Well, nothing like a sports packed Fall Sunday to forget your troubles. Well, I didn’t forget my troubles, they still are lurking behind me, doing the evil things lurking troubles do.
However, to banish them for a second, Let’s do ANOTHER PHILLIES BLOG (Special Guest Stars: The Philadelphia Eagles).
Of course, the Eagles took care of the Atlanta DirtyBirds and improved their record to 4-2 . This is extra sweet when you know that the Dallas Cowgirls have 1 win. HaHaHaHa. That huge new palatial stadium, built in the hope that the Super Bowl held there would involve the MooGirlies probably won’t get it’s wish.
Kolb played a great game, DeSean Jackson had two scores before a devastating helmet on helmet hit took him out of the picture, and into our prayers for a safe recovery. Most of the pundits I have talked with or heard from saw the hit as grueling but also legal by definition in the NFofL.
Then the most ludicrous thing happened. Ryan Howard showed up on out HD screens with Tony Siragusa on the sidelines, pumping up the Eagles crowd, playing with the Fox toys, and probably watching his girlfriend perform. He had 4 live shots, at the behest of FOX and MLB, and Scott Palmer made an background extra check.
Afterwards, he rode all the way to Citizens Bank Park on the back of the Phanatics Four Wheeler. (See phony photo at the end of this wonderful blog post for a fun shot.). No helmet!!! Hasn’t he seen the Phanatic drive?
So, what should explode but a bad case of no one tolerating anyone elses opinion unless it concurred with their own. Many felt that, on a NLCS Game Day, Howard at the Eagles game was time better spent on focusing. Others did not begrudge him being at the game, but had issues with THE RYAN AND TONY SHOW . Others felt that whatever Ryan did was fine, it was his personal time. There were plenty of other opinions.
The ludicrous part was NOT Ryan Howard doing any of this. It was the level of vehemence aimed at anyone who held an opinion differing from their own. Some were idiots, some were mocked hours later, and some were simply dismissed by writers and bloggers and Tweeters who know each other as hoi polloi. ( I was in the camp that time would be better spent elsewhere on an important GameDay that led to a Cross Country flight the next day and an afternoon ballgame on Tuesday.)
What really disappointed me was the level of ridicule that some Tweeps and bloggers used, not on Ryan, but on those who dared to question it. Not everyone reacted like this, but for a few people, this was not a debate or conversation involving two different sides, but a trash talk smackdown that, at times, seemed aimed at directly mocking the fact that someone disagreed with them. Disappointingly, some of this came from bloggers and writers who I respect and still do, but yesterday, they mystified me.
Many of these were pure dismissal of anyone who questioned the appearance. And just when it looked like it had died out, Howard got a hit that night, and the vindicated tweeps felt the need to reopen the case for more ridicule, and to point out how wrong those who questioned Howard were.
That was my disappointment yesterday, and one that I see a bit too often in the Twitter/BookFace/Blogging World. Writers don’t respect bloggers. Bloggers don’t respect writers. Bloggers don’t respect other bloggers. Tweeps get into it, as well. The blurring of lines and qualities of all of theseoutlets then blurs. Twitter goes from a conversation to a chest-thumping exhibition.
I’ll allow you to ridicule now because this blog is not filled with sports math, and I cannot quote averages off the top of my head. I do not have “sources” and “the inside dope” or a chummy relationship with someone somewhere. I’m just a fan, a fan with a right to my opinion.
Deal with it, but when you disagree, deal with it with a nod to discussion, not annhiliation.
So, you all know how the game went. Phillies won 6-1, showed signs of smartly manufacturing runs, showing the thrill of getting more than one run an inning, and a tremendous pitching and hitting performance by Roy Oswalt. He showed what has been lacking the last game, the “go for it now” attitude that this moment counts and you better make it work. Sure he could have stayed on third, and hope to be driven in. However, he smartly sized up the situation and seized that moment, rather than chancing the wait and see. Best move of the night.
So, it is off to Game 3, and the knowledge that we still have 4 games that could be pitched by three amazing pitchers. All is well in PhilliesTown.
And hopefully, all is well in Twitter Town. No problem with differing opinions. Just accept that others will have them as well.
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