Since we started the high school football season, I guess it shouldn’t be hard to believe that we are already halfway through the regular season (although with the expanded playoffs, we still have over two months to go).

With that said, I wanted to recap some of the major high school sports stories in the Lehigh Valley from this past weekend, along with highlights of our RCN-TV productions through the season’s first four weeks.

• There have been very few head coaches I’ve talked with who did not say that Bethlehem Catholic had the best front six defenders in the entire Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. But they showed their balance last weekend against Liberty on Saturday. Their speedy, but at some spots, inexperienced secondary came through and equaled the effort of the players up front. On offense, they continued to grind out a solid running attack, led by Day-Day Rhodes and Randy Terry, and newly named (after week two) full-time quarterback Javon Clements, who led a balanced attack with a very solid passing game and excellent decision-making. The Golden Hawks wanted to send a message that they belong in the EPC South Division, and delivered their first statement win against a traditional power.

• We mentioned on our high school football preview shows in August that Emmaus’s Josh Artis belongs on a short list of the most talented wide receivers in the region. He’s continued to have proven us correct in recent weeks. At 6’5 and with great leaping ability, he’s very hard to cover for most corners in the league in single coverage. The only way to slow him down seems to be pressuring the quarterback–although that’s not a given with the Hornets solid offensive line.  Also, with Artis running the inside slant, it’s not an easy task for most opposing teams’ defenses to cover. Look for Artis to continue to be a m ajor playmaker this weekend versus Freedom and going forward this fall.

• Saucon Valley handled Southern Lehigh last Friday and Notre Dame also defeated the Spartans a couple weeks ago. This, in probability, should set up a rematch of what was last year’s Colonial League game of the year, when the Panthers will take on the Crusaders in week nine. Both teams lost some talented seniors to graduation, but have removed any doubt of their ability to reload and, barring a major upset, and will once again play for the top spot in the league.

Speaking of Notre Dame, we will find out firsthand more about this team, including how good they think they can be this year, along with insights on their success so far and their upcoming schedule.  Head coach Phil Stambaugh and his players will be our in-studio guests on this Thursday’s “RCN SportsTalk presented by The Morning Call” show, live at 7 p.m. on RCN TV.

Now, here are video highlights of all of our HS football productions, thus far…

Don’t forget to send us your sports comments and questions at any time via email (rcnsportstalk@rcn.com) and to tune in on Thursdays, when I’m joined by new co-host/Morning Call Senior Sports Writer Keith Groller on each show.

If you go back through the archives and read one of the earliest “SportsTalk Shop” blog entries that I ever wrote, I spoke at length about my admiration for The Morning Call Senior Sports Writer, Keith Groller, for a number of reasons.

One of the biggest reasons was how much I was impressed by his passion for local sports coverage—almost to, what some may believe, a fault.

A number of years ago, Keith was covering “higher end” sports as the NBA/76ers beat guy for the “Call.”  He made the surprising decision to give up covering professional basketball to devote more of his working time to covering high school sports.

I was shocked by that decision back then.  I myself was busy splitting my time between working part-time at a Philadelphia radio station, a New York station, a pair of sister stations in the Lehigh Valley and RCN-TV.  I had the good fortune of being offered not one, but three, significant full-time opportunities in a very short timeframe—any one of which would have moved my career forward, and any of those positions would have granted me a higher “status” in this industry.

But, I committed what many at that time would have considered career suicide by passing on all three offers—and I’ve never been happier.  I’ve never regretted staying in this area—especially a short time later when I was blessed to be offered my current full time position here at RCN.  And I will always thank Keith for being someone who I looked up to, when contemplating that decision.

And now, as fate would have it, Keith and I will become sports talk show partners.

Premiering this Thursday at 7 pm on RCN-TV, Keith will join “RCN SportsTalk Presented by The Morning Call” as our new co-host. We’ll be joined by the strong stable of The Morning Call staff writers making regular appearances on our hour-long program.  Many of the “old favorites” will return, including “the Roundtable” segment, our “Stone-Cold Locks,” trivia, prize giveaways and, of course, the opportunity to interact with us live on the program.  Also, Keith will sound off on any sports issue(s) that he chooses to comment on, during his “take” segment—much the same way Joe Craig had done before him.

Speaking of Joe, he is focusing his time going forward on our weekly “Football Friday” program—dedicated to talking about his favorite subject, high school football, during the scholastic season.  It will be great for me and our audience to continue to see him on RCN-TV this fall.

It goes without saying that I will miss him being a regular panelist on our show each week.   Despite our on-air combativeness—one that was never faked or pre-scripted like many other shows, I thought we provided an interesting balance of opinions and styles during the first 12 years of this show’s run.  We frequently disagreed on a number of issues, probably too many to even attempt to recap over time and our debates would frequently spill over after the program—so much so that many people would often ask me if we were on non-speaking terms away from the program, or if we really despised each other.

