Phillies and the Hall: Not This Year, Not Even for a While...

Perhaps you remember the exciting years of 1994 and 1995 when both Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt were voted into the Hall of Fame (along with Richie Ashburn who was selected by the Veterans Committee in 1995). It's certainly a rare feat to have two players chosen to enter the Hall of Fame in such a short period of time (not counting Ashburn, for this sake of this discussion), and quite an honor at that.

But looking at the results since then, the Phillies have hardly even had anybody make the ballot, which says a lot about just how lame the Phils were in the late 80s and 90s, when the players of those years began retiring.

For instance, this year there is only one player eligible out of 25 possible nominees who ever even played for the Phightin's, and that's the one and only Dale Murphy, who pretty much ended his storied career here as a fizzled veteran from 1990-92 (and played 26 games with the Rockies the following year). Ever since Schmidt was elected, there has rarely been an appearance by an ex-Phillie on the ballot. Take a look for your self at the Hall of Fame's website, and do a search by year (even though it's annoyingly tedious and painful the way it's designed.)

So in my estimation, we'll have to wait quite a while to have another one-time Phillie even make the Hall of Fame ballot. I'd suppose Curt Schilling, Jim Thome, and Benito Santiago (another fizzled veteran) are our best shots for the near future. Other than that, I'm guessing it'll be a long dry spell until we get a Phillie HOFer in there.

Unless, perhaps, Midre Cummings or Calvin Maduro get a surprise call.

On the bright side, however, well down the road we should hopefully be well-represented by Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, and Chase Utley. Scott Rolen, the begrudging Phil, will certainly make the ballot, as will Bobby Abreu and Mike Lieberthal and perhaps a few others whom I can't think of at this point in time. But that's still a while yet until any of them make it.

But hey, we're Phils fans. We're as patient as they come.

*sigh*

A Brief History of Canadian 76ers

Curiousity got the best of me today. Fortunately, the ever-helpful Mr. Google was there to satisfy my itch to find out about Canadians that have played for the Philadelphia 76ers. Why did I need to find this bit of useless information out? I don't know, same reason that your shoes stick to stadium walkways... it's simply a mysterious facet of life that you have to deal with.

Anyway, I searched "Canadian basketball players" and got this page from Wikipedia, which lists anybody who was/is relatively famous in the basketball circles in Canada. I zipped through list of 86 Canadain basketball players, clicking on each link to skim through each bio, and found that I'd never heard of most of the guys on there. The first name that jumped out at me, however, was the one and only Sixers' starting center for 2007, Mr. Samuel Dalembert. The trick with him is that he was born in Haiti, but apparently played basketball at high school in Montreal, Canada. So, does that count? I'll let you be the judge.

Of course I came across Todd MacCullough, a Sixers center from 1999-2003. His playing career was unfortunately cut short, but one of his claims to fame was having been born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. He had a nice touch on his shot, but otherwise kind of slid under the radar during his brief career.

A few other Canadian gents played for the Sixers at one time or another. Here's the list of players I found:

-Rowan Barrett: Rowan was on the Sixers' squad in 1999. (Sorry, I couldn't even find any other information on what he did on the Sixers... must not have made much of an impact)

-Olu Famutimi: Well the information on Olu is pretty much as thin as it gets. Apparently Famutini, from Toronto, played in Sixers' training camp in 2005. So, umm, yeah, that's about all I got on him.

-Leo Rautins: Rautins (pictured) was drafted by the Sixers in 1983 out of Syracuse University with the 17th pick. In 28 appearances during his only season with the Sixers, Leo popped in 48 points, roped 29 assists, and pulled in 33 rebounds as a 6'8" forward. In 1985 he played for the Atlanta Hawks in four games. He then skipped off to Europe. He is now the coach of the Canadian national basketball team and can be heard as an analyst for the Toronto Raptors. Of note, Rautins has undergone 14 knee operations at the time of his retirement. That's one knee surgery for every two NBA games he played. Ouch. Also of note: his son Andy now also plays at Syracuse. Hopefully his knees fare better than his pop's set.

Well, that's a brief history of Canadian 76ers. Six Sixers (that I could find, at least) hailed from Canada. Don't you feel a bit more wordly?

Flyers, Penguins and 107,000 Puckheads

Yesterday, local (Philly-area) media reported that the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins are dabbling with the notion of playing a regular season game at Penn State University in Happy Valley in January of 2009. Outdoors. In Beaver Stadium.

Let me just say that this would be the wildest game I could possibly imagine.

Not only is the Flyers/Pens rivalry building steam especially after last week's scrappy 8-2 battle that the Flyers won, but having it at a neutral location that State College provides, and having it at the country's second largest stadium in the dead of winter just sounds like the a recipe for mayhem. Up to 107,000 fans cheering on a bitter rivalry would be crazy. But in a good way.

Having gone to Penn State I realize that roughly 1/3 of the students are Philly sports fans, 1/3 are Pittsburgh sports fans, and the rest are "miscellaneous"... mostly New York sports fans and a mix of others. So the built-in battleground between the two Pennsylvania cities is already there, and the party scene would be well-represented on both sides.

My only real question is... if you're sitting at the top row of Beaver Stadium in a full house... how in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks would you be able to see the puck???

Other than that, I say... play on!

A Look Back at Murray Craven

I don't know why, but Murray Craven's name popped into my head this morning. Just one of those catchy names I guess. So I did some research on him online. Here's the scoop about this former Flyer:

-Craven was born on 7/20/1964 in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada.

-Drafted by Detroit Red Wings in 1982, Craven was traded to the Flyers in 1984 in exchange for the aging Darryl Sittler. It turned out to be a steal, according to Legends of Hockey.

-According to Database Hockey, Craven played seven years for the Flyers from 1984-1991 and then again for a brief stint in the 1991-2 season, playing in 523 regular season games-- out of a total of about 572-- making him a very dependable player. A consistent left winger, Craven scored 152 goals plus 245 assists for 397 points during his Flyers career.

-His career totals amounted to 1071 games played from 1982-2000, 266 goals, 493 assists, 759 points, and 524 penalty minutes during the regular season. In 118 playoff games, he racked up 27 goals, 43 assists, and 66 penalty minutes.

-He made it to the Stanley Cup on three occasions-- twice with the Flyers and once with the Canucks-- but was never able to bring home the trophy.

-Lastly, here's a view of an excerpt about Murray Craven in "The Greatest Players and Moments of the Philadelphia Flyers", by Stan Fischler.

Thanks for the hard work you gave the Flyers, Murray. Hope you're doing well these days!

I'm Naming Names!

So today former Senator George Mitchell let loose with a stack of papers containing names of players who were accused of taking steroids. Some former Phillies that made the list include Lenny Dykstra, Jason Grimsley, Paul Byrd, Jeremy Giambi, Benito Santiago, and David Bell. Interesting list there, huh?

But here's a more interesting list for you... Former Phillies players who were NOT on today's 'Roid Roster:

-Kim Batiste
-Bake McBride
-Rod Booker
-Del Unser
-Granny Hamner
-Randy Lerch
-Pep Deininger
-John Titus
-Nick Punto

Now this is not to say that none of these players ever took liquid muscles, particularly that John Titus who led the 1909 Philadelphia Phillies in home runs with 3. Yep, he was the hammer on that group of Phightins'. But the fact is that nobody has indicted any of these players as of yet, so hopefully they will stay on the clean list, so give 'em a round of applause for staying of "the clear" and other questionable substances. However, if anything should change, I'll be the first to break it to you.

Keep clean, Philly.