Shallow | Center

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Phils Still Need Pitching, But Find Improvement in Unusual Ways

THE SUCCESS of the Phillies' trade for Brad Lidge, as well as that of any other off-season move they will make, won't be known until October. But this week the team made a pair of non-roster-related moves that I'm confident in saying will make games more enjoyable to watch.

First, the Phils lured Tom McCarthy back from the Mets with a lengthy contract and the promise to do TV. Full disclosure: I know T-Mac personally and consider him a friend. He's a good broadcaster, knowledgeable and prepared, and an even better person. The move was widely interpreted as a signal that the Phillies are preparing for the post-Harry Kalas era. I've long said that Harry the K has earned the right to go out on his terms; that said, he's slipped the last few years, and it's smart to begin grooming a quality play-by-play successor who can stick around a long time.

The Power of Parenthood

A Daughter’s Innocent Questions, a Father’s Life-Changing Answers

LAST SUNDAY I flipped on the Vikings-Giants game, and my 6-year-old, as is her custom, started peppering me with questions. They were the usual: Who’s playing? Which team is wearing the white and purple uniforms? Which one the blue and gray? And then the kicker: Who do we want to win?

In that moment I realized the immense power I hold as a father. I’ve inculcated her with enough sports savvy to know that when a Philadelphia team is playing, that’s whom she roots for. But when both teams are out of town, I get the chance to shape lifelong loving and loathing of teams for whatever rationale I care to come up with. I can turn her into the only kid in her dorm with Dallas Stars and Cleveland Indians posters on her wall, just because. I can foster a visceral hatred of the Arizona Cardinals and the Sacramento Kings, just because.

(In Sunday’s case I told her the truth -- we were to root for the Vikings because the Eagles were chasing the Giants in the wild-card race, not that I needed a reason to wish a loss on New York.)

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. And so I will never tell her to root for the Mets, the (football) Giants, the (hockey) Rangers, the Celtics, or the Lakers.

Well, unless there are playoff implications for our guys. S|C

Taking a Write-Off

For a Freelance Writer, It's Hard to Find Time to Write Stuff  You're Not Being Paid to Write

JUST TWO posts in the last three weeks may leave you with the impression that I've been rather too busy with paying jobs to find my way to write for my nonpaying gigs. That would be a correct impression. And so my ambitious drive to write a 50,000-word novel in one month will have to remain that for a while -- an ambition. No one's paying me to play Ian McEwan, so until I can figure out how to shoehorn that kind of stuff into an already packed schedule, fiction returns to the back burner.

But not permanently. I learned a lot in the two weeks or so I spent trying to crank out 1,666 and two-thirds words per day. I'd like to share some of that here in the near future, but the biggest takeaways are that (a) it's really hard work, and (b) it's a hell of a lot of fun. Too much fun to give up on. More later. S|C

Can a Brother Get Some Pitching?

Rollins's MVP Award Underscores Need to Take Advantage of a Roster In Its Prime

Two years, two different players, two Most Valuable Player awards -- one team. Jimmy Rollins's 2007 encore to Ryan Howard's spectacular 2006 campaign earned him the National League MVP nod, and while I'm proud as hell to have Phillies win the thing back-to-back, it really does make you worry that management isn't taking full advantage of the talent nucleus that's here. Don't think that Chase Utley couldn't make it three-for-three next year, either. These guys aren't going to be this productive forever. Get 'em some arms now, please, Mr. Gillick, and I'm not talking about retreads of Adam Eaton's caliber. S|C

Winning Ugly May Be Winning, But It's Also Ugly

Eagles' Less Than Impressive 'W' Conceals Some Uh-Oh Moments

I KNOW all is well in Birdland, at least for a week, but in my limited viewing of yesterday's improbable Eagles win over the Redskins, I caught a couple of things that troubled me, even in victory. First, Donovan McNabb just isn't throwing the ball right. I can't believe I'm writing this, but his receivers really bailed his ass out a few times, by altering their routes a step or two to come back to underthrown passes. And the defense, once an ironclad hallmark, allowed the Redskins to get down the field way too easily. When James Thrash burns your D multiple times, you know you need some help. I hate to wish losses on teams I like, but there are times when winning masks larger problems that need to be uncovered as soon as possible for there to be long-term success.

