4/26: Flyers 4, Habs 2
4/26: Phils 8, Pirates 4
4/27: Pirates 5, Phillies 1

I kind of half-watched the Flyers game over my shoulder as I hung out with my cool friends at The Pope. According to Phil Sheridan the Flyers played pretty badly and were lucky to escape with a win, and that they would've lost without Marty. That might very well be true, but given how they were robbed and cheated and screwed in Game 1, leading to the loss, I will take it. (God I can't even think about that game, it makes me want to commit hate crimes.) Anyway, hot goaltending wins in the NHL playoffs, so yes, I will also take Marty singlehandedly winning games and series for us. Sounds fine.

We caught the very end of the Phils after the Flyers game ended, and it seemed like everything went fine there. Andrew had a somewhat drunken conversation about how great the Phils are: our somewhat drunken theory is that they are very, very good, and will, any day now, work out whatever problems they've had during April, i.e., once Jimmy and Shane are back, and Ryan starts hitting, they will be unstoppable. I really do believe that, though they decided to challenge my faith today by only getting two hits off Paul Maholm and not pitching all that well. Still, 5-2 road trip, I'll take that.

How great would a Sixers win be tonight? It would be this great (and if you were here, you'd see me holding my hands really far apart). Can they really do it? Have they really rattled the Pistons and caught them completely off guard? Are they - bear with me here - are they the better team? I don't know. This is the most crucial game. If they come out prepared... if they keep playing Sixers basketball... and, yes, they get a little lucky... then there might be no stopping them.

GO SIXERS!!!

4/15: Total Philly Fantasticness

Flyers 6, Caps 3
Phils 4, Astros 3

I'm starting to love this Flyers team. I mean, I love them anyway, it's what I do, but these guys, these are some hockey-playing guys. Really excellent effort tonight, even after ridiculous diving from Ovechkin (well, maybe, or maybe he was really hurt, I'll never know) and a controversial goal. I was all set to rant about how we got screwed a third day in a row, but you know what? Tonight's not a night to harp on the negative. Beautiful goals, some really smart play, and the near-total shutting down of the Caps. Great stuff. Hard to believe these guys were so wretched just a year ago.

So, after the final horn sounded, I begrudgingly flipped over to the Phillies, assuming they would be losing, because every time I flipped over during the night they were getting mowed down by Shawn Chacon (SHAWN CHACON!) and looked generally terrible and weak. But no, they were tied 3-3 with a man on first and Pedro up to bat! And Pedro batted that man in and we won! (Jenkins looked like he was probably out, but I'm not paid to decide that, so I'll take it.) Is this the turning point???

Next: Tomorrow, the final Sixers regular season game, and more Phils/'Stros. Flyers/Caps Game 4 on Thursday. Feelin' good about it.

4/2 Nats 1, Phils 0 (!); Pens 4, Flyers 2 (@*$!!?!?!)

What happened: The Phils decided to spend the first two games of the season teaching us a valuable lesson: baseball is an extremely cruel, stupid game.

Just spent an extremely frustrating evening watching the Flyers and Phils lose. The Flyers had no answers for the faster, better-goaltending Penguins; the Phils rarely hit anything and when they did it was directly and I mean directly into the gloves of the Nats' fielders. It was pretty horrendous. There's plenty of time left for the Phils, of course, but the Flyers are hanging onto that 8th seed by a thread with only two games left.

Why do I do this to myself? How many novels would I have written by now if it wasn't for sports? Would I be living in a mansion? The mind boggles.

On the plus side, Pedro Feliz had a hit, like I told you he would.

The Phils picked up veteran reliever Rudy Seanez. I'll give him the Husker Du song "Standing by the Sea", just to go with the lame pun on his name. Meanwhile, the Phils cut Wes Helms, so let's salute Wes Helms for a moment. So long Wes, I'll always remember... hmm, I can't remember anything, really. He really had the most unremarkable year here last year. I mean, I even have one or two fond memories of David Bell and Abe Nunez, for crying out loud, but none of Wes Helms.

I do remember one time Helms actually lost his shoe trying to field a ball at third. Yeah, he just... he just wasn't very good.

Next: Two more games for the Flyers, 160 for the Phils. Mark your calendars.