The answer is and was always “no.”  I have great respect for Joe as a football coach and as an athletic director and thought he added a great deal to our program.  Once more, he had a deep commitment to our local athletes and sports institutions—and that love of the local athletic programs in the RCN viewing area is something we shared and was the basis for our show’s core—one that allowed us to have strong disagreements and yet continue to have a solid working relationship.

It’s great that we are continuing to have passionate conversations about people who truly care for and respect local sports, on both our Thursday and Friday sports programs.  We hope you’ll tune in to watch both shows this football season, as we continue to add to our local sports coverage and feature the outstanding athletes, teams and programs in the RCN viewing area.

The biggest topic of conversation has been the shift from four classifications to six, with many schools moving to new groupings, approved by Pennsylvania’s governing body over high school sports—the PIAA.  We had a chance recently in studio to discuss this big shake-up with local media members…

Coming up on this Thursday’s live show at 7 pm on RCN-TV (the podcast will be available the next day), District XI Football Chair Jason Zimmerman, along with local head coaches, will be on “RCN SportsTalk” to discuss and debate the advantages of these new alignments.  They will also outline the changes to the regular season schedule, the playoff criteria, the reasoning behind moving some teams and not others and many more issues.

Viewers will have the benefit of calling into the show live or emailing us (rcnsportstalk@rcn.com) questions and concerns about the radical change—including the usually lengthy procedure for these alterations, which took place in a surprisingly quick fashion.

Among the areas of confusion that we’ll hope to clear up on this show include: identifying where the different teams “landed,” why a particular school is sometimes in different classifications for different sports (including different grouping for boys and girls sports), the number of teams that will qualify for the postseason and many more issues.

To help clarify some of the confusion ahead of the show, here is a rundown of where the various schools fall for a couple of the most-covered PIAA sanctioned sports.

FOOTBALL CLASSIFICATIONS…
CLASS 6A:
Allen, Dieruff, Easton, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, Northampton, Parkland, Pleasant Valley, Pocono Mt. East, Pocono Mt. West and Stroudsburg

CLASS 5A:
East Stroudsburg North, East Stroudsburg South, Southern Lehigh and Whitehall

CLASS 4A:
Bangor, Bethlehem Catholic, Blue Mountain, Central Catholic, Northwestern Lehigh, Pottsville and Saucon Valley

CLASS 3A:
Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Northern Lehigh, North Schuylkill, Notre Dame-Green Pond, Palisades, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Tamaqua and Wilson

CLASS 2A:
Catasauqua, Mahanoy Area, Minersville, Palmerton, Panther Valley, Pine Grove, Minersville and Schuylkill Haven

CLASS A:
Marian, Nativity, Shenandoah Valley, Tri-Valley and Williams Valley

BOYS BASKETBALL CLASSIFICATIONS…
CLASS 6A:
Allen, Dieruff, Easton, East Stroudsburg South, Emmaus, Freedom, Liberty, Nazareth, Northampton, Parkland, Pleasant Valley, Pocono Mountain Easton, Pocono Mountain West, Stroudsburg

CLASS 5A:
Bangor, Blue Mountain, Allentown Central Catholic, East Stroudsburg North, Pottsville, Southern Lehigh and Whitehall

CLASS 4A:
Bethlehem Catholic, Jim Thorpe, North Schuylkill, Northwestern, Pen Argyl, Salisbury, Saucon Valley, Tamaqua and Wilson

CLASS 3A:
Catasauqua, Minersville, Northern Lehigh, Notre Dame-Green Pond, Palmerton and Pine Grove

CLASS 2A:
Mahanoy Area, Marian Catholic, Moravian Academy, Panther Valley, Schuylkill Haven, Shenandoah Valley and Williams Valley

CLASS A:
Lincoln Leadership, Medical Academy, Nativity, Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg, Tri-Valley and Weatherly

As I mentioned months ago on this blog, I myself am taking an optimistic “wait-and-see” approach to see how this new classification system shakes out.  There are some clear advantages for student-athletes and some of the local school sports programs. However, there have also been a number of coaches in the state who have raised concerns about this year’s changes.

Again, you will have the opportunity to call or email the show directly and our guests will be able to address your questions and concerns on this Thursday’s program.  We hope you’ll join us for this important show and let us know your thoughts!

First of all, a big “thank-you” to all the people who sent me positive feedback following our unprecedented THREE HOURS of high school football primer talk (which you can catch through RCN On-Demand or at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk).  We had some wonderful insights on the local teams and players in the RCN viewing area, along with predictions, identified athletes-to-watch, “must see” match-ups, and, of course, our RCN pre-season football poll.  We hope you check it out if you missed it!

Speaking of polls….

