Opinion

We waited nearly three decades to celebrate a winner in Philadelphia. A quarter century of tormenting coulda’s, maddening woulda’s, and hopeless shoulda’s.  

Every team had their chance.

Allen Iverson led a no-holds-barred attack at the mighty Los Angeles Lakers, only to be shackled in five quick games.

After blitzing their way through the Eastern Conference playoffs in 1997, the Flyers were shown the door by the Detroit Red Wings in a four game shellacking.

Now that the World Series is over, we are now in the free agency period of baseball. It reminds me a little of the climax of Christmas and the letdown of the "After Christmas" sales that tell us that the season of excitement is all over. (Granted, there are those who will use the huge After Christmas discounts this year to do their Christmas 2010 shopping).

For the most part, the 2009 MLB Awards Season will be a snoozefest.

I know the title of the article will be controversial, especially among Philly fans, but I honestly believe it's the best course of action for the Phillies to take.  My hope is that the Phillies will not heed my advice, because as a Mets fan, the sooner they stink the better. 

Hear me out before you tune me out! 

Let's get some basic points down that we can agree on:

A good portion of this piece will call back to point two of my Off-Season Plan , please refer back if you missed it!

Sunday night, Bob Dutton reported that the Royals are rumored to be interested in shipping Alberto Callaspo to the Los Angeles Dodgers for 28-year-old (29 in April) catcher A.J. Ellis.  Seeing as though Ellis has worked his way up to a grand total of 13 plate appearances in two September call-ups at that advanced an age, it is hard to get overly excited about the prospect of this deal.

While fans throughout New York City and Northern New Jersey celebrate the 27th World Championship of the New York Yankees, there is a strong and awful odor coming from somewhere nearby.

People stop in the streets, sniff the air, put that "this-is-gross"-look on their faces, try to hide their noses underneath their shirts, and move as quickly as possible to a car or building, anything that will protect them from the smell of rotten eggs in burning garbage.

The smell wafts across the streets of Manhattan, terrorizing the people like a Godzilla stomping the citizens of Tokyo.

The GMs of Major League Baseball are meeting this week to review baseball policies and also to lay the groundwork for deals this winter.

Omar Minaya has arrived in Chicago for the meetings and is making it known that he is desperately seeking a power bat in left field and/or first base for 2010.

Every season the Mets make an impact move, Johan Santana in 2008, Francisco Rodriguez in 2009, and Matt Holliday seems the likely choice for the major deal this winter.

Sept. 19, 2009 has two very different meanings for the San Francisco Giants organization.

On one end of the spectrum, their High-A affiliate, the San Jose Giants, celebrated yet another California League championship after completely steamrolling the competition.

On the other, their teammate Angel Villalona, who was in the Dominican Republic after being sent home to visit family before beginning offseason conditioning, was being accused of murder.

From top prospect to being 19 years old and a possible murderer. Not exactly what you call an ideal situation.

Twitter. 

By this point you’ve formed some sort of opinion on the micro-blogging site. And that opinion is usually in one of two camps and only in one of two camps.

Camp No. 1: I hate Twitter. I don’t know why anyone would want to know what I’m doing all the time. It’s so stupid, I’m not surprised it’s popular in America. 

Camp No. 2: I simply cannot live without Twitter. It integrates perfectly into my life and is bountiful in its usefulness. Best invention of all time.