Touch 'Em All

With four straight division titles and a championship come a lot of fans who like to think they would perform better in Ruben Amaro’s role as GM than Amaro himself. The latest grumblings from the Phillie-faithful come after today’s decision to send right-hander Vance Worley down to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Worley has impressed in two starts and two relief appearances with a 2-0 record and a 1.13 ERA in 16 innings. He tends to throw a lot of pitches, but is really a competitive workhorse who has been a savior for the Phillies in Joe Blanton and Roy Oswalt’s absence.

For all his success in four appearances, Worley is still unproven and most scouts regard him as an eventual 4 or 5 starter at best. Worley has impressed much like Kyle Kendrick in 2007. Kendrick won his first four starts and finished the season 10-4 with a 3.87 ERA, but has fallen out of favor with Phillies fans despite being called upon as a long reliever or spot starter this season. In that tough role, he has a 1.83 ERA in 11 appearances including one start.

The fans who think they know better than Charlie Manuel and Amaro would rather see Kendrick or Blanton sent down but they don’t recognize the value and true role of Worley. The 23-year-old has been so consistent with what the Phillies have called upon him to do, but what Charlie and Ruben are really seeking is a player who can step in as a starter and throw 6-to-7 strong innings if needed. If he’s on the big league roster, he won’t be able to pitch a lot of innings and stay stretched out for that role.

Blanton’s start certainly hasn’t been pretty, but his ERA has gone down each appearance since nearly blowing a 7-run lead in his first start against the New York Mets and he’s famous for being a second-half pitcher.

Despite a 25-14 record, the best in the bigs, fans have come to expect the best from this team, but they shouldn’t question Amaro in this decision. Sending Worley down is the right move.

Halfway through a tough stretch of teams playing above .500, the Phillies own the best record in baseball at 24-12. The Phillies have eight series wins, four losses, and one split with the Marlins. 

The story of the season thus far has been the team’s lack of run support for its star-studded pitching staff. You have to think if the offense produced more consistently and with more power, the team would be sitting even prettier in a division with two legitimately strong teams in the Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins.

The Phils are sitting around the league average with only 4.3 runs per game, something Charlie Manuel has said isn’t okay for this squad. He says the league’s hitting woes don’t justify Phillies hitting woes.

“I want us to be the best team in baseball. I want to put the best players on the field. I want the best hitting, the best pitching, the best defense.”

With the team slugging only .390 through 36 games, they could certainly use Chase Utley back in the lineup but possibly more importantly, Carlos Ruiz. With Ruiz and Utley both off the team for the last three weeks, the bottom of the lineup has been dreadful. While Pete Orr, Wilson Valdez, Brian Schneider and Dane Sardinha have filled in honorably on the defensive end, none have matched the offensive production that Ruiz and Utley can provide this team.

With Ruiz expected back tonight and Utley expected back as soon as next week, the lineup should begin to take shape a little more like it was planned in Spring Training.

Utley’s spot in the batting order has yet to be really filled this year. For the first 27 games, Jimmy Rollins struggled to produce runs or get on base hitting .271 with a .361 OBP. Since the May 3 lineup shift moving Rollins back to he leadoff spot, he has lit it up, hitting .316/.395 and has sparked a slight run surge in a 6-3 stretch with two series wins over division opponents.

Placido Polanco role filling Utley’s vacated spot after May 3 has caused him to really fall off his early season tear. Since the switch, Polanco’s average has dropped following a .235 stretch in nine games.

With Utley’s expected return, and Ruiz likely back tonight, the offense should begin to shape up and help the Phils pitching staff that has worked for a 3.04 team ERA.

Cole Hamels (4-2, 2.83 ERA) will start the Phillies three-game series against the Braves tonight at Turner Field in Atlanta.

Recently published in The Duquesne Duke’s Feb. 10 issue.

One grew up 20 minutes from campus, the other, six hours and a national border away. One watched the Dukes closely as a young budding talent; the other was oblivious to the Duquesne name until her junior year of high school. 

But both have found their way to a prominent starting role on Duquesne’s hardwood, and they share a common goal for their respective teams: NCAA tournament or bust.

Freshmen T.J. McConnell and Wumi Agunbiade have made the transition from high school and AAU phenoms to huge contributors for Duquesne’s men’s and women’s basketball teams seamlessly.

