Rocky Mountain Low – Five More Reasons to Hate Playing the Rockies

1. Snow in October.
2. Purple dinosaur mascot.
3. Playing Venga Boys to celebrate a homerun.
4. Big field with limited oxygen.
5. Stadium named for horrible banquet beer.

Special bonus reason: 10 pm start time.

Tom Watson flies too close to the Turnberry Sun

I was reminded of the story of Icarus today as I watched the final holes of the British Open. For those of you who remember your 9th grade Greek mythology, you might remember Icarus. Icarus’ father made wings for Icarus, but gave him a warning – don’t fly too close to the sun, don’t fly too close to the sea, but Icarus didn’t listen and became so enamored with flying, that he ignored his fathers warnings. The wings, made of wax, melted as Icarus flew too close to the sun, and he fell to his death.

Watson’s chances of becoming the oldest person ever to win a major fell apart dramatically on the 18th hole as his approach shot went long, then he 3 putted to fall into a tie with Stewart Cink.Watson then fell apart in the 4 hole playoff. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one rooting against Stewart Cink. Cink is probably a nice guy, but today he was villain to Watson’s hero; he’s not well liked tonight.

I wish Watson fell just short in regulation leaving us with the memory of him almost making it, but just falling short. Instead the story is about how his age did him in. Watson dared fly to close to the sun. I for one hope that’s not the lesson learned here. If anything, we should all take away from this the fact that it’s never too late.

That Watson challenged today at the age of 59, inspires me. I should very well inspire all of us.

The NBA Draft is Thursday – does anybody care?

So the NBA draft is Thursday and I couldn’t care less. Am I the only one? I’ve always believed that the NBA is a flawed league. Great teams are built around a singular great player, maybe two. Everyone else is generally extra parts. You don’t generally get great players unless you’re drafting really early. Yeah Kobe was drafted 13th (Charlotte/New Orleans has got to rue the day. Kobe for Vlade Divac?) I just don’t see the draft having a major impact on the Sixers chances for next year. I hope I’m wrong, but big impact will have to do with Eddie Jordan, signing Andre Miller, and replacing Samuel Dalembert – in that order.

RIP: Gary Papa

There’s been a fair share of loss in the Philadelphia sports broadcasting world. First Harry Kalas passed away in April, now long time WPVI sports director Gary Papa has passed away after a long and public battle with prostate cancer.

I think everyone will remember Papa for how he dealt with his illness; shaving his head, going to chemo, and going back to work. So many people would have hidden, he didn’t. For 5 years Papa battled cancer, going between a shaved head and full head of hair a few times. When I saw him with his shaved head last fall, I knew it wasn’t good.

The other thing I’ll remember Papa for is his mimicking of Kalas’ “Outta here” home run call. Sometimes it annoyed me, but it became part of his schtick. Gary had fun delivering the sports news and it showed. It’s a bit ironic that we lose both of these voices in the same year.

Papa is survived by his wife, Kathleen, and his two sons Nathaniel and Tucker.