Less Than Meets the Eye

'Transformers' Parties Like It's 1984

IN EVERY sense of the phrase, Transformers is a Michael Bay movie. It's loud, too long, preposterous, visually bracing, and kinda fun. Once you get past the reality of watching a film inspired by children's toys, you can settle in and enjoy yourself.

The seamlessness of the CGI robots is breathtaking, which is a good thing, considering you don't -- or shouldn't -- go to a movie like this for plot, character development, or acting. (It should be noted though, that the charismatic Shia LaBeouf acquits himself well, playing matters straight during the rare times it's necessary but mostly skating through the thing with just the right amount of 'tude.) All of the faves from the old cartoon are here, along with a bevy of live-action characters ranging from mildly amusing (John Turturro's slimy fed) to completely ridiculous (Megan Fox's absurdly hot high school student.) When the vehicles are transforming and the battle scenes are underway, it's easy to hunker down into your bucket of popcorn and lose yourself. When the messaging starts -- can the humans learn to get along before they destroy each other and the planet blah blah blah -- get up and go to the bathroom.

Rating: *** (of 5)

Closer to Free

Deal for Lidge Sends Myers Back to the Rotation, Hopefully for Good

IDEALLY KILLING two birds with one stone, Pat Gillick improved both the rotation and the bullpen with one trade last night. Brad Lidge, a comfortable, experienced closer, and utility man Eric Bruntlett come to Philadelphia from Houston in exchange for Michael Bourn, Geoff Geary, and a minor leaguer with little upside. Lidge's acquisition will return Brett Myers to the starting rotation, where the hope is he'll combine with Cole Hamels for a potent 1-2 combination. Lidge's troubles last season -- he lost the Astros' closer's job for a while -- give me some pause, but by most accounts he's a quality ninth-inning guy with great stuff and a strong desire to start over someplace new. Far more important, the team's biggest weakness -- the starting rotation -- was improved without having to spend a dime of free-agent money.

Hot-Stove Hacks

With Rumors Aplenty, a Phan Can't Separate Phact from Phiction

DOES PAT Gillick really think a Wes Helms-Greg Dobbs platoon at third base is the way to go? Are the Phillies really considering bringing back Jon Lieber if the slim pickings in the free-agent pitchers' market bypass Citizens Bank Park? Does Adam Eaton's MRI really disappoint the team the way Gillick lets on in his public comments?

Who knows?

Reading the tea leaves in early November is a fool's errand. For every nugget of truth that Gillick or Ruben Amaro Jr. speaks, imagine how much posturing for the sake of negotiation tumbles out of their mouths. Publicly drooling over Mike Lowell or Garrett Atkins is a sure way to drive up  the respective price each player would command -- how much scratch it would cost to bring Lowell to Philadelphia, how many players the Rockies would demand in a trade for Atkins. It is impossible to discern what the organization truly thinks, and that's not a bad thing. Far better for the Phillies to conduct their business cryptically and field the best possible team come April than to lay their cards on the table now and have little to show for it next season.

Now I Know How the Zombies Felt

Plodding Through the Latest in the Resident Evil Franchise

WHEN IT comes to film there's good-bad and there's bad-bad, and Resident Evil: Extinction falls resolutely into the latter category. I didn't walk into the theater expecting fine cinema, but even by zombie movie standars, RE:E is limp and lifeless. To delve into plot points and other details too much would be giving the film too much credit; suffice it to say there was lots of mutilation, gore, gruesome death, beyond-clunky writing, boring techno music, overacting, and the usual bizarre subplot involving cloning. Worst of all: Milla Jovovich didn't take it off even once. I thought that was supposed to be in her contract.

Rating: *1/2 (of 5)

Sunday Worst

A Gruesome Loss Signals a Depressing Direction for the Birds

THE EAGLES didn't so much as pass the NFC East baton to the Cowboys last night as they did allow the 'Boys to rip it mercilessly from their hands and use it to beat their skulls in. In front of a national television audience, Dallas embarrassed the Birds, beating them on both sides of the ball and exposing a team that simply lacks the talent to contend. The lifeless Eagles inexplicably committed the kind of errors that just shouldn't come from a franchise that has been the class of the conference for the better part of a decade. Whether Andy Reid's dreadful week had anything to do with his team's shamefully awful performance is open to debate. What is not is that the Eagles are a team in decline, with too few weapons, too many holes, and no seeming organizational direction on how to fix it.