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Success and Failure in Philadelphia Sports

It's a Love/Hate Thing Here.
It's a Love/Hate Thing Here.

Sports with Bob McFlurry

What a bunch of crybabies Philadelphia sports fans are. Oh, the Eagles have never won a Super Bowl, the Flyers haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1975, the Sixers haven’t gotten it done since 1983 and minus the Phillies breaking a miraculous curse in 2008, their only World Series win was in 1980.  It’s like Philly fans are so masochistic that they love to be hurt, we actually brag about it.

Yes there was 25 years between Championships in Philadelphia but that didn’t mean there weren’t teams to root for.  Yes you can give me the whole, “Of the cities with the four major sports teams, Philadelphia ranks last in Championships” crap but it’s still a whole lot better than being in Cleveland or Kansas City. And of the teams with four major sports teams I think we’ve had it a lot better than Phoenix, Minneapolis and Washington D.C.

If you rank a season Quality by the team making it to either the Championship game or the Conference Finals then the landscape changes a bit.

We’ll start our time line in the year 1980:

1980:

76ers lost to the Lakers in the NBA Finals 4 games to 2.

Flyers lost to the Islanders in the Stanley Cup Finals 4 games to 2

Eagles lost the Raiders in the Super Bowl 27-10

Phillies Win the World Series over the Royals 4 game to 2

1982:

76ers lost the NBA Championship to the Lakers 4 games to 2

1983:

Phillies lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series 4 games to 1

76ers Won the NBA Championship over the Lakers 4-0

1984:

Flyers lost to the Oilers 4-1 in the Stanley Cup Finals

1986:

Flyers lost to the Oilers 4-3 in the Stanley Cup Finals

1988:

Flyers lost to the Canadiens 4 games to 2 in the Wales Conference Finals

1993:

Phillies lost to the Blue Jays in the World Series 4-2

1994:

Flyers lost to the Devils in the Conference Finals

1996:

Flyers lost to the Red Wings 4-0 in the Stanley Cup Finals

2000:

Flyers lost to the Devils in Eastern Conference Finals 4-3

2001:

76ers lost to the Lakers 4 games to 1 in the NBA Finals

Eagles lost to the Rams in the NFC Championship game 29-24

2002:

Eagles lost to the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship 27-10

2003:

Eagles lost to the Buccaneers in the NFC Championship 27-10

2004:

Flyers lost to the Lightning in Eastern Conference Finals to 4-3

Eagles lose to the Patriots in the Super Bowl 24-21

2007:

Flyers lost to the Penguins in the Easter Conference Finals 4 games to 1

2008:

Eagles lost to the Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game 32-25

Phillies Win the World Series over Rays 4 games to 1

2009:

Phillies lost to the Yankees in the World Series 4 games to 2

Totals:

Eagles: 2 Super Bowl appearances and 6 Conference Championship appearances. 16 Playoff appearances.

Phillies: 2 World Series Championships, 5 World Series Appearances and 5 National League Championship appearances. 7 Playoff appearances total.

Flyers: 4 Stanley Cup Finals trips, 8 Conference Championship appearances. 22 Playoff appearances.

Sixers: 1 NBA Championship, 4 Finals appearances, 4 Eastern Conference Championships. 18 Playoff appearances.

You don’t have to label a season a success if the team doesn’t win their respective sports’ championship that year and to a certain degree I get that logic. However, there have been plenty of years either collectively or individually that professional Philadelphia sports franchises got your heart racing during playoff time. That you lived and died by that team, that you and the city pulled for them.

If you ask me the 2002 NFC Championship loss to Tampa Bay was one of the absolute worst feelings I’ve ever had in my life.  I swore off the Eagles and the next year my heart was in it again for another run. I guess my point here is that Philadelphia fans, for all their complaining and whining have it pretty good I think. Lito Sheppard was recently quoted to say that he thought Philly fans were “spoiled” by the decade of success the Eagles had and I’d have to agree with him. It’s not that easy to win a Championship in any sport even when you do have great players. I’ll settle for 3 Championships in 30 years and revel in the the enjoyment the next time one comes around.

