Category: Sports

Famous Philadelphia Sports Fans

Matthew Clemmens and Ed Rendell

Philadelphia sports fans took another black eye  when 21-year-old Matthew Clemmens reportedly purposely vomited on an 11-year-old girl at the April 14 Phillies-Nationals game. In this case the black eye was literal as can be seen from Young Mr. Clemmens mug shot  and, with a nod to the presumption of innocence, well -deserved if the reports are accurate.

At least Mr. Clemmens had the excuse of being fat, drunk and stupid.

Clemmens, however, has inspired retrospectives of notable moments in Philadelphia sports fan history that should give some pause. Here is one from NBCPhiladelphia.

The second item describes an incident at the Dec. 10, 1989 Eagles-Cowboys game at Veterans Stadium in which the Dallas players were pelted with ice-balls made from snow the city never managed to get around to cleaning up from a storm several days earlier. Then District Attorney Ed Rendell bet a young fan $20 he couldn’t reach the field with one of the ice balls. Rendell lost the bet but he would go on to become the city’s mayor, the state’s governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

So, Mr. Clemmens take heart. Dean Wormer’s  famous bit advice may not apply to you and your future might be bright after all.

Pennsylvanians, please note. Mr. Clemmens is a resident of Cherry Hill, N. J. while Gov. Rendell is a native of New York City.

 

Did Obama Leave Before Tebow’s Closing Prayer?

Tim Tebow, the Florida Gator’s Heisman-trophy winning quarterback, gave the closing prayer at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast.

The event began in 1953 and is traditionally attended by national leaders including the president.
President Obama was no exception yesterday although he apparently left before Tebow’s prayer.
Tebow has become a controversial figure due to his slated appearance in a pro-life ad during the Super Bowl, Sunday.

Phil Andrews Returns To Philly Sports Scene

Phil Andrews, who left Comcast SportsNet in 2008, is back on the Philly sports scene at HighHopesBlog.Com, according to HighHopes managing editor Shay Roddy.

Phil Andrews Returns To Philly Sports Scene

Austin Scott False Rape Charge Lawsuit

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno may give testimony in the federal lawsuit filed by former player Austin Scott who was falsely charged with rape in 2007.

Scott says the case damaged his chances of a career in the NFL.

The case was dropped in 2008 after a judge ruled to allow evidence that his accuser made similar assault allegations against a Moravian College student whom a jury acquitted.

Scott is suing university police, prosecutors and his accuser, whose name has still not been used by the papers covering the matter.

Austin Scott False Rape Charge Lawsuit

Austin Scott False Rape Charge Lawsuit

Villanova Wins FCS Crown

Villanova Wins FCS Crown —  Villanova beat Montana 23-21 in Chattanooga for the FCS crown. The Wildcats were down 14-9 at halftime.

The comeback was led by wide receiver Matt Szczur who had 159 yards rushing and two touchdowns often taking snaps from center in a wildcat formation.

Montana, who was down 23-14 with two minutes to play provided a scare at the end.

FCS stands for Football Championship Subdivision. It is for the NCAA Division I schools. They had been Division IAA until 2006.

Villanova Wins FCS Crown

Why The Outrage In Lower Merion?

Why The Outrage In Lower Merion? — Lower Merion fans at a high school basketball game, Tuesday, said some rather nasty things regarding host Upper Darby which brought a response from the Royals side which eventually escalated into some extraordinary ugly and anti-Semitic statements regarding LM, which has a large Jewish population. These ugly statements included things like “We’ll write you letters when you’re in Auschwitz”.

Now, this is not something that should be ignored but since Tuesday the dinosaur media has been tut-tutting over incident and the officials from both schools have been indulging in public hand-wringing and the Lower Merion parents have been calling for the heads of the perpetrators.

All well and good but I remain amazed at the angst aimed at words chanted by ignorant teenagers at a basketball game, especially since all the groups expressing it — dinosaur journalists, school officials, Jewish parents, Lower Merion Township, Pa. — voted overwhelmingly for President Obama.

And President Obama is someone:

–Whose spiritual adviser blamed all the problems in the Mideast — and 9/11 to boot — on Zionism and whose institution bestowed upon Louis Farrakhan, the Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award.

–Whose FCC diversity officer called the reign of Hugo Chavez — who appears to be leading a pogrom in Venezuela — “really an incredible revolution”

–Who couldn’t bring himself to lend even moral support to opponents of the rabidly anti-Semitic Ahmadinejad regime after they were cheated out of an election. BTW, did you see where Iran just  occupied an Iraqi oil well? What will President Obama do?

You can’t fault people for being fooled which may have been the case last November. By now, however, you would think they would take some of that ire aimed at teenage stupidity and point it at something of consequence.