It seems bizarre that it’s already time for our “Week Two” high school football polls for teams and only now have we celebrated Labor Day. (I joke when people mention this holiday as I, along with nearly every coach, player, administrator and media member rarely can have a Labor Day Monday in which you’re not doing something football related, or else you find yourself massively behind in the preparation department for this week’s chores).

It’s the same thing for our high school football poll panelists, who were hard at work over the last 24 hours reviewing last weekend’s gridiron activities, comparing notes and sizing up the competition around the Lehigh Valley, in order to submit their picks for our bi-weekly poll.

With that said, here’s a look at our first “in-season” ranking of the teams in the RCN/Lehigh Valley footprint after two solid weeks of high school gridiron action:

BIG SCHOOL FB Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Parkland (5-1st place votes)
2) Freedom (4-1st place votes)
3) Liberty
4) Emmaus (1)
5) Easton
Other schools receiving more than one vote: Southern Lehigh, Whitehall

SMALL SCHOOLS FB Poll (9 pollsters)
1) Saucon Valley (5 – 1st place votes)
2) Becahi (4 – 1st place votes)
3) Central Catholic
4) Notre Dame
5) Northwestern
Other schools receiving more than one vote: Pen Argyl, Salisbury

Unlike polls that consist of a couple representatives within the same organization, our poll is much more varied with input from many different people over a wider scope.  Our voting panel consists of local media members from different outlets, along with local coaches and athletic directors from across the entire district.  The voters are not identified (unless they appear on our “SportsTalk” TV show and podcast and chose to reveal themselves) so they can give their honest impressions without any worry of outside pressures or “bulletin board” material, and we rotate different pollsters from different schools each year, including guests from our biggest to our smallest schools.

Despite this fall’s change in the PIAA classification, our poll remains with the standard, tried-and-true format that we have utilized for many seasons.  We will take the 400-male enrollment number as the cutoff for schools within the District XI/RCN footprint.  All schools above that number qualify as “big schools” in our poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, E. Stroudsburg-South, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh and Bangor.

“Small schools” (below 400-male enrollment) consist of Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Catasauqua.  Each pollster will identify their top five teams in each group—the top school gets five points, the second team gets four points and so on, with an average score determining the order of teams in the poll.

For the RCN viewers watching us in the Washington, DC region, we are once again featuring your high school football teams with highlights and news on the different programs on our Thursday show.

Feel free to send us your opinions on our poll to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we might read your emails live on the air on upcoming programs.  You can comment directions on this week’s “RCN SportsTalk” program this Thursday and our podcast of the show available on our website.

Also, don’t forget to check back to the “SportsTalk Shop” for more on high school football and fall sports teams in the RCN viewing area over the coming weeks for more interviews, video highlights and insights!

The high school football season has arrived with an earlier-than-normal start to the season (the PIAA eliminated the second scrimmage week so that the season will start a week earlier and allow for an additional week of playoffs).

We have an unprecedented amount of local high school football coverage, both on RCN On-Demand and on our podcasts here at the RCN TV website.  Despite a busy week of transitioning to the football season, preparing for several “SportsTalk” programs as well as this weekend’s games and also conducting shows from the Allentown Fair this week, I was able to take a moment to reflect on the opening weekend of high school football action.

I’ve compiled a few “first impressions” after the first round of high school football games in the Lehigh Valley:

• I stirred up some controversy on our “primer shows #1 & #2” by making some lofty predictions about Dez Boykin, Zach Gilbert and the Whitehall Zephyrs (which you can hear for yourself at rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk). After the first weekend of games, I saw nothing that would cause me to back off those statements.
•  There’s no question PARKLAND is the top team in the Lehigh Valley. They had their way with Allen in their season opener—and it won’t be the last time the Trojans put a licking on a local team this fall.  Without DeVante Cross and some other talented, graduated seniors, it won’t be easy for Parkland to equal its 2015 season, which culminated in a trip to Hershey for the PIAA title. Still, anything less than a couple wins in the state playoffs will be a surprise to me, and if you watched “SportsTalk” recently, you know other panelists have made even loftier predictions for the Trojans.
• I’ve been saying for over a year now that FREEDOM has perhaps the most underrated sports programs in the entire Lehigh Valley, especially now that Bangor has collected some well- deserved recognition after capturing several championships over the last few months.  There might not be a more under-covered football sports story than that of the Patriots’ football program, that has one of the most miraculous turnarounds in recent memory—and to do it in one of the most competitive football leagues in the state!  Furthermore, Head Coach Jason Roeder’s team proved not to be just a once-and-done story, with a dramatic turnaround following a 2-8 season in 2013, but sustaining the success with back-to-back playoff trips the last two seasons.

Still, when I ask people for their impressions of the top EPC teams this fall, the initial responses from most people are always Parkland, without any hesitation.  Freedom does have a very competitive start to their season, with games against Easton, Parkland and Emmaus all in September.  You could also argue that the Patriots had the most challenging week one opponent of anyone in the EPC-South Division.  However, I would be surprised if the Patriots aren’t once again one of the top two teams in their classification this fall.