Any playoff game is just another reason to get drunk and hang out with your friends so look on the bright side people, at least we’re not in Cleveland.

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Is Banging Football Recruits the New School Spirit?

laceybryceBob McFlurry with Sports

Recently it’s been in the news that the Tennessee Volunteers have a program in which they employ “hostesses” to help lure highly touted football recruits to the University.  So I guess my question is why is this news now?  I don’t think it’s any secret that using insanely hot girls to help land big time recruits is a time honored tradition in the ranks of College Football.

There’s a lot of things that go into where a top recruit will play his collegiate ball: proximity to home, family influence, program prestige, the ability to start right away.  When you’re a top 50 recruit in the nation though you can pretty much go anywhere and every school is going to trow as much at you as they can without getting nabbed by the NCAA for violations. Gifting money is kind of out of the question, at least not directly, so what other recourse does a University have but to bombard the recruit with a bevy of the hottest chicks on campus.  Some of which are probably told to “take care” of the recruit.  It’s way easier to pay off or incentivize  some sort of University coed than it is to straight up pay a player to come to the University.

Anyway, I think it’s a little naive for the media and sports fans in general to be shocked by this or consider it news.  There’s buku bucks in College football in Bowl Games and it all starts with what kind of players a team can get.  The better the player, the better the chance of a huge bowl game, the more money brought into the University. Millions of Dollars.

Even way back in 1993 in the movie The Program Halle Berry was given the task of convincing highly touted recruit Danell Jefferson (played by Mekhi Phifer… or was it Omar Epps) to come to fictional University ESU.  Not that Halle Berry banged the guy to get him to go there but she was named Sexiest Woman Alvie by Esquire magazine, you do that Algebra home slice.

Goes something like:

Hot Chicks + Blue Chip Football Recruits = Letters of Intent = BCS Money2

It’s pretty obvious to me what’s going on here and I really don’t have a problem with Football Programs wagging hot chicks in front of recruits faces. Anything that goes on besides that, sexually, is between the recruit and that “Hostess”.  If the “Hostess” decides to use her body as a marketing tool for her University I’m pretty sure she’s allowed to do that. I’m not sure what kind of incentives would be involved if the recruit signed but ultimately I doubt that a University is saying to these “Hostesses”, “have sex with this recruit coming in here this weekend”.  Blow/Hand Jobs maybe but not sex.

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Windows 7, Bill Gates Out-Foxes Fox

windows_7_leakBy: Billy BeerSlugger

I’m a PC. Since 1992 and for the foreseeable future I’m sticking with Microsoft through thick and thin.  I wasn’t happy with Vista and didn’t particularly care for Windows XP after Windows 2000. Vista for the most part was riddled with problems and even though the majority of them were fixed in successive Service Packs, the negative press and word of mouth killed it’s ability to be a successful operating system in the mainstream consciousness.  Windows XP was shinier and had a updated graphical interface as opposed to Windows 2000 but also came at the expense of lag. Loading Windows Explorer was considerably slower as well as a host of other things I didn’t find satisfying on a supposed new operating system.

While Windows 7 is essentially a “refined” progression of Vista, it has given my laptop life it did not have in the Vista era.  “Aero” effects that I could run while decreasing my system stability in Vista seem to be of no consequence in 7.  Searching for a file takes seconds not minutes and overall my laptop is more responsive and “feels” better with faster page load times using the interweb and downloading files.  If you’re on a computer as much as i am, multitasking resource consuming applications this is a very good thing!

Overall, I haven’t been this excited about an operating system since Windows 95. It’s really that much of a step in the right direction though not without it’s flaws (as any OS has).  Maybe I’m a little biased given my history of working on PC’s since birth essentially, working on DOS then Windows 3.1 and so on. Or maybe it is my trip to the Microsoft’s campus in 1997 while my father’s company was subcontracted to help fix their help desk and I was able to experience a T1 line well before anyone except large companies had access to anything but dial up internet.  Either way, if you’re running XP or Vista you will be more than pleased if you upgrade given you have the recommended hardware.

