Americans Deprived Of Exciting Carter-Ford Debate In Typical Philadelphia Turn Of Events

Now that President Ford has passed away, KYW 1060 reminds us of the famous Gerald Ford-Jimmy Carter debate held at the Walnut Street Theater. In the debate — at least according to Wikipedia — Ford cost himself the presidency by saying Eastern Europe was not under domination of the Soviet Union.

Of course, since the debate took place in Philly, it also featured a bit of a glitch. At the end of the broadcast, moderator Edwin Newman apologized:

Ahh - we much regret the technical failure that caused a twenty-eight-minute delay in the broadcast of the debate.

But, really, who needs full coverage of a debate?

Remembering the Ford-Carter Debate in Philadelphia [KYW 1060]
Earlier: Only The Good Presidents Die Young

Vecsey: Iverson Asks For Trade

Peter Vecsey today reports in the New York Post that Mo Cheeks finally has a reason to stay coach of the 76ers.

Er, well, I guess that’s just the second part. He actually reports that Allen Iverson asked for a trade on Tuesday, something he’s always vowed he’d never do. Of course, it’d be hard to blame Iverson for not wanting to play for the 76ers, since they’re absolutely awful and don’t appear to be getting any better.

It’s no secret that, despite Allen Iverson’s talent, it’s time for him to go. It was his time to go three seasons ago, when, during the closed portion of an open practice at the Palestra, Iverson didn’t bother to do anything, preferring to work on his raps on the sideline — as well as drink a Pepsi.

The 76ers were unable to move him in the offseason, not getting a good enough deal. But perhaps the Sixers can get a better deal during the season with some teams looking for a superstar to guarantee a few sellouts.

Vecsey also reports a bunch of other things:

• The 76ers are attempting to trade Webber, too. (No shit.)
• The Sixers are willing to trade anyone in order to get rid of Iverson, including Andre Iguodala (no!) and Samuel Dalembert (yes!).
• Iverson told teammates before the bowling function that he missed — he blamed medicine from a wisdom teeth extraction — was planning on skipping it.
• Iverson has no beef with Mo Cheeks as a person — it’d be tough to, of course — but doesn’t like him as a coach.

And so… who could Allen Iverson be traded to? Vescey mentions Boston (Delonte West), Minnesota (Randy Foye), Atlanta (who knows) and Indiana (Stephen Jackson). But who knows. All that’s set in stone is that Iverson is on his way out, with Webber probably in tow, too, and the 76ers are finally realizing what everyone’s known since, oh, around mid-2002: It’s rebuilding mode time.

Bad Answer [NY Post]

You’re Next, San Antonio!

Okay, get your talking points ready, people! Phoenix is larger, it can annex land, who the hell wants to live in Phoenix anyway and so forth.

Update: A reader IM’s…

reader: where the hell is nbc10 getting its info???

reader: from NYT:
reader: “The only change in population ranking among the nation’s 10 largest cities was that San Antonio supplanted San Diego in seventh place, although Phoenix came within fewer than 2,500 people of taking over fifth place from Philadelphia, as it will almost certainly do in next year’s estimates.”
pwddmac: i dunno, it’s an ap story
reader: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/us/21cities.html
reader: how could the AP or reuters fuck up the same story with conflicting numbers?
reader: (that’s rhetorical, natch)
pwddmac: From the article: “A special mid-decade census in 2005 estimated Phoenix has nearly 1,476,000 residents, up 155,000 from the year 2000.

Census numbers from July 2004 put Philly’s population at 1,470,000 — a number that has been declining by an average of 860 residents a month.”
reader: there is no such thing as a “special mid-decade census” — they’re all estimates for years not ending in 0
reader: stupid AP

So, uhh… yeah, I dunno. After a little searching, I found the AP story came from info from The Arizona Republic. But all I found on that site was a bunch of Philly-bashing articles from by a former Wharton dean. If it weren’t Friday, I’d search a little more — and probably make fun of that ex-Wharton dean — but, uh, well, it’s Friday. And I plan on being asleep or drinking soon.

Phoenix Replaces Philly As 5th Largest City [AP/NBC 10]
List of U.S. cities by population [Wikipedia]

The Phillies Use Lifebuoy, And They Still Stink

The past few weeks haven’t been all that kind to the local baseball nine. As a chart in the Daily News helpfully notes today, the Phillies were 22-15 and one game out of first place in the NL East on May 14. Today, they’re 35-40, 12 games back (and eighth, 5 1/2 back in the Wild Card).

I’m not quite sure what I have to add to the general sense of malaise on all the Phillies blogs and messageboards a”nd talk radio, but here’s a go: They stink. All of them stink. Every single player, coach, front office exec, ticket taker, parking lot attendant, webmaster, anyone in any way shape or form associated with the Phillies absolutely freaking stinks.

Hmm. That wasn’t all that helpful. Let’s go to aspiring model and Phillies blogger Jason Weitzel, who wrote something in a comment on his blog I found summed up the way this team works:

To summarize and hypothesize: The Phillies have lost 13 of 16 games. Two of their wins came with two bench players starting. The last game they won was the 4-2 game against New York in which the manager was buried for sitting Howard and Abreu. The last game they won with the “regular” starters, including Fasano instead of Coste, was over two weeks ago in Arizona.

There’s a pattern, and it’s crystal clear why this team underperforms for Charlie Manuel.

It would be a travesty to trot out Jon’s lineup [Rollins-Utley-Abreu-Burrell Howard-Rowand-Victorino-Bell-Fasano] tomorrow against the left-handed pitcher, but that’s precisely what Manuel will do. He will play Burrell, who went 0-3 with 4 men left on base [Editor's Note: After coming in as a pinch hitter!]. He will play Bell, who stranded 4 men on base and hit into a rally-killing DP in the second inning.

This will reinforce to players that failure is acceptable, and success is meaningless. Yet this has been Manuel’s pattern for two seasons.

When you lose at the rate the Phillies are losing, you don’t sit the few players who show you something.

Now take a look at this again: This is the lineup I would go with tomorrow, rewarding all the top performers of [yesterday] and sitting the flunkies:

Victorino
Utley
Howard
Dellucci
Rowand
Rollins
Nunez
Coste
Hamels

Once again, there’s no doubt in my mind they would smoke the O’s [tonight] with this lineup. And if they would, I’d start ‘em the next day.

Too long? Here’s the abridged version: If the Phillies are going to lose like they did yesterday, at least let new players lose rather than the same ones we’ve seen lose since around ‘01.

Comment on Game 3 in progress, Bell DP kills early threat [Beerleaguer]