowed at least five earned runs in three consecutive starts after last night’s clunker. Should we panic? It would be easy to say this morning that Nola looks destined to repeat Cole Hamels’ letdown 2009 season, but it’s April 16th. It’s been four starts. His struggles to establish strike one, spot his fastball, and find his changeup have all plagued him in the early going, but there’s no reason to think he’s doomed yet. If the results don’t change by month’s end, then we can revisit this.

I would argue the same caution should be taken with regards to Rhys Hoskins’ early defense. It, too, hasn’t been good. His error last night allowed the go-ahead run to score and it was yet another late-game blunder that directly contributed to a loss.

A montage, following the jump:

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Phils/Mets tonight at the ballpark.

Let’s welcome back to Philadelphia, a World Series champion, number six, Ryannnnnnn Howardddddd, who will be calling the game:

Who’s with me tonight? @Phillies #RingTheBell https://t.co/mLy5dmtUE6

— Ryan Howard (@ryanhoward) April 15, 2019

ESPN hired Howard back in February as a wide-ranging baseball analyst who appears on a variety of their shows and platforms. The Big Piece is 39 years old and officially retired last September after 13 seasons with the Phils and a pair of minor league stints with Atlanta and Colorado.

It’ll be nice to hear a reasonable and pro-Philadelphia voice on a national broadcast, since all non-local announcers hate Philly, right? Cris Collinsworth, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Alex Rodriguez and his cheese sandwiches, etc. They all hate us. They’re all biased against us.

Not Ryan Howard. He’s one of us, just like Kendall Jenner.

What are you doing seven years from now?

Clear your calendar:

The Phillies will host the 2026 All Star Game at Citizens Bank Park. MLB will hold a press conference next Tuesday at City Hall to announce it.

— Matt Breen (@matt_breen) April 11, 2019

Breen says the announcement will be made at Independence Hall next week.

2026 is America’s 250th birthday, so it’s fitting you’d play the All-Star Game in the city where it all began – beautiful Philadelphia. That’s better than playing the game in disgusting New York or Washington.

This also happens to coincide with the 2026 US/Canada/Mexico World Cup, so it’s conceivable Philadelphia could host Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game AND a World Cup game in the same summer.

Sign me up!

(The last MLB All-Star Game we had was 1996 at the Vet)

Here they are.

The annual Forbes valuations of Major League Baseball clubs.

Your Phillies rank 9th on the list, valued at $1.85 billion dollars, which is up 9% from last year. Forbes lists the Phils’ revenue as $341 million with an operating income of $94 million.

The Yankees obviously top the list, valued at $4.6 billion.

Here’s the top 10:

1. Yank stank – $4.6 billion
2. Dodgers – $3.3 billion
3. Red Sox – $3.2 billion
4. Cubs – $3.1 billion
5. Giants – $3 billion
6. Mets – $2.3 billion
7. Cardinals – $2.1 billion
8. Angels – $1.9 billion
9. Phils – $1.85 billion
10. Astros – $1.775 billion

The Marlins bring up the rear at $1 billion. 

Interestingly enough, Forbes points out that MLB team values are up across the board, after the jump:

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