New Year’s Resolutions for Philly Teams

Yesterday’s Winter Classic had a familiar feel to it, and it wasn’t a good one.

Ever since I started watching sports as a 7-year-old, my favorite teams (exclusively based in Philadelphia) have found a consistent way to lose big time games. Yesterday was no different as the Flyers lost to the Rangers in an unbelievably-exciting-if-my-favorite-team-didn’t-lose Winter Classic.

Danny Briere and the Flyers continued a Philly tradition of coming up small in the national spotlight.

It felt so normal to lose this national showcase. That’s nothing new to us Philly fans, obviously, but I had actually thought we’d finally shed our town’s loser label. I thought that when the 2008 Phillies team had finally broken the threshold, a flood of championships were sure to follow as they had for Boston fans this past decade. Well, needless to say, I was wrong.

Welcome back to Hell, my fellow Philly sports fans.

The state of the Philadelphia sports fan is one of sad disallusionment — or in plain English, one of shock. The Eagles were supposed to fight for a berth in the Super Bowl after building and augmenting an “all-in” and “dream team” championship core, the Flyers watched their supposed championship core crumble and rebuilt behind a younger core, the Sixers apparently can’t find a championship core, and the Phillies championship core has begun to rot. Something is rotten in the state of Brotherly Love.

As a service to myself, I am publishing this list of New Year’s resolutions for the four major Philly sports teams.

Philadelphia Phillies

1. Chase Utley hits leadoff. He grinds out at-bats, gets on base, can steal a bag, and is an overall nuisance to the opposing team. What else do want from you leadoff batter? Plus, this allows you to move Jimmy Rollins and/or Shane Victorino further down in the lineup where either free swinger can be freed up to drive the ball more.

2. Resign Brad Lidge as a set-up man. As primarily a guy that retires righthanded hitters, a valuable situational, late inning role should be filled with our old buddy Lidge. As the Cardinals proved last year, you can never have enough roles filled in the bullpen.

3. Rehire Jimy Williams as bench coach. He coached in Philly for two years. The Phillies won their first division title in 14 years in the first and their second ever World Series in the second. Need I say anymore?

4. Recapture the magic/spark that propelled those younger teams. This is a bit abstract. To be more specific, these players need to play with more passion and a greater burning desire. I love Chase Utley and Roy Halladay as leaders, but maybe a downside to them is a more cerebral and introverted team spirit.

The whole thing wreaks of the malaise that the Atlanta Braves, with their aces Maddux/Glavine/Smoltz, experienced in winning just one World Series in the midst of their 14-straight division title run. The regular season wins keep coming, but the postseason successes are now becoming fleeting. On paper, the 2008 Phillies would get smoked by the 2011 version. On the field in October, however, those 2008 Phillies were relentless and suffocating. The 2011 team just goes about its business. Can they rediscover what it means to be relentless and suffocating? That’s what will define the 2012 Phillies season.

Philadelphia Flyers

1. Find a goaltender. It’s been the same story since before I ever watched a hockey game. The Philadelphia Flyers must find a franchise goalie. Is Bryzgalov the Man or just a high-priced mistake? Can two or three months of up-and-down to mediocre play from the Bryz really give us a verdict? (No.) The point is that right now Bryzgalov hasn’t answered a two-decade-old question that has defined a franchise.

2. Invest in concussion prevention and concussion treatment research. Eric Lindros and Keith Primeau saw All-Star careers screech to a halt because of concussions. Is Chris Pronger next? Is he the latest franchise player to see his career end because of post concussion syndrome? If he is — and I’m Ed Snider — my newest charitable endeavor would be to donate a large sum of money to head injury research. He might even find an unlikely suitor in Pittsburgh, in light of Sidney Crosby’s latest setback. Unreal!

Philadelphia 76ers

1. Have patience with this young team. This is a resolution as much for the Philly organization as it is for we fans. This is an extremely young team with a lot of potential. We know what Iggy and Elton Brand bring to the table — large contracts and above average play — however, we are just scratching the surface of what Jrue Holliday, Spencer Hawes, and Evan Turner have to offer. Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams are perfect in their bench roles. If the young players can continue to progress, there is a deep pool of talent on this Sixers roster.

2. Develop Jrue Holliday, Evan Turner, and Spencer Hawes. This list would have been just Holliday and Turner if not for the eye-opening play of Hawes thus far. I thought he was just another stiff, white center. I might have been very, very wrong. Needless to say, I’m a bit optimistic about this Sixers team.

Philadelphia Eagles

1. Draft a linebacker in the first round. Preferably one of those “can’t miss” type of talents. PLEASE! While we’re on the subject, please draft better in general. Whatever it is that the Eagles are doing in the draft board room, it’s not working. Brandon Graham has an incomplete, Nate Allen is not performing up to his second round status, and that dude with the hyphenated name selected in the 3rd round that played defensive end (sorry, he wasn’t important enough to the team to remember his name or be worthy of Googling) isn’t even on the team anymore. Those are the first three draft picks of the Howie Roseman era. They’re all applying for residence in Bustville. Roseman’s back for another year, so let’s see if the young GM figures it out this year or if his draft picks pan out better in Year 3.

2. Pay the right ‘Seans. You’ve got to extend LeSean McCoy’s contract — this shouldn’t even be a question — and, if you can get on the same page money-wise with DeSean Jackson, resign the speedy receiver to a longterm contract. If he wants to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald, then let Speedy Gonzalez sign elsewhere. He’s too small and too moody to be paid like the best in the game. He does, however, deserve to be paid like an All-Star caliber wide receiver.

So that’s it. I’ll be back for more later in the week with a little Sixers preview I’ve been cooking up. In the mean time, try not to jump off a bridge after the next heartbreaking loss. I will do the same. Let’s call it our Philly fan New Year’s resolution.

Tags: Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Phillies