Do you think Freedom gets the respect?  We’ll talk with Coach Roeder and some of his players on the September 8^th edition of “RCN SportsTalk,” and, if you think they should get more publicity, I hope you’ll make your voices known on that particular show.

• There’s no question NOTRE DAME lost some talented personnel from last year’s record-setting team, but with Phil Stambaugh back operating the offense, I’m not expecting much of a letdown for the Crusaders this season. I fully expect Cole DeFranco, a sophomore quarterback, to thrive given the teachings of new Head Coach Phil Stambaugh.  The players who do return, headed up by Mitch Daniel and others, might make Notre Dame into the new, consistent power team that the Colonial League has featured in the past, like Saucon Valley, Catty, Pen Argyl, Northern Lehigh and Wilson before them.

Also, we’ll have Coach Stambaugh and several of his players on a “SportsTalk” show this September as well.

Feel free to send us your opinions on our poll to RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we might read your emails live on the air on upcoming programs.  You can comment on this week’s “SportsTalk” program and also, don’t forget to watch this week’s show, in person, at the Farmerama Stage Area at this year’s Great Allentown Fair.

Also, don’t forget to check back to the “SportsTalk Shop” for more on high school football and fall sports teams in the RCN viewing area over the coming weeks for more interviews, video highlights and insights!

With an earlier than normal start to the scholastic football season, the time to unveil the first “RCN SportsTalk” High School Football Poll for the Lehigh Valley is almost upon us!

I’ve remarked in previous years how comprehensive and diverse our poll is compared to other publications and media outlets, and we are using the same formula for the fall 2016 season.

Our voting panel consists of local media members from different outlets, along with local coaches and athletic directors from across the entire district.  The voters are not identified so they can give their honest impressions without any worry of outside pressures or “bulletin board” material, and we rotate different pollsters from different schools each year, including guests from our biggest to our smallest schools.

As in previous years, we take the 400-male enrollment number as the cutoff for schools within the District XI/RCN footprint.  All schools above that number qualify as “big schools” in our poll. These schools consist of Parkland, Liberty, Allen, Easton, Emmaus, Liberty, Dieruff, Freedom, Stroudsburg, Pleasant Valley, Northampton, Nazareth, E. Stroudsburg-South, Whitehall, Southern Lehigh and Bangor.

“Small schools” (below 400-male enrollment) consist of Saucon Valley, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Northwestern, Wilson, Palisades, Palmerton, Salisbury, Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Nolehi and Catasauqua.  Each pollster will identify their top five teams in each group—the top school gets five points, the second team gets four points and so on, with an average score determining the order of teams in the poll.

Before we get to unveiling our 2016 Lehigh Valley football poll (we’re going to announce it on this Thursday’s “RCN SportsTalk” show—also available here on the website via podcast on Friday), let’s take a quick look back at last year’s poll and evaluate how we did:

2015 BIG SCHOOL FB Preseason Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Parkland – 50 total votes ( 10 -1^st place votes)
2—tied) Easton — 28
2—tied) Freedom — 28
4)  Liberty — 16
5)  Whitehall – 11
Other schools receiving more than one vote:  Emmaus, Stroudsburg

ANALYSIS:
                Our panelists pretty much nailed the 2015 season before the first game was played, despite us getting some early season grief about having Freedom and Easton tied for the second spot—and not just from Red Rovers fans).

               Parkland was clearly the best team in the area, and came within a few minutes of winning a PIAA state title.  Freedom and Easton split a pair of games against each other last year and Liberty was the fourth team that advanced to a district semifinal matchup.  Whitehall—with nearly everyone returning this year—was one of several teams that finished a step below the first four, along with Emmaus and a faster-than-expected rebuilding effort from the Nazareth Blue Eagles.

 2015 SMALL SCHOOLS FB Preseason Poll (9 pollsters)
1) Bethlehem Catholic – 43 total votes (8  -1^st place votes)
2) Saucon Valley – 36 (1 – 1^st place vote)
3) Northern Lehigh — 20
4) Central Catholic — 11
5) Northwestern – 10
Other schools receiving more than one vote: Notre Dame, Pen Argyl, Salisbury
ANALYSIS:
                This wasn’t our best year as far as pre-season predictions for the smaller schools, as Saucon topped Becahi in the 3A District XI title game.  Both Northern Lehigh and Central Catholic struggled, while Notre Dame had arguably its greatest season ever, and Salisbury showed strong signs of improving that will probably continue into 2016.  However, let the record show that, by the time we did our first “in-season” small school poll, the teams shook out this way (which nearly mirrors the final standings):

 2015 SMALL SCHOOLS FB Poll (10 pollsters)
1) Saucon Valley (5  -1^st place votes)
2) Bethlehem Catholic (4 – 1^st place votes)
3) Notre Dame (1 – 1^st place vote)
4) Northwestern
5) Central Catholic/Salisbury (Tied)

