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Baseball Season Preview

Baseball Season Preview: Philadelphia Phillies

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For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; it's spring training, after all.

Every weekday until the start of the season, a different writer will preview his/her team. We asked a gaggle of writers, from the Web, from print, from books, to tell us, in as many or as little words as they need, Where Their Team Stands. This is not meant to be factual, or dispassionate, or even logical: We just asked them to riff on why they love their team so much, or what their team means to them, or whatever.

Today: The Philadelphia Phillies. Your author is A.J. Daulerio and ... Bill Conlin.

A.J. Daulerio will be the senior writer at Deadspin starting March 31. Bill Conlin covers the Phillies for the Philadelphia Daily News. Their words are after the jump.

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Sports

Catch March Madness Games Live from Any Computer

FROM LIFEHACKER.COM: March Madness is just a week away, and this year you've got more ways than ever to catch the action no matter where you are. First, the freeware TV-over-the-internet app Joost (remember our full tour and review of Joost) has partnered with CBS to stream all of the games live to the Joost client. More »

In case you were wondering -- and we doubt you were -- what we thought of that Sampras-Federer match the other night. [New York Times]

Media Approval Ratings

Media Approval Ratings: Al Michaels

almichaelssmile.jpg Of all the brilliance of the great Berman videos, our third biggest thrill (behind the initial outrage and the deux deux deux) involves his rants about Al Michaels. As we said before, in this tiny little universe, Berman seems to see Michaels as Mozart, and himself as Salieri. Which is just sad. More »

ESPN interrupts Bobby Knight's first night of college basketball coverage to show a clip of a Yankees-Rays spring training fight. That's so many kinds of wrong. [Awful Announcing]

listen closely

ESPN's Featured Comment Of The Day

ESPN scoured its message boards this morning to find its cleverest, boldest, most enlightening comment, and chose this one above all others ...

• "Wow, I never would have thought that Houston would have played this well without Yao." -- Stan Okie

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beware visits to bristol

ESPN Visits Can Lead To Later Visits From The NCAA

bristolvisit.jpg We've never actually been to Bristol, Conn., but we'll confess to being somewhat curious about a tour of the offices. Heck, apparently mascots and professional athletes hang out there all the time; that sounds fun! But careful, young basketball recruit; visiting Bristol can put your eligibility in question. More »

NHL Closer

The Art Of The Snot Rocket

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The NHL Closer is written by Greg Wyshynski, of FanHouse and The Fourth Period. He is also the author of Glow Pucks And 10-Cent Beer.

Comcast offered Capitals fans the next evolution of hockey on television last night: The Ovech-Kam, a split screen broadcast of Washington's 3-2 win over Calgary (and Olie Kolzig's 300th) that featured the game on one side of the screen and a camera following Alexander Ovechkin's every move on the other side. Watching this experiment, you were able to focus on the frequently overlooked details of Ovechkin's game: From defensive positioning to how he celebrates a goal. But since the cameras didn't stop rolling when he went to the bench, we were also treated to a definitive tutorial on one of hockey's greatest traditions: The Snot Rocket, and how Alexander Ovechkin launches it.

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nba closer

Winning Ugly. So Very, Very Ugly

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The NBA Closer is written by Matt McHale, who scraped out his eyes with a spoon after watching the Rockets' 20th consecutive win. Fortunately, the government immediately replaced them with bionic implants, but now they expect him to fight crime. So when he isn't using his now-better than 20/20 vision to battle the forces of evil, he can be found looking at basketball's imperfections at Basketbawful. Enjoy!

