While Dave and I are fresh off the Thanksgiving holiday there seems to be a complacency with the sports teams in this town - except for the Phillies - that second place equals some kind of noble effort and is worthy of the support of sports fans in this town.

Well, Sixers, Flyers and Eagles - you can take that noble effort and shove it up your collective asses. Be a winner or be gone. We no longer have the time - or the energy, or the dollars - for a second (or third or fifth) place teams in this town.

Enjoy.

Get The Podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Philly SportsCast directly in iTunes (MP3).
[RSS] Add the Philly SportsCast Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator.
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.

One baseball source confirmed that free agent Derek Lowe received offers from at least two teams, including the world champion Phillies. The identity of Lowe’s second pursuer was unclear, though the same source indicated that the team was neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox, both of whom are expected to speak with Lowe’s representative, Scott Boras, later this week.

Lowe went 14-11 with a 3.24 ERA for the Dodgers last season and equaled a career high in strikeouts with 147.

While this would be a coup for the Phillies, because Yankees are also interested in sitting down with Boras, this is anything but a done deal.

The Daily News’ David Murphy puts it this way…

Sure, you’d like to replace Burrell. But are the Phillies really worse off - or, perhaps, even better - if they pour their resources allocated to Burrell into bolstering the rotation. Let’s say the Phillies land Lowe. True, that might take away some money that might have been used to bring in someone like Raul Ibanez. But it would give them a rotation that looks pretty darn good on paper:

1. Cole Hamels
2. Brett Myers
3. Derek Lowe
4. Joe Blanton
5. Jamie Moyer/J.A. Happ/Kyle Kendrick/Carlos Carrasco/Andrew Carpenter

Boston Globe via SportsCade with The Daily News.

Here’s what is being reported:

Burress, hereinafter referred to as Giant Moron, shot his own dumb ass with an unlicensed .40-caliber handgun and then, left the club without anyone reporting that the gun went off.

Aside: Remind me to take the Latin Quarter off my list of things to do in Manhattan.

After leaving the club, Giant Moron needed to gets his leg patched up. So what does Giant Moron do? He calls around to see what medical institution will clean him up without asking any questions and actually finds one - New York–Cornell Hospital - and checks in as someone named, “Harris Smith.”

Now Giant Moron (I am laughing so hard as I type this - can this dude be for real?) tells the doctors that he was shot while asking for extra bread sticks at an Applebee’s.

That seems to be believable enough for the team of brainiacs at New York–Cornell as no one there files a police report - standard procedure required by law.

This is the greatest story ever. Ever.

NY Daily News

On Burrell:

At 32, Burrell probably has a half-dozen productive slugging years ahead of him. He wound up earning nearly as much salary per year as Drew so far and when you measure their power numbers and games played, it really is no contest. Pat has played nearly two fewer seasons than [J.D.] Drew yet has appeared in 97 more games, hit 59 more homers and driven in 190 more runs. In a lineup tilted toward lefthanded power hitters, Burrell has been the one righthanded bat in the middle of the lineup who pitchers had to get past.

The man who loves playing here has not always been loved in return, however. Pat never used the wrist tendon that kept popping out of its capsule or an actual Achilles’ heel for his protracted slumps and the awkward swings that made him resemble a drunk trying to stay upright by clinging to a bus stop sign. Burrell never played the blame game. He soldiered on and the fans came to respect his truly true grit and, finally, to love his work ethic and professionalism.

From this late-autumn vantage point, it is hard to see him coming back unless he makes Ruben Amaro an offer the new GM can’t refuse. Will Pat be offered arbitration by today’s deadline? Somebody out there in DH land will offer him 3 years with an option and $35 million or so. Hey, 25-30 homers and 90-100 RBI just aren’t that easy to come by.

On McNabb:

So, if you were a coach fast-forwarding through McNabb’s bravura Thanksgiving performance, you saw a 32-year-old athlete with lots of 97 octane fuel left in his tank. His arm is still a missile launcher, although it remains more Scud than Cruise. That’s not going to change.

But in a year when some of the NFL’s best QBs are mid-30-somethings named Kerry Collins, Kurt Warner and Jeff Garcia, McNabb has established himself as an elite veteran who can fit any system and could thrive in an offense blessed by a big back, competent tight end and a couple of wide receivers with All-Pro pedigree. He has reached his expiration date here.

I am not all that paranoid as it’s championships I crave and firmly believe McNabb will never win one. Burrell, on the other hand, may be a great DH in the American League - but, as we all know, his legs are shot and his bat can run cold for long periods of time.

So I say “Later Dudes” with absolutely no worries. What about you?

What? So you’re telling me the 76ers don’t need to see just how they were crushed on Friday night? There is no need to figure out what went wrong at the hands of arguably the best team in the NBA - a team that the Sixers will have to go through in order to someday win their division.

“We threw that game out the window,” Sixers head coach Maurice Cheeks told the Inquirer. You’re never as bad as you think you are, and you’re never as good as you think you are.”

Wrong. Dead wrong.

If you watched the game - my first and perhaps last Sixers game of the season - it was tremendously easy to see just how outclassed the Sixers were at every point in the game - this team was DOA.

This team is as bad as I think they are. What’s the point of winning - or in this case losing - if you can’t knock off the top dog?

Or at least compete.