But now to the reason why I’m writing this post.  Microsoft has pulled out of an advertising campaign that would have consumed all of the commercials and Windows 7 being worked into the plot of an episode of The Family Guy much like Bud Lite Golden Wheat bought all the commercials on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live.  Microsoft pulled out of the deal citing the episode’s “content was not a fit with the Windows brand.” .   Well I had been following this “breaking news” since it’s announcement and subsequently found it funny that Microsoft would pull out of the on the premises that The Family Guy‘s content was not a fit.  Have they seen an episode of that show?

However, then I thought about it.  Microsoft was in a win-win situation the whole time. Best case they get all the advertising on a show that appeals to the coveted 18 to 40+ market that they want to get the word out to and spend a lot of money doing it.  Second best case scenario, they leak the information on the web about Microsoft buying the entire advertising budget for an episode of Family Guy, wait for the eventual backlash from Microsoft haters and determine whether or not this is a great idea.  Apparently they decided to bail on actually buying the advertising time and but still take the internet buzz about the Microsoft/Family Guy union.  Another in a long line of shrewd Microsoft moves.

Check out the docudrama The Pirates of Silicon Valley for more Apple/Microsoft Steve Jobs/Bill Gates info in it’s infancy up to about 1999. Great stuff if you’re a geek like me.

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Structure – Defunct Men’s Clothing Store

structure

It’s still somewhat cold, I’m wearing long sleeve shirts but there’s no need for a full on jacket so I broke out the Marty McFly poofy vest (circa 1999 from Structure).  It’s got down feathers in there so you know it’s good, kind of like walking around in a cloud.

Anyway, my friend and I were talking over a couple of adult beverages about how much we liked Structure in the 90’s (and how ridiculous I looked in a 1990’s poofy vest).  Then suddenly, in the great year of our lord 2000,  Structure was merged with Express, a woman’s clothing store, under the brand Express Men’s.

So now essentially when you buy something from Express Men’s, you’re technically buying men’s clothing from a woman’s store.  Like if Victoria’s Secret sold men’s underwear under the brand Victoria Secret Mens.  Would you do that?

After some  investigative work I found the Structure brand was sold to Sears sometime after the merger.  I wouldn’t buy any article of clothing from Sears. When I think of Sears I think of ratchet sets and shit like that.

So Structure’s former Parent Company, Limited Brands, is pretty major.  They did about 9.7 billion dollars in revenue last year.  And at one point or another owned pretty much every store in the mall. Limited, Limited Too, Bath & Body Works, Structure, Victoria’s Secret, Lane Bryant, The White Barn Candle Company, Express, Lerner New York & Abercrombie & Fitch.

I’m leading a team of investors to rescue the Structure Brand from Sears and return it to it’s 1990’s dominance of male teenage prepsters.  The offer now stands at a block of sharp cheddar cheese, a stray cat, a case of Schlitz beer, a broken lava lamp, a $20 gift certificate to the Olive Garden and 10 shares of Citigroup (C), from our 301k, valued at the time of this article at $17.90. We need your help to sweeten the pot!

note: When I say “investigative work” I mainly mean Wikipedia.  And also feel free to write the article on Structure in Wikipedia because there is none. Please note in this article that the Beerslugger Group Ltd. is trying to acquire the Structure brand from the evil Sears Corporation.

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90’s Flashback – Arrested Development, “Tennessee”

This song/group from the 90’s reminds me of how uplifting rap was in the early 90’s. Intelligent lyrics with a positive message, Arrested Development won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1992.

My favorite part of the video is in the beginning when the one guy shed’s a single tear, like he knew that rap was going to the toilet a year later when Gangsta Rap became mainstream and rap lost it’s message.

Here’s a link to another great song from Arrested Development, Everyday People