Bubba Dogs

I jinxed ‘em. Yesterday’s quote (see below) re: Chase Utley,

If he keeps it up, Chase Utley is going to replace Schmitty as my favorite Philly of all time. .399 average at home. I love everything about his game. Moms and Dads of aspiring baseball players should videotape everything he does and have their sons emulate his every move. He watches 2 hours of film on opposing pitchers before every game, and there are 162 of them! MVP type year for Chase.

Breaks his hand today against the lowly Nationals. MVP not only of the Phillies 25 man roster, but of all 750 players in Major League Baseball. How’s that for a blow, fellow Phils fans? Trade deadline plans re: Aaron Rowand and/or Michael Bourn trades are now scrapped. I hope they don’t deal Bourn because he has ridiculous speed and defensive prowess, however, Rowand is gone at the end of the season anyway. He’s going to demand big money given the type of season he’s having (.328 avg, 32 doubles, .525 slugging, etc…). We all know that the Phils won’t buck up. But, how do you deal him having lost Utley and his MVP offensive numbers? Abraham Nunez will play a stud second base, but he’s batting only .256 to Utley’s .336. On base percentage is .414 to .316. Every at bat, Chase has a 10% better chance then does Nunez of getting on base. A similar comparison would be having a .250 hitter up to bat vs. a .350 hitter. Couple that with Chase’s game overall. He’s my favorite player in MLB because he has no flaws. He maximizes every aspect of his athletic ability and has a Larry Bird type work ethic (my favorite athlete ever).

So much for post season plans. It’ll be fun to watch and I hope I’m wrong, but, once again, the Phils are in bad shape re: post-season plans. I guess the ownership group - Giles, Montgomery, and the invisibles - now have the excuse they were looking for - to do nothing before the trade deadline. Last night was the 16th sellout of the season for the Phils. They average 38,156 per game. They’ve played 49 games at home this season. They’ve drawn 1,880,025 fans this season. Ticket prices are approximately $27 each on average. That’s almost $50 mil in ticket sales alone. There are still 32 games to go which translates to another $33 million. $88 million in ticket sales, probably double it with concessions, etc…, and we have Jose Mesa and whatever his name is Zegursky in the bullpen. This ownership, while they market relatively well and have courteous employees working the park, know nothing about the game and should have sold 15 years ago. We’re screwed until they do and will never win a World Series with them at the helm.

Heal quickly Chase.

The first annual Sea Isle City Hot Dog Eating Contest is coming closer to reality. It may very well take place during Irish Weekend. My plan is for it to benefit the Fallen Heroes Fund. This charity is designed to provide a free college education to the offspring of those killed during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. A great charity, eh? We would have military personnel (in uniform) act as judges. At the July 4th Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest in Coney Island, 50,000 people attended this year. Who knows where this could go? More details and major announcements forthcoming (if powers that be support, and all indications are that they will).

Joey Chestnut - winner of Wing Bowl ‘07 and the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Chestnut can put away those weenies. 66 in all this year, one every 11 seconds. Probably the best competitive eater in the world. Would he come to Sea Isle? Why not?

The Black Widow, Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi. Three of the best in the world compete in the 2006 Nathan’s contest.

Lots of positive stuff happening in SIC these days. Whenever I have anything to report, I’ll share it with you all.

Irish Weekend will be taking place in Sea Isle on weekend of September 22nd. Details forthcoming. This is the same weekend as North Wildwood Irish weekend, so the planners are taking a bit of a chance. I guess the mindset is that perhaps there are those that would prefer to stay away from Wildwood craziness and that, due to our geography, Sea Isle could attract some of the more northern folks that wouldn’t otherwise drive the extra 20 minutes to WW. My hope is to tie hot dog contest in with Irish Weekend. All is still in planning stages.

There’s talk of an Oktoberfest in Sea Isle City during the October time frame. More on that later.

Ryan Howard is an absolute stud, but who didn’t know that? Hit a game winning homer to win it in the 14th inning last night. This after the bullpen blew it, again.

If he keeps it up, Chase Utley is going to replace Schmitty as my favorite Philly of all time. .399 average at home. I love everything about his game. Moms and Dads of aspiring baseball players should videotape everything he does and have their sons emulate his every move. He watches 2 hours of film on opposing pitchers before every game, and there are 162 of them! MVP type year for Chase. This brings to mind a question, has any team in baseball history ever had back to back MVPs? As you know, Howard won it last year.

Hamels has a shot at winning 20 games this year. His change up is as effective as Steve Carlton’s slider and Curt Schilling’s fastball. Should lead the NL in K’s this year.

J Roll hit a triple and scored on an error to send it to extra frames. Rollins is hitting .325 since June 1st.

Aaron Rowand, the unsung hero, is batting .330 this year.

All of these guys deserve a shot this year. We are right on the brink, again. We’ve won 5 straight and have 4 to play against Washington and Pittsburgh who stink. By the trade deadline, the Phils should be right on the brink of the wild card. Please, Mr. Gillick, get us some relief pitching and give these guys a shot. 6 days to go before trade deadline.

If you hadn’t heard, Sea Isle was firing on Monday. Below is Marcus on a 65 foot right taken at 59th Street. Who says the East Coast doesn’t get big?