How will our 2016 preseason poll look?  Find out over the next week as we will bring you an unprecedented THREE BIG HOURS of high school football previews, predictions, insights and interviews with head coaches and players themselves.  On both the “RCN SportsTalk” program and on our podcasts (rcn.com/atvn/sports-talk), we will present three, one hour-long shows featuring the Lehigh Valley media’s top football insiders breaking down the different leagues, top match-ups and players to watch.  Our first show will be broadcast live on RCN-TV this Thursday at 7pm, followed by two additional live program broadcasts from the Allentown Fair’s RCN Farmerama Stage area next Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-7 pm.

Then on Thursday at the Fair (7:30 – 8:30 pm), we’ll feature the 50^th anniversary/reunion show featuring the first undefeated football team in Parkland High School history, with players from that historic team, great stories from the golden years of high school football, and those players’ thoughts on current football issues and how today’s athletes compare.

We hope you’ll join us in person for these special shows from the Fair!

Last but not least, make sure you tune in for the season premiere of high school football this Friday, featuring Central Catholic versus Freedom, live at 7 pm on RCN-TV.  Plus, check out the RCN broadcast schedule here on the website for upcoming games.

We’ve brought you quite a bit of information on top-level, up-and-coming minor league prospects in both the Phillies and Nationals organizations this summer.  Here at “the Shop” and on RCN-TV, we’ve given you interviews with the players themselves along with their coaches and have provided insights, statistics and progress reports throughout the Minor League season.  With the Minor League season winding down, we thought we’d take one more look at the Phillies players just below the Major League level who might be getting a September call-up in the near future.

JP Crawford
The Phillies number-one ranked prospect in their entire organization has cooled off a bit in August, after a sizzling six-to-seven week span that saw his overall batting average rise to .290 (he’s currently hitting .258).  People around the Triple-A team suggest he isn’t ready for a call-up and could use a few more weeks at Triple-A (he’s missed the last several games because of what is being described as an injury to his side) so it not certain if he’ll get a cup of coffee this September with the parent club.

Despite Phillies fans anxious to see him sooner rather than later, it would probably be best if they did NOT call him up this year—keeping him in the minors would keep him off the 40-man roster and allow the team an additional roster to protect a player from this winter’s Rule 5 draft.  Also, the Phillies Triple-A team is likely to make the playoffs, so he could get additional “ABs” and playoff-like experience for several weeks in September.

That being said, I still think there’s a better than average chance he’s the Phillies Opening Day ‘17 shortstop—or at least be called up by Memorial Day 2017 if he struggles in spring training.

Nick Williams
His bat has also cooled off of late.  But after some controversial headlines and several showings of a definite lack of hustle, Williams has been doing and saying all the right things lately.  He’s been batting in the .270 – .280 range and is currently leading the team among active players in RBI and is second in home runs.  While he’s played all three outfield positions with regularity, Williams will probably fight for playing time in one of the crowded corner outfield spots this September, unless—like Crawford—the Phillies prefer to play their best prospects in a Minor League playoff series.  Also, the Phillies might want to see more of Cody Asche and some of the other veterans for evaluation purposes, which could be another reason to keep Williams in Triple-A.

Andrew Knapp
The Phillies “catcher of the future #1” has had a decent year offensively and has improved overall defensively this summer.  However, he has shown some inconsistency behind the dish—which has been more worrisome as it has occurred occasionally over the last few weeks.  With Cameron Rupp being one of the few sources of power at the major league level and Jorge Alfaro playing well in Reading, Knapp will have to start impressing the Phillies front office in a big way to remain part of the team’s main core of players for future seasons, or run the risk of falling back on the organization’s depth chart.

Cam Perkins
Two seasons ago, he had a strong Double-A season, following by a quality start in Triple-A and was thought by then General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. to be a candidate for a big league outfield spot.  Perkins struggled mightily in 2015 and was almost an afterthought at the beginning of this year.  Perkins has been largely consistent playing all three outfield positions and hitting just under .300 for much of the year.  Still, with all the outfield prospects already in the Majors, along with Williams and guys like Roman Quinn and Dylan Cozens playing well in Reading, Perkins will really have to do something special to be part of the organization’s 2017 plans.

Darin Ruf
After failing in his attempt to earn an everyday—or even a steady platoon—role with the Phillies this spring, Ruf has returned to his power hitting ways at the Triple-A level, hitting just under .300, leading the team in home runs and second in RBIs.  Still, with Tommy Joseph moving ahead of him on the depth chart and fiery hot prospects moving up behind him, this will probably be Ruf’s final year with the Phillies—and is not a shoe-in to even be a September call-up.

