Benito Santiago: Driving on the Wrong Path

Benito Santiago is lighting up the presses today with his connection to a cocaine conspiracy in Kansas City, Mo. Click here for the details. Basically, a car he owned was seized as part of this investigation, and it's not known to what extent Santiago was involved.

True, he's innocent till proven guilty, but it just makes you wonder what happens to guys like him in professional sports who just can't control themselves after they're done playing... or even when they are playing. DWIs, domestic violence, drug charges, gambling. The list goes on. Seems like something should be done by the teams or the leagues to help these guys transition into a new phase in their lives rather than go off into troubled waters.

Benito Santiago played for the Phillies at age 31 in 1996 and was brought in as a free agent to help provide some veteran leadership. He had a pretty decent year, hitting .264 with 30 home runs and 84 RBIs in 131 games, though the team floundered to a disgraceful 67-95 record. In all, Santiago had a pretty respectable career and was always known for his rocket arm.

Now let's just hope he's not driving down the wrong path...

Phillies' Opening Day Memory: 2002

Allow me to reminisce for a spell.

With the Phillies' opening day less than 3 days away, I'm harkening back to the Phillies' home opener six years ago. Actually I don't think it was the home opener but it was definitely one of the first games of the first home series. Who needs exact details?

Anyway, I don't remember a single moment from the game. It was just another non-descript Phils game from a dull team in unremarkable Veterans Stadium. This was back in the days of Travis Lee, Joe Roa, and yes, Nick Punto. So I do remember that much. But even moreso, I most definitely do remember the weather.

It was NASTY.

It must have been about 30 degrees, and having the pleasure to stand on the frozen concrete of the Vet was nothing short of dismal. The wind whipping around the top of the stadium's bowl in the 500 level didn't help a bit either. I remember my cousin having to go to the bathroom where there was a heat vent and he had to thaw out his feet. Some baseball weather...

On the bright side, I got the tickets for free from the neighborhood bank that I went to every day to take checking deposits for my work downtown. That was nice of them. I think it was Citizens Bank, but even that's a bit fuzzy now.

But the cold is not fuzzy in my memory.

I'm looking forward to attending the Phillies opening day game on Monday but hopefully the weather will be more favorable.

And without a doubt the team will be much better than from the days of yore.

An Editorial on Basketball: College vs. NBA

Pardon me while I express my opinion for a moment.

I've been glued to the NCAA tournament this weekend. It's always been one of my favorite sporting events, and probably my current favorite event, and not just because it's fun to fill out brackets. It's because I'm simply amazed at the level of play in the vast majority of games... unlike what goes on in the NBA on most nights.

I'm admittedly disenchanted with the NBA game. Sure, it's the cream of the basketball crop, but I feel like the game has no energy compared to the college game. NBA players slack off on defense, the crowd isn't into it in the same way as college (so to make up for it, NBA teams try to pump in loud music to make it seem like it's exciting), and I just get the feeling that NBA players don't really care if they lose because they've got it made otherwise. In the college game, players zoom up and down the floor, cover their men on defense with only inches to spare, and are genuinely distraught when they lose. It's like two different worlds.

To put it in perspective, while I'm happy that the Sixers are doing well and in line for a playoff bid, I just can't get as excited as I would for, say, Villanova, a team (one of many in the tourney) that fights and scraps and energizes the fans.

Plus you can go to a college game and not have to get a second mortgage on your house unlike an NBA game.

That's my opinion. Thank you.

Exploring for LaSalle

The Big Five schools from Philadelphia are in the news lately, what with three schools (Temple, Villanova, and St. Joseph's) earning spots in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Unfortunately Temple lost today and 'Nova and St. Joe's are underdogs, but it's still exciting to see three local squads represent the city. By the way, how many New York City teams made the trip? You can count them on less than one finger. But that's not my point here on Philly Sports Quest this evening.

I want to chat about another big name in Philly bball: LaSalle. Oh, but it's not that LaSalle. While LaSalle University is a Big Five institution, the LaSalle I'm thinking of might be even bigger. This LaSalle is listed as 6 feet 10 inches tall and 245 pounds. It's none other than LaSalle Thompson.