Why The Outrage In Lower Merion?

First Springfield Alumni Lacrosse Game

The holy game of lacrosse — it was cooked up by the Indians to entertain God — was played this morning at Sabold School in Springfield Pa. featuring alumni from Springfield High School  teams going back to the Class of ’77 (Jack Gelsomini).

The event was organized by Kyle Sweeney, perhaps Springfield’s most shining star in a sky-full concerning the game. Teams were divided into odds and evens as determined by the year of graduation.

I think the odds won but by the fourth quarter I was letting those under age 49  handle things and lost track of the score.

Thank you, Kyle. May it become a Thanksgiving tradition.

First Springfield Alumni Lacrosse Game

First Springfield Alumni Lacrosse Game

Kevin Johnson Scandal Would Be Headlines If Party Started With An R

Kevin Johnson Scandal — The mid-June firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin led to the release of a report, Nov. 20, involving sex, money, politics and basketball that would be a major story on every dying newspaper and network if the players had happened to be Republican.

Walpin found financial shenanigans in AmeriCorps — a federal public works program started by Bill Clinton– and was fired by President Obama without regard to protocol.

Kevin Johnson Scandal Would Be Headlines If Party Started With An RThose doing the shenanigans were Democrats with close connections to Obama.

Republicans managed to get a congressional investigation and the report by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Congressmen Darrell Issa (Ca-49), the ranking minority members of the Senate Finance Committee and  House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — in case you were unaware the Democrats have controlled both House and Senate since 2007 — is kind of fun.

Former NBA star Kevin Johnson ran the non-profit St. Hope School which received AmeriCorps money and had employees that were paid with AmeriCorp money.

Walpin was looking into allegations that Johnson used these employees to wash his car, run errands and participate in political activities. Johnson, who is now mayor of Sacramento, is a big supporter of Obama.

Well, now is where it gets good.

It turns out that these personal errands included requests for sex. When an AmeriCorps worker objected, Johnson started paying her off. With our tax dollars, of course. Now, the St. Hope Board of Directors included Michelle Rhee who runs the public school system for Washington D.C. and it was to Ms. Rhee that the young lady made a complaint. It was soon after the young lady received a visit from Johnson’s lawyer and the money started coming in.

And, for what it’s worth, Ms. Rhee and Johnson are now engaged.

As fun a story as this might be, don’t look for it in the Philadelphia Inquirer. They still haven’t mentioned Governor X.

Regarding Jaime’s comment below: The Issa/Grassley report describes the victims as students at one point but quotes a school official as calling one of the victims an “AmeriCorps Member”.

Here’s a link to a story describing the sexual molestation incident from the ’90s. The story says the age of the girl was 16.

 

Kevin Johnson Scandal

Tim Donaghy’s Tell-All Hits Roadblock

Tim Donaghy who grew up in Havertown, was graduated from Cardinal O’Hara and disgraced professional basketball by betting on games and fixing point spreads has had his tell-all book about being a NBA referee hit a roadblock. Tim Donaghy's Tell-All Hits Roadblock

The publication of “Blowing the Whistle: The Culture of Fraud in the NBA” has been canceled by Triumph Books citing libel concerns.

Unfortunately for the NBA that hasn’t stopped excerpts from appearing on the web of which if even 10 percent are true — especially regarding the treatment of Allen Iverson — would drive you to conclude that watching the league is a waste of time.

Tim Donaghy’s Tell-All Hits Roadblock

Ashley Fox And The Banality Of Evil

Philadelphia Inquirer NFL columnist Ashley Fox, today,  expressed approval of commentator Rush Limbaugh being removed from consideration from owning a part of the St. Louis Rams.

Fine.

She  wrote that he was not qualified to own an NFL team because he was too controversial and that he insulted Donovan McNabb in 2003 when he said he was not a good a quarterback as the consensus opinion and that the media was protecting him because he was black.

Fine.

What isn’t fine is that an act of extraordinary evil occurred and she refused to express outrage much less even recognize it.

It quite reasonable and defensible to think McNabb is overrated — there were those who thought John Elway was overrated — or was protected because he was black.

It is not, however, defensible to believe that the murderer of Martin Luther King Jr., a decent and heroic man, deserves a medal. It is not defensible to think that slavery was beneficial. One who says those things is despicable.

Rush was reported as saying those things by major media outlets and national political figures. It was that reporting that likely lost him his bid. He never said them. There are those who still believe he did.

Ms. Fox in her column chose not address this wrong — and actually perpetuated a distortion of his statement regarding “Bloods and Crips” She used her space to write a banal column accepting evil and injustice.

What she did was a disgrace.

She should hang her head in shame.

Ashley Fox And The Banality Of Evil

Ashley Fox And The Banality Of Evil