Shallow | Center

What Journalists Do When No One's Looking

FASCINATING ADMISSION by Bill Conlin in his mea culpa in today's Daily News about the Eagles' unexpected resurgence:

I'm a no-cheering-in-the-press-box guy. ... I am normally reserved even in my own den, preferring to analyze events as they unfold rather than to apply body or vocal English to the outcome. Christmas was different, however.

Warmed by a minimum of holiday cheer (hardly by choice), I could have been at home in the Vet's 700 level. While [Jeff] Garcia orchestrated the dismembering of a Cowboys team unanimously predicted to win by that quartet of self-important foofs on the NBC "Football Night in America" set, I even high-fived my startled calico cat. (And got a bleeding wound to show for it.)

If Gene Wilder's Dr. Frankenstein had seen me lurching in front of the majestic, 65-inch RCA Scenium, cackling at each Terrell Owens drop and bellowing at each Birds first down, he might have shrieked:

"It's alive! It's alive! It's alive!"

And so are the Eagles.

Press-row etiquette says you keep your preferences to yourself, so it's interesting to hear what happens when reporters and columnists are in the privacy of their own home. And if you can't cheer on an improbable Philadelphia win over Dallas, well, you might need to make sure you're even alive.

Comlastic

HAVE YOU noticed that the two teams owned by the city's signature commercial enterprise -- an organization rolling in money, an organization I pay an obscene amount to monthly for the privilege of watching television and e-mailing my friends, an organization that's a true market leader in its industry -- suck? The 76ers have just traded one of the league's very best players, and if history is any guide, it will take them years to recover. Meantime, they have lost nearly a dozen straight games. The Flyers are busy discovering that their own very best player's legacy of injuries didn't stop the moment he stepped off the plane at Philadelphia International. In the course of a few short seasons, they have plummeted from the conference championship series to being truly, heinously awful. Both teams, of course, are part of the Comcast empire, which must regard them as nothing more than cost centers at this point. I spent a couple of years publicly hoping that the Robertses would pick up the Phillies and infuse them with cash. But as has been proven elsewhere and has become abundantly clear here, there's an enormous difference between spending a lot and spending wisely.

Merry Garcia

I CONFESS: I was among those who wrote off the Eagles earlier this year, wrote them off after some truly heinous losses, after Donovan McNabb tore up his knee, after Andy Reid allowed himself to get picked apart by the local chattering classes. Yet here stands Philadelphia, a playoff spot well within sight, the division title still a possibility. A conference championship seems out of the question, but after yesterday's fourth-quarter blitzkrieg of the Giants, something resembling a real football team has emerged from the embarrassing mess of earlier this season. Reid deserved the maligning he received, but he also deserves credit for the recent success. He's at his best when he keeps his team on an even keel -- remember the A.J. Feeley Show of a couple seasons ago? -- and the Eagles, despite their flaws and obstacles, have managed to stay focused. Reid also gets props for bringing in Jeff Garcia, of whom mere competence was desired and who has responded with far more. This year was shaping up even worse than last for the Eagles, but they've got a puncher's chance right now. Some will say that's not enough, that without the Super Bowl as a realistic goal, what's the point? I say the point is to win games until they tell you to go home. And the Birds don't seem antsy to leave the party any time soon.

Reversal of Fortune

SEPTA made news this week for sparing riders fare hikes over the next year, though it had to dip into its capital budget to do so. Perpetually underfunded, the agency has never seemed to learn that providing better customer service could lure more riders and thus preclude the need to play its annual fiscal shell game. I experienced a small but telling example Wednesday night of how poorly SEPTA's frontline employees interface with customers -- in the process, alienating them and failing to build the kind of goodwill and reputation for reliability that build business instead of driving it away.

Thanks for Noticing

New Look, New Approach ... and More to Come

WHY, YES, I did get my hair cut; how sweet of you to notice ...

Things were getting a little shaggy around here, so I thought it was time to neaten up the look. Do let me know (via comments or e-mail) what you think. In the meantime, the coming days and weeks will bring more changes here -- new links, new topics of conversation, a new commitment to post regularly, and, most important, a major new professional effort that I'm terribly excited about. Details to come.

Don't Blame Me

THIS ONE, they can't blame on us. Another superstar is about to ship out of Philadelphia, and for once, it's not because of our shortsighted, ruinous need to shower our best players with abuse because they don't play with enough emotion, fail to come up big in games that matter, are scared of outfield fences, etc. No, Allen Iverson is leaving despite 76ers fans, not because of them. Iverson is maddening, an incandescent talent with a penchant for blowing off that which he considers beneath him (practice, charity meet-and-greets, and so on). Throw in that bit of thuggery that he still carries around and you get a guy that Philadelphia should abhor. But Iverson's willingness to play no matter what; his unceasing hunger to have the ball when the game is on the line (and any other moment, for that matter); and his fearless style of play endeared him greatly to the Sixer faithful. I happen to think a trade is in everyone's best interest -- and has been for a few years -- but I'm glad that no one is pointing fingers at us and saying it's our fault. There's enough blame to go around -- Iverson, Ed Snider, Billy King, and all of the Answer's various coaches, I'm talking to you -- but, for once, the fans can look at this one with a clear conscience.

Ready, Freddy?

AFTER DAYS of speculation, the Phillies pulled the trigger last night, landing Freddy Garcia from the White Sox for Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez. And so, after years of frustration, the Phils have acquired a true No. 1 -- not a Kevin Millwood or a Jon Lieber, but a proven winner, a durable ace, who also happens to own a World Series ring. And now, with a surplus of starters, Pat Gillick can do some dealing for much-needed bullpen help. It's impossible to project whether the enigmatic Floyd will emerge from his early-career fog and become the hurler the Phillies thought he'd be when they took him in the first round of the draft. Likewise, Gonzalez is young and could blossom or flame out. This was a good risk to take. Finally the Phillies have taken on a player who represents an improvement -- not merely a replacement -- of whatever body on the roster will be jettisoned to make room for him.

No News Would Have Been Bad News

REGARDLESS OF how you feel about their politics, the news that the management and editorial staffs of the Inquirer and the Daily News are likely going to settle their differences without a strike is something every Philadelphian should applaud. There is simply no other media outlet that covers this region's happenings with the breadth and depth of these papers. Even now, in their weakened state, hobbled by staff cuts and an uncertain advertising environment, they remain the only game in town for anything substantive about the area. A strike would have been ruinous, chasing even more readers to other, less informative media outlets. The Inky and DN have a lot of work to do in such critical areas as attracting and retaining younger viewers, and using the Web properly to disseminate news and opinions. A work stoppage would have crippled those efforts even before they got started.

Then, of course, there would have been the prospect of Jim Gardner reading the comics to viewers on the air. No one needed to see that.

Imperfect Pitch

So, okay, Adam Eaton. Not a bad move for the Phils if he's healthy. But the problem is that there's still no bonafide No. 1. You'll recall that similar complaints were made before last season, which got Brett Myers in a snit. Neither Myers nor the other candidate, Jon Lieber, stepped up, and once again the Phillies scored a boatload of runs while failing to make the playoffs. I'd love to see Myers have a Schilling-like conversion to a hurler who prepares obsessively and pitches intelligently, but I'm not optimistic. Cole Hamels looks to have the stuff -- both pitching-wise and mentally -- to be a stud, but, geez, he's still so young. The Eaton signing isn't bad, but I just don't think it's a difference-maker.