Together, they have received 11 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week accolades this season, five for McConnell and six for Agunbiade. There has never been a year in which both the men’s and women’s team have had the conference’s best rookie on each roster. A large part of each programs’ substantial success can be attributed to the readiness of these two players, who have shaken any freshman-year jitters to log stat after stat in the box scores.

Agunbiade admits she struggled for a little to make the transition from high school to college,

“The first few games were kind of challenging to me just to get used to the speed of the game and everything and the intensity,” she said.

If she struggled, her stats didn’t show it. The Pickering, Ontario native is putting up 10.8 points per game on 53.8 percent field goal shooting. She has filled exactly the role that the women’s team lacked last year. In 2009-10, head coach Suzie McConnell-Serio was forced to play a talented but undersized Sam Pollino at center, and the Dukes never quite had the inside scoring ability that an all-around team needs.

“[Agunbiade is] very good around the basket, she can elevate, can change her shot, can get her shot off against a number of defenders’ size and strength,” McConnell-Serio said. “She displays some versatility as well. Her best skill is her ability to score around the basket. [Last season] we didn’t have anyone who could elevate over people in the paint.”

In addition to her scoring ability, the 6-foot-2 forward has pulled down 7.8 rebounds per game and has defended the post with 33 blocks while starting each game from day one.

“To me, I don’t even think about what year they are. If they’re good enough to play, they’ll start,” McConnell-Serio said. “If they earn the starting position, it’s theirs.”

Agunbiade and freshman teammate Orsi Szecsi have provided the spark for an already talented Dukes team, and the women have garnered as many as 50 votes on their way to a 20-4 record and a 7-2 mark in conference play with five games left in the A-10 schedule.

On the men’s team, McConnell has seen a steady increase in playing time since the beginning of the season, and Coach Ron Everhart said his play, along with fellow freshman Mike Talley’s, has transcended that of most freshmen. McConnell is fifth in the nation with 2.91 steals per game and his 1.64 steals per turnover ratio is the best of any player in the top 10 for steals. Duquesne as a team leads the country with 18.9 assists per game, and McConnell has been a big factor, dishing out 4.5 per game with an astounding 2.5 assist to turnover ratio.

“T.J.’s the best facilitator we have on the team. Every time he comes in the game, whether it’s defense or offense, he plays his hardest. I feel when T.J. has the ball, everyone’s in sync,” senior forward Bill Clark said following the Dukes defeat of Dayton on Jan. 30, when McConnell finished with 15 points, four assists, and no turnovers.

Photo Credit/ Ryan Bogosta- The Duquesne Duke

The six-foot Chartiers Valley graduate said he started the season with some nerves but never felt like he had to prove anything to anyone that they didn’t have to prove themselves.

“We all had to work just as hard as everyone else,” McConnell said. “No one came in and thought they were going to start right away, and everyone had to work for everything. We all respect each other and it’ll stay that way.”

Everhart has had nothing but high praise for the young guard who committed as a sophomore while visiting Everhart in the hospital.

“He’s impacting the game very positively … and quite frankly has made our team better because of who he is and what he does,” Everhart said. “He does a little bit of everything, and that’s what makes him special.”

McConnell entered the season with a single goal: to make the national tournament, especially for seniors Clark and Damian Saunders.

“It would just be special for the seniors this year to make a run at the tournament and just make a run for them,” he said.

The men are well on their way to gaining national acclaim, tallying 15 votes in the AP Top 25 following their tenth straight win against Dayton in the Consol Energy Center.

Agunbiade has the same desire for her team.

“Before I came here, I wanted to make history. I wanted to make the tournament and I’m expecting both the men’s and women’s programs to make the tournament this year,” she said.

A single contrast between these two young stars is each player’s on-court persona. McConnell-Serio praises Agunbiade’s quiet, calm and focused on-court presence, while her nephew, T.J., is always the first one to look back at the bench after a big play with a shout and a grin, waving his arms to get the resurgent Dukes’ fan base excited.

While both players submit to letting their upperclassmen play the role of vocal leaders, each lets their game speak, and for most of the season, it’s been saying a lot.

“I believe that I’m a leader just based on the way I play,” Agunbiade said. “I’m not a vocal leader, but people want to play up to my intensity.”

McConnell-Serio sees bright futures for both teams.

“I think it speaks volumes for the future of our programs. You’re looking at two freshmen who are playing an impact,” she said. “I know one on each side is getting the Rookie of the Week accolades but I know all four [freshmen] are thriving for both teams.”