Thompson played ball for the Sixers in the 1995-6 season, totalling 44 games. He racked up 1.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, averaging about 17 minutes per game. During Thompson's career, he made 3136 field goals compared to 3143 personal fouls. He grabbed 6689 rebounds in 985 games. During his NBA career he put up 7.9 points and 6.8 boards per game. He was the 5th overall pick in the 1982 NBA Draft, coming out of the University of Texas, selected by the since-relocated Kansas City Kings. And I never even knew this but his nickname was "Tank."

Want to know what Thompson is up to now? Check out this undated article on LaSalle.

There's your LaSalle update. Now let's go Nova and St. Joe's!

More Moyer Facts

In case you missed it, the Philly Inquirer ran an insightful interview with the Phils' 45 year old lefty Jamie Moyer today. The article pointed out that over his career, Moyer has faced a challenging group of Hall of Fame hitters and he reviewed his perspective of facing each one. Some of the names on the list include Mike Schmidt, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn, and some other pitchers' nightmares.

I'd like to add on to that list with a few facts and some names of players Moyer has faced over the years...

-According to Baseball Reference.com, my calculations show that Moyer has faced a total of (get this) 2,149 different batters in his career. There's no other way to say that that is an insane number of batters to face.

-Furthermore, Moyer has faced a whopping 15,102 batters in his career during the regular season

Now, here are some other results he's had against various batters throughout his career:

-He has faced Garrett Anderson the most times (107 plate appearances), and Moyer has not fared well, allowing him to hit .317 with 5 homers and 17 RBI's.

-Scott Brosius has the distinction of having the lowest batting average against Moyer out of any player who has faced him 50+ times (currently listed as 50 plate appearances), and having an average below .200. He's hit a meager .146 against Moyer throughout the years.

-Moyer has never faced Nick Punto.

-In 50 plate appearances, Juan Samuel had Moyer's number, hitting .364, compared to a .259 career average.

-Steve Jeltz faced Moyer 13 times and managed a Mendoza line against him. He hit .200 on the button against the veteran lefty.

-The highest batting average against Moyer for any player with a minimum of 10 at bats goes to Alan Ashby, who had 11 plate appearances and hit .636 against the lefty. Ouch.

-The most home runs agains Jaime Moyer by any one batter is 10 by Manny Ramirez in just 57 appearances. Wow.

-Tim Salmon struck out the most times out of anybody with 17 K's in 99 at bats. Scott Brosius is second with 16 in half as many appearances. Back to the batting cage fellas.

-In all, Moyer has faced 18 current Hall of Famers. Taking out the pitchers on this list (Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton), the 15 remaining Hall of Famers hit a total of .331 with 8 homers and 44 RBIs and 1 triple against him in a total of 284 at bats. All things considered, that's not too bad. That's 1 homer in 35 at bats and not a ton of RBIs. It appears that Moyer has managed to make his living by allowing the "big dogs" to basically scatter around some hits, but not do a ridiculous amount of damage against him. That's cool.

So there's your update on our favorite 40-something fella on the Phils. I hope he's able to continue his consistent pitching this year, and maybe in a few years we'll be able to go back and look at the numbers again to see how things have changed.

Five Teams to Boo...

Pardon me as I act the negative Nelly here, but I had a little email discussion with my good friend Scott and he jokingly brought up a good point... now that Philadelphia will be getting a new MLS soccer team, does that mean we'll be stuck with another team that teases us Philly sports fans into thinking we'll have a chance at a title, only to be let down by inevitable failure?

Admittedly I hate to think this way, but consider the fact that the new soccer team playing in Philly, errr, Chester will be an expansion team and likely won't have a star studded lineup for a few years. That doesn't bode well for the team to help us break the curse on Cups for this city.

On the bright side, however, the new, yet-to-be-named team will have a better shot percentage wise because there are only about half the number of teams in the league compared to the other major sports leagues. So we have, technically, DOUBLE the chance of winning a trophy based on these odds!

So what do you think... should us Philly folks fear a fifth team failure? Or should we be optimistic and say that we can expect a parade down Broad Street soon after the team is up and running in 2010?

Hopefully some other Philly team will win it all before then, but I'm not going to get my hopes up...