Ben Lively
Acquired in the Marlon Byrd trade, Lively’s spot on the organization’s pitching depth chart plummeted after the trades of Cole Hamels and Ken Giles netted a bevy of prime hurling talent.  Lively, who started the year in Double-A, might just have earned himself a look yet this year with an improving approach and more effective use of his pitches.  He’s been going longer into games and recently tied all minor league pitchers with 13 wins on the season.  Heading into his most recent start (8/12/16), he hasn’t lost a game in August and his ERA this month is under 2.  While he doesn’t have the stuff of an Aaron Nola, Vincent Velasquez, Jared Eickhoff or Jake Thompson, he still could prove to be a steady back-end of the rotation pitcher.

Joely Rodriquez
Another forgotten man after struggling mightily in Double-A ball (and spent time in High-A Clearwater), Rodriquez was converted into a reliever and has done a decent job in recent months, holding Triple-A left-handed hitters to a .194 batting average (.229 w/RISP). Acquired for another hard-to-figure-out southpaw Antonio Bastard, Rodriquez might still have a remote shot as a lefty specialist with a Major League team, especially since left-handed throwers have suddenly become a scarce commodity in the upper levels of the Phillies system.

If there’s a young player who you don’t see listed on today’s blog, please check back with some of our recent blog entries to find more on your favorite player(s).

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Also, if you want to hear more baseball talk and rub elbows with some real “boys” of summer, we invite you to come out to Buffalo Wild Wings on Grape Street in Whitehall (PA) for this Thursday’s “RCN Sports Talk Gets Wild” show starting at 7pm.  Our guests will be past, present and future members of the Coplay baseball sports community,  Select show topics include a discussion of the late, great Sam Balliet, the memories of the stadium named in his honor and a look at the current players who play there, along with future baseball stars.

Go to the “Gets Wild” page here on the RCN-TV website, click on the appropriate link for that evening’s show/charity and 10-percent of your total bill will be donated to the Dream Come True organization.

We’d love to see you there!

One of the many “guarantees” in my life is that my co-hosting partner of the “RCN SportsTalk” show, Joseph Lynnwood Craig, is constantly harassing me about things he wants…more airtime, bigger coffee mugs, softer cushions for his chair, etc.  One of his regular complaints each summer is that he doesn’t get many opportunities to write an entry on the “SportsTalk Shop” blog, especially, when I go on vacation.

Each year, I give him an opportunity to do this, with the following specifications:

• Please type it
• Please keep it to 8-12 paragraphs
• Please have it ready to go a few days before I leave for my vacation

Each year, he fails to follow all three requests.

Instead, he recently handed me a rolled-up stack of penmanship paper, with his long, hand-written and ink-stained rants about a broad and an incredibly vague topic.  His commentary, he insists, will flood my mailbox with positive support for his point of view.  Then, he promises, the public will demand he scribes even more entries during the year.

Well, now’s your chance to prove him right!

This week, we bring you a taste of Joe’s sports psyche and his thoughts on the recent transactions of his beloved Philadelphia Eagles.  We hope you enjoy the opportunity to hear Mr. Craig’s observations and opinions.  And now, from the “Scrolls of Craig” (and I do literally mean scrolls), here are Joe’s thoughts (with a literary assist from former sports writer Jack Logic) on the recent actions, missteps and future predictions of the Philadelphia Eagles (abridged version).
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The four major professional sports teams in Philadelphia have each taken many different routes in different season.  While the Eagles have had some success in recent years, there have been more disappointments than happy moments surrounding this team over the last few seasons.

After sticking with Head Coach Andy Reid from 1999-2012, (some would argue that was too long a tenure), Eagles Owner Jeffrey Lurie went in a completely different direction.  Reid was a life-long NFL-er, while studying under the coaching tenure and “Old School” mentality of Mike Holmgren.  Reid was very conservative in many ways and would try not to rock the boat very often.  He was like his successor, Chip Kelly, in that he was quite stubborn, but he would rarely try to make a giant splash.

Instead, usually made “safer” player personnel changes to his lineup.  Terrell Owens was, of course, a major exception to this theory, and his time in Philly was cut short.

With Kelly, Lurie went in completely opposite direction.  Kelly had no experience in the NFL as a coach or a player.  He had a radically different approach to many things and was a very polarizing person in the city of Philadelphia.  We would find out later that he seemed to relish developing an “us-versus-them” community and, as time when on, more people found themselves as an outsider in the “Kelly World.”

The Eagles thought they were on the right track when Kelly was hired in 2013.  His Eagles had a 10-6 record and went to the playoffs in Kelly’s first year.  Not many coaches in NFL history had the kind of success Chip had in his first experience as an NFL head coach.

In his second season, Kelly’s team repeated that level of success by once again winning ten games but failed to make the playoffs in an all-out power struggle in the NFC East.

That offseason was a time for change.