The success of these two would make any Duquesne fan excited for the future of both programs, but to these two, their business is getting their teams to the big dance, this season.

The Green Bay Packers will use a talented, relentless and disciplined defense to win the franchise’s fourth Super Bowl, and their first since Brett Favre brought the Lombardi Trophy home in 1996.

While both defenses are clearly some of the best in the game, the last match-up between these teams in 2009 was anything but low-scoring. Down 30-36 with the clock running to zero in that game, Ben Roethlisberger connected with Mike Wallace, who kept two feet in bounds on the left sideline of the end zone. The Steelers flipped the score and walked away with a 37-36 victory.

The teams combined for 973 yards that day, but don’t expect that to happen again. In two seasons, defensive coordinator Dom Capers has transformed an average 4-3 defense into a dominating, ballhawking 3-4 defense, and his talented personnel are a large reason the Pack is in the big game. 

Anyone who has watched a Steelers game in the Roethlisberger era knows the team survives on their quarterback’s ability to keep plays alive with his massive size, strength and mobility. Few quarterbacks have his ability to escape the rush and keep plays alive, but the Packers have the antidote to Big Ben’s poison.

Outside linebacker Clay Matthews received consideration for Defensive Player of the Year and has been a nightmare for quarterbacks all year, tallying 13.5 sacks during the regular season and 3.5 in three playoff games. He has the motor and athletic ability to combat Ben’s backfield heroics

And don’t forget B.J. Raji (pictured), the 337-pound mass that Green Bay uses to anchor their defensive line. He has another 7.5 sacks total this year, and there’s a good possibility he will literally eat Steelers center Doug Legursky if Maurkice Pouncey doesn’t play.
Moreover, the Packers secondary is one of the few units that will be able to stick with the Steelers’ receivers, even while Roethlisberger scrambles. 

Cornerback Charles Woodson, last year’s DPOY, had another good year, but might have been shown up by his unexpected counterpart Tramon Williams who grabbed six picks this season, and three more in the postseason. Nick Collins shores the defense at safety, and while he may not be exciting as Troy Polamalu on the other side, he is consistent and never leaves the team out to dry.

Aaron Rodgers (28 TDs, 3,922 yards passing this season) is a legitimate MVP candidate despite missing a game with a concussion and playing with a complete lack of a running game all season - until the playoff emergence of James Starks, that is. 

Starks had only 101 yards rushing in the regular season, but has tallied 263 yards on the ground in only three postseason games. While the Steelers’ run defense is nearly inpenetrable, Starks and fullback John Kuhn will provide just enough offensive balance to give the Packers the edge.Both defenses will show up, but the turnover-inducing defensive backs of the Packers will do just enough to bring the Lombardi Trophy to its proper home.

There’s a saying that the third time’s the charm, and Duquesne certainly charmed the near 9,000 in attendance at Sunday’s game at the Consol Energy Center.

After dropping two marquee games to Pitt and West Virginia in the newly-opened arena, the Dukes grabbed a statement win against visiting Dayton, 82-64, behind the stellar scoring of seniors Damian Saunders and Bill Clark and the sharing hand of freshman star T.J. McConnell.

Duquesne followed Sunday’s big win with a 25-point burying of George Washington back in the Palumbo, and as the Dukes rung up their 11th straight win it started to become obvious: this team has it all put together.

In the City Game, the Dukes were dominated by Pitt’s 6-foot-11 Gary McGhee, who had a double-double in the first half alone and finished with seven blocks. On Sunday, Dayton’s roster was filled with bigs, but the Dukes have made opponent’s size advantage a non-factor as they have begun to outhustle and outsmart their opponents.

In Duquesne’s second game at the new arena, they squandered a strong lead in the second half and lost to West Virginia 64-61, but more importantly lost a chance to gain some national recognition just a few weeks into the season.

Duquesne learned from that loss and has clamped down with big leads against strong teams. They continued to do the same against Dayton and George Washington. By rallying or hustling whenever either team got within striking distance, the Dukes have learned to put themselves in position to break away and put the game out of reach in the second half.

“Some of the things that happened to us in that game have really helped us now,” coach Ron Everhart said. “I think our kids are trusting each other more, they’re sharing the ball. Our freshmen really aren’t freshman anymore. They are trying to make better decisions, and we’re not forcing things as a team.”