I didn't think I could hate my eyes this much. The Houston Rockets beat the Atlanta Hawks 83-75 and thus became one of only three teams - along with the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks and 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers - to win 20 games in a row. I watched this brutal assault on the eyes, and let me tell you: It didn't feel like a win. It felt like passing a gall stone. The game was played at the speed of paste. But don't think for one second that means the teams had time to work the ball around for good looks: They both shot 33 percent from the field. After 24 minutes of "basketball," the score was 33-32. It was 59-57 at the end of the third quarter. Tracy McGrady scored 28 points, Chucky Hayes grabbed 12 rebounds, Rafer Alston had a game-high 7 assists, and the Rockets used a 10-0 run in the final five minutes to establish their manly dominance. Said Houston coach Rick Adelman: "It may be the ugliest thing we've done, but it might have been the best one. We did enough to win." I would like to append "against the Hawks" to the end of that last statement. Speaking of Atlanta, Joe Johnson led them in scoring (28) and Josh Smith led them in rebounding (a career-high 22). Fun fact: Here's a short list of things that are at least as ugly as this game was: Kevin Costner's The Postman, the nasty beast thing that Amy Winehouse has become, the Fiat Multipla, this dude, whatever this is, Chris Kaman, celebrities without makeup, and Sam the Dog.

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Holy cow, the guy from The Big Lead goes to the same gym as us! [SI.com]

College Basketball Closer

Mt. St. Mary's Can Dance, But No Touching!

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The College Basketball Closer is written by the gang at Storming the Floor.

At STF we have a real soft spot for teams that haven't made the NCAA dance before. Especially a school like Sacred Heart, which totally sounds like it could have won the 1942 Championship with a crew-cut whitewash. But alas, the Pioneers have yet to achieve that pinnacle, and after losing to Mount St. Mary's last night, they won't be able to do it again this year. Which is too bad, because we totally get a kick out of seeing SH coach Dave Bike stalking the sidelines looking for all the world like Family Guy's Peter Griffin.

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weeeeee!

Canadian Reporters Are Diligent, Agile


To kick off your Thursday morning in the right way, here's one of the world's most dedicated local Canadian reporters. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall keep the broadcaster from his appointed rounds. More »

yesterday's news

About Last Night

What you missed while test driving the 2009 Dodge Hobbit ...
• NBA: Rockets may never lose again.
• NFL: Eli Manning picks David Carr to be his running mate in '08.
• College basketball: So it's going to be Cal vs. UCLA, round two. How will the refs screw up this time?


God Bless Isiah

One Year Since Isiah Showed "Evident Progress"


It's a historic day, everyone, one whose importance almost slipped by us. Today, it has been one year since James Dolan saw "evident progress" from the New York Knicks and extended Isiah Thomas' contract. Boy, did that ever work out well. More »

More on that Nicolas Cage impersonator who fooled Real Madrid. [SI.com]

and now for our feature presentation

To Watch Tonight

What to watch after Howard Cosell does play-by-play of your wedding night ...
• College basketball: Big East Tournament, Cincinnati vs. Pittsburgh (7 p.m., ET), Seton Hall vs. Marquette (9 p.m., ET). The Marquette University logo never fails to crack me up. Notice how the priest is pointing in one direction, and the Indian is paddling in the other. [ESPN].
• College basketball: Northeast Conference, championship game, Mount St. Mary's at Sacred Heart (7 p.m. ET) [ESPN2]; Big Sky Conference, championship game, Portland State vs. Northern Arizona, in Portland, Ore. (9 p.m., ET). Bonus points if you can name Sacred Heart's location and nickname. [ESPN2]
• College basketball: Pacific-10 Conference, first round, in Los Angeles; California vs. Washington (9 p.m., ET), Oregon State vs. Arizona (11:30 p.m., ET). This is past Lute Olsen's bedtime, isn't it? [FSN]


An interview with Mose Schrute Ken Tremendous. [ball star]

Championship Week

"This Is My Last Shot At A Winner"

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Each day this week, Storming The Floor will be previewing that night's important games. Enjoy.

Yesterday I put out a call for Motivational Platitudes that any coach could use to exhort his troops to greater effort on the court. Tonight, many bubble teams and wannabes will be taking the floor, and we have just the thing to spur them one step closer to that coveted auto-bid: an encouraging quote.

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