Between Kelly, team General Manager Howie Roseman and Owner Jeffrey Lurie, there was a front office shake-up.  Lurie handed the keys to his organization over to Kelly and put long-time front office man Roseman was put on the back burner.

As the Eagles new “GM,” Kelly made a number of controversial moves.  His first and only year as the man in charge of player personnel for the Eagles ended up being one of the worst front office men in Philadelphia pro sports history.  Kelly traded popular and proven players—and some that he clearly did not see eye-to-eye with along with the controversial decision to unload this year’s second round draft pick and, in return, received injured players or players who were not successful for a long period of time.

The two moves that angered Eagles fans (and probably the owner) the most, was the trading of Shady McCoy to the Buffalo Bills for Kiko Alonzo.  They also let the popular wide receiver Jeremy Maclin leave to go join former Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid and received nothing in return for him.

These off-season moves prompted Lurie to fire Chip Kelly before the 2015 season had ended.  Kelly was let go after a 6-9 record and had his office cleared out before the Birds played their final game of that year.

Going forward, the Eagles brought back the former GM Roseman to retake the position he previously had, in charge of the player personnel decisions.  Roseman, by all accounts, has had a good offseason, in my opinion.  Through free agency, trades and the draft, Roseman has plugged many of the holes that Kelly had left behind.

In 2016, the Eagles should challenge for the NFC East division title.  With a veteran cast and the hiring of new Head Coach Doug Peterson (who was mentored by Reid), the team will return to the playoffs.  They also have two new coordinators.  Jim Schwartz will head-up the defense and Frank Reich will oversee the offense.

As for 2017, the Eagles will have started the Carson Wentz Era as he was selected with the second overall pick in this past summer’s draft.  The team will once again return to glory.
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Don’t forget, Joe would love to get some responses for this week’s blog entry, so please send us your thoughts via email (RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com) and let us know if you’d like Mr. Craig’s to participate more often on our weekly blogs.  Also, be sure to hear Joe’s opinions each week on the live edition of “SportsTalk” every Thursday at 7 pm and on our podcasts.

Each December both here at the “SportsTalk Shop” and on our TV show, “SportsTalk”, panelists and I make some sports-based predictions for the new year.  I don’t get caught up in the prediction business ordinarily, but it’s become a bit of a tradition around the holidays to make a couple bold statements to go along with resolutions (of which I don’t do nearly as well).

While some sports prognosticators love to boast about how accurate they are with their futuristic insights, I make it a habit of going back and making public my predictions, and owning up to any that don’t come true.  (I’d also like to take a miniscule amount of credit for the ones that work out—I’m owed at least as much, right?)

Since we’re over the halfway point through the calendar year, and before we start ramping up our fall football coverage (which will be bigger and better than ever before!), I think I should take a peek at how some of my predictions are holding up and make myself accountable for any gaffes on my part.

Philly pro sports teams will win LESS games in 2016
The 2015-16 76ers certainly lived up to their end of my prediction.  Aside from forcing out the team’s General Manager, Sam Hinkie, they were near perfect in their quest for futility, reaching new levels of bad play, even with pressure from Jerry Colangelo (and the league office?) to try to improve.

My prediction will take a hit with the idea that the Sixers will try to go after some more recognizable free agency in all probability this offseason.  They might also win a few more games than expected if they select Brandon Ingram with the first pick in this month’s NBA Draft.  Selecting Ingram would make the team better—short-term—than if they select Ben Simmons or even draft down a few spots, but I don’t see that much improvement in November and December and still believe they’ll ring up more losses in the 2016 calendar year than they lost in 2015 (but the future is very bright for 2017).

I knew the Flyers were going to be improved, but had no idea that they would be as exciting to watch this past season as they were, to say nothing about making the playoffs and having a few good moments against the Capitals before losing to Washington in the first round of the NHL playoffs.  This team ramped up the speed of its rebuild and, with a few tweaks, will be a middle-of-the-pack playoff team, in not better, for next season.

The Phillies also have surprised me with better than average starting pitching, and the bullpen overcame a woeful start to the season and has pitched better, helping the team to a slightly better record than I had anticipated.  This, despite a woeful offense that had seven position players on the roster hitting below .200 after the first month of the season.

However, the Phillies fell (like a plummeting cannon ball) back to Earth hard and fast during the month of May and show very little signs of making a push to get back above, or probably even near, .500 this summer.

With less than half of the Major League baseball season remaining—which will still probably have more losses than wins, and an Eagles team in, at the very least, a retooling stage following the car wreck of the Chip Kelly Era, I’d say I still have a good chance at nailing this prediction.

The Wizards, Nationals AND Redskins – will have even greater success in 2016
With over half of the MLB season and the entire NFL season yet to come (and I’m looking pretty good for both of these teams), we only have the Wizards to look at.  And on the prediction that they would have a better 2016…I admit I put up a major “airball.”