The team has talked about an improved chemistry all season, something they severely lacked in years past. Part of that difference in team chemistry and trust is the emergence of McConnell as a star on Everhart’s squad. His poise has turned heads of the media and the fans, and he’s been voted A-10 Rookie of the Week five times this season.

“T.J.’s the best facilitator we have on the team. Every time he comes in the game, whether it’s defense or offense, he plays his hardest. I feel when T.J. has the ball, everyone’s in sync,” Clark said of his rookie teammate.

Fill any Duke’s name into that statement and you could believe it. Everhart’s team plays like cohesive unit better than any team in the Atlantic 10, and their self-described “controlled chaos” on the court is causing trouble for every opponent they encounter.

“We try to just make teams play. We want them to do things they’re not used to doing,” Monteiro said in reference to the teams impressive streak, the longest since the ‘70-‘71 season. “We just try to get teams out of their game, and I think we do a good job at it.”

Duquesne’s streak has faced little adversity and the team’s confidence is only growing.

“I would like to hope that we can leave one [game] behind, look ahead to the next play, to play game to game,” Everhart said. “I really believe that our guys are maybe focused to the point where they’re starting to get a little confidence and starting to get a little swagger.”

Any uncertainty entering the season has been answered by Everhart’s trust in his freshmen and the team’s willingness to buy in to the coach’s every word. The Dukes are on pace for a monumental clash with Xavier at the Consol on Feb. 13, and with the way they have played together on its winning streak, the fourth time may be a charm, too.

Working to figure out this blog. I’ll be using this mostly to re-post articles published in The Duquesne Duke along with some other random thoughts of issues and goings on in the sports world.

I’m also passionate about music, so if something strikes my fancy in the auditory world, something could slip it’s way here, too.

For now, enjoy!

It’s third-and-six from the New York Jets’ 40-yard line. A first down guarantees a win and Ben Roethlisberger scrambles right. Buying time with his feet as we’ve become accustomed to seeing him do, Ben plunges the dagger into the Jets dreams of reaching the Super Bowl by connecting with Antonio Brown eight yards past the first-down marker.

While Sunday’s game-clinching play was not the most impressive fourth-quarter heroics of Big Ben’s career, he certainly did enough for most analysts to begin calling him one of the top three playoff quarterbacks of all time.

That’s almost enough to make you forget that a college student accused Roethlisberger of sexually assaulting her at a bar in Georgia only 10 months ago or that another woman accused him of raping her at a Lake Tahoe Hotel and Casino in 2008. Many would claim that having not been formally charged, he’s clear of all wrong-doing after serving his suspension to the league. But does his impressive play on the field allow us forget those character flaws too quickly?

Roethlisberger is not the only player to quickly escape ridicule after alleged illegal behavior off the field. Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was indicted for the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar at a post-Super Bowl party in Atlanta in 2000. While never convicted, the suit he wore that night was never found, and just a year later, Lewis was named Super Bowl MVP and has been a lock for the Pro Bowl for the past decade.

Michael Vick spent 23 months in federal prison for his involvement in a dogfighting ring, but two seasons and 16 weeks of near-MVP caliber football later, Vick made Philadelphia fans some of the most forgiving in the country. Philadelphia fans are known as some of the most abrasive in sports, but if you give the Eagles a shot at the Super Bowl, people can look beyond a man’s past mistakes.

Is this a problem? These players have dealt with the law, so in the judicial realm, they are clear, but in the moral domain, it seems like players have gotten past the ridicule that some convicts never escape. LeBron James didn’t commit a crime, (unless you consider breaking the hearts of an entire city and likely raising the suicide rate a crime) but he’s probably had it harder than those who may have committed universal wrongs. James simply wanted to play in a new city, a warmer one, with some of the best talent in the league. Cleveland wasn’t drawing those types of players 

James needed to win a championship, and he opted to leave, but now he’s become the villain of the league. Where is the standard of what we can forgive and what we hold grudges for?

It seems like it has become too easy for athletes to finagle their way back into the public’s praises. It’s a slippery slope when young athletes get the idea that nearly anything is acceptable as long as you get the chance to perform and return to the fan’s good graces. At what point are personal mistakes too much to look past? It’s a scary thought that nearly anything, whether it be alleged rape, murder, or actual animal abuse, can be excused in exchange for extraordinary play. But that’s all some fans ask for in the end.