Off a second-round playoff appearance and loss to a high-quality team, I thought the Wizards could improve and—with the right match-up–the Wiz could actually advance a round further.  However, not only did they take took a major step back in win total, they also didn’t qualify for the post-season, ushering in a quick replacement at the helm by bringing in Scott Brooks (formerly of Oklahoma City) as a new head coach.

Rumors of discontent and players “trading barbs” (according to the Washington CBS sports radio station) spread wildly as they limped home to close out the regular season out of the playoffs.  There are different reports as far as remaining free agent possibilities and other speculation about what direction the team could go in.  Also, players are a little less secure than this time a year ago and the forecast is more ambiguous as far as how good this team will be for the upcoming season, even with one of the most exciting, yet underrated players, in John Wall back on board.  I’ll stick to my guns and say they make a jump for the 2016-17 campaign.

Notice, I did NOT include the Capitals in this mix.  Their back-to-back premature failings in the playoffs have me worried about their future, and I’ll also continue to say (as I did following their playoff exit) that they might actually take a step back in the upcoming year.

2016 will be a successful District XI Wrestling season
I have never claimed to be a wrestling expert, but the fact that we had so many talented underclassmen returning for the 2015-16 wrestling season made it easy for me to say that the Lehigh Valley would have tremendous success at the state tournament in Hershey.

Not only did Bethlehem Catholic come away with convincing (mostly dominating) performances in the team PIAA competitions, but they accomplished this goal against the best the state of Pennsylvania had to offer, by competing in the 3A classifications (as critics had ask for, for a number of seasons).

Individually, District XI featured eight gold medalists and 20 overall medal winners.  Special props go out to Palisades’ Tyler Marsh, the lone wrestler in the RCN viewing area to receive the top scholar athlete award.

For an area that has had a long tradition of great wrestling success, it was a tremendous season all the way around for many different schools and I can unequivocally chalk this one up as one I got correct.

Stay tuned for more sports conversations coming up and don’t forget to check back later in the year as I take a look at the rest of my predictions to see how I fared.

When I first saw the Easton girls team play in an early summer league game, I was this close (imagine my fingers about an inch apart) to saying that they were unequivocally the “team to beat” for the upcoming scholastic season–only to see them lose to Nazareth the next day.

Since then I’ve seen the Blue Eagles play a few times, including capturing their second “Allentown Throwdown” Championship in the last three years.  This is a very special team.  This year’s Nazareth squad seems even deeper than some of the previously successful Blue Eagles teams that brought home various titles. They run their offense through multiple people, and have several different options and players who can score at different spots on the floor.  They have people who demand the basketball at appropriate times and the team plays as aggressive a defense (usually a 2-3 zone) as I’ve seen any summer basketball team play.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, they have the area’s best basketball player in Tessa Brugler, who recently committed to Division-I Bucknell?

This is going to be a fun girls basketball winter season, if the summertime play is any indication. Forget Batman V. Superman, Black Widow against Scarlet Witch, or any other “metahuman” analogy you can tie in with this summer’s box office options.  Nazareth versus Easton is going to be a war.  But as I overhead one Nazareth player astutely mention as she walked off the court after being named champions:  “Now there’s REALLY a big target on our backs!”

This is very much true, given that Easton will not be the Eagles’ only formidable foe with their own Division I caliber athletes and an outstanding supporting cast.

Among the challengers include Parkland, Northampton, Liberty, Bethlehem Catholic, Whitehall and others.

Among the key performances this summer was a strong showing by the Freedom girls basketball team.  The Lady Pats made their debut in the Holy Family Tournament—which also featured annual powerhouse Central Catholic.   The Patriots won six of its 10 tourney games, beating several teams that have had state playoff successes.  The Patriots were the last Lehigh Valley team standing in this year’s competition, not to mention holding its own in other tournament action this summer against strong programs.

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As far as Colonial League girls teams I’ve seen this summer, the one that impressed me the most was Northwestern, followed closely by Notre Dame.

I didn’t get a chance to see the league’s and defending District XI 3A Champion Southern Lehigh, but judging by some of the scores I’ve seen, they must be without some of their key players as they sometimes sustained more losses in one day than they did all of last year–and they’re returning nearly everyone!  If any team does have a chance during the winter to upset the Spartans, I’d look for the Tigers and Crusaders to be among the best bets.

One other note: The Catasauqua girls basketball team had an interesting summer schedule. Despite still being one of the smallest schools in the PIAA’s new classifications (2A), the up and coming Rough Riders were frequently matched against teams from the 4A, 5A and even 6 A (the largest) classifications.

Still, Catty fared well and showed that they continue to make improvements and could challenge for a playoff spot this winter.

We’ll have more summertime basketball action coming your way on RCN-TV next week, as we broadcast the annual Catasauqua “Tournament of Champions.”  Check back to the RCN-TV website for our broadcast schedule.