Sports & Entertainment
By Pete Thompson
So, I went to my first concert “post pandemic” the other night as I took my girlfriend Susan to see “Get The Led Out” at the Ocean City Music Pier on Monday night. I can’t say enough good things about that band and really the experience as a whole. From getting the second to last spot in the municipal parking lot on Moorlyn, to being inside the concert hall at the music pier with other Zeppelin fans, to the quality of the music in the 2 hour and 15 minute show, it was AWESOME!
If you haven’t seen what I consider to be the finest Led Zeppelin tribute band out there yet, I would encourage you to head to their website at www.GTLOrocks.com and see when they are touring near you!
In sports, since I last wrote, the Sixers blew it. Plain and simple. They are OUT of the NBA playoffs and Ben Simmons is a big reason why. The Phillies did NOT shine on their West Coast road trip and return home in search of an identity. In hockey, a popular Flyers left winger wins a major NHL award. From football, The Eagles have been pretty quiet, but a West Chester native & Penn State alum makes big NFL news. In golf, the U.S. Open finish on Father’s Day is one of the closest in years. Plus, on the local front, Ocean City & Holy Spirit win state championships in baseball. As I write this, several local baseball players and softball players are taking part in the Carpenter Cup that the Phillies run every year.
From entertainment, a legendary Hollywood movie director brokers a deal with a popular streaming service. Plus, actor Paul Rudd plays one final “prank” on Conan O’Brien. As always though, we begin with sports, and my thoughts:
We’ll start with the Sixers as there’s no way to sugarcoat what happened in their Game 7 with the Hawks. It’s another major disappointment as they lose 103-96 and fail to get out of the second round once again. But most of the “hate” from Sixers fans (and others) is coming towards Ben Simmons, who for the fourth straight game, did not attempt a single SHOT in the fourth quarter!
Let’s just rewind the clock and look at the recent Sixers playoff history. There was a “4-1” series loss to a better Boston team in 2018. A four-bounce, buzzer-beating heartbreaker to the Toronto Raptors a season later. And now, perhaps the worst, a Game 7 loss at home where Hawks guard Trae Young didn’t have his best stuff.
Once again, the Hawks went to a “Hack-a-Ben” strategy, but Simmons did make 1 of 2 free throws after being intentionally fouled to make it a 93 to 90 game. The critical error instead came from Matisse Thybulle as he fouled Kevin Huerter on a three-point attempt with :54 seconds left. The Hawks guard made all three free throws, and then on the ensuing Sixers possession, Joel Embiid committed his eighth turnover of the game, which led to a breakaway layup by Danilo Gallinari and that was basically “all she wrote”.
Rightfully so, Sixers fans booed loudly as the team left the floor. Sports talk radio hosts and social media “blew up” with folks demanding that Simmons be traded or moved. I mean, there’s no doubt he played a large part in costing the Sixers. He had ZERO shot attempts in the 4th quarter of each of the final 4 games of the series. He had only 9 points combined in the final six. 11 missed free throws. Only 3 assists over the final 6 games. And all that for $30.5 million!
The problem is, if you want to trade him, who can you get? Every other GM in the league watched Simmons’ decline as well. How are you going to get even CLOSE to fair value for that guy? That said, Sixers President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey has pulled off “impossible” trades before. No matter what, the Sixers as currently constructed are BROKEN and will need to be tweaked before next season begins. What a shame.
Which is the same thing I could be writing about the Phillies. They lost four out of six on a West Coast road trip against the Dodgers and the Giants. More importantly, #1 starter Aaron Nola seems to be getting worse and the next six games are against the Washington Nationals and division leading New York Mets.
A few things to address with the Phillies as this could be the “make or break” week for them. Two at home with the Nationals before they go to Citi Field for a 4-game series with the Mets. New York is the only team in the NL East with a winning record, and they have stellar ace Jacob DeGrom who saw his E.R.A. drop to a miniscule 0.50 after his last start. Under the new baseball rules, the umpires checked DeGrom’s hat, glove and even his belt for any sticky stuff or foreign substance. Mets fans booed. Expect much of the same as the Phillies host the Nats at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies biggest problem is that they can’t win on the road. Joe Girardi’s team is 21-12 at home as I write this, but a pathetic 13-23 on the road. They are often careless with the baseball, averaging 0.61 errors per game, which is in the top half of the rankings. For comparison, Boston leads all of baseball with 0.72 errors per game. What my little league coach used to tell me, still holds true at the major league level. “You can’t give the opponent extra OUTS!”
So, you could argue the Phillies are at a crossroads right now. A good week, and they’re still in it, but with the trade deadline still more than five weeks away, it’s hard to imagine Dave Dombrowski being in a buyer’s mood if his team is under .500 and five, six, or even eight games back. That’s what a bad week can do. Stay tuned.
From hockey, congratulations to Oskar Lindblom, who becomes the fourth Flyers player to win the NHL’s Masterton Trophy. The left winger, who overcame a rare bone cancer, was awarded the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy by the league, which goes to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey. Three other Flyers – Ian Laperriere in 2011, Tim Kerr in 1989, and Bobby Clarke in 1972 – have won the Masterton.
Speaking of courage, Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out as gay last Monday when he posted to Instagram from his house in West Chester, Pennsylvania and also announced he would be donating $100,000 to the Trevor Project. The Trevor Project provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to the LGBTQ+ community. It commended Nassib’s announcement, saying in a statement that his donation will help it “scale our life-saving crisis services to reach the more than 1.8 million LGBTQ youth who seriously consider suicide each year in the U.S.” I would just like to add to this and write “Way to go Carl!”
Nassib first came to my attention when he was featured on “Hard Knocks” on HBO during his time with the Cleveland Browns. You may also recall that former Missouri linebacker Michael Sam became the first openly gay player to be drafted in NFL history in 2014, when the Rams took him 249th overall. He was cut by the team at the end of training camp that year and never played a regular-season game in the NFL.
From golf, can we address the finish of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines on Father’s Day? WOW, what a finish…as Jon Rahm made back-to-back birdies on 17 & 18 to win the U.S. Open by one shot over hard-luck runner-up Louis Oosthuizen. No one had ever birdied the last two holes to win the U.S. Open by 1 shot in the previous 120 editions of the toughest test in golf until Rahm’s storybook finish. On Father’s Day, with his 10-week-old son, Kepa, in his arms and his father having flown in from Spain, Rahm won his first career major to return to No. 1 in the world. And it came just two weeks after his 6-shot lead was wiped out at the Memorial because of a positive COVID-19 test that knocked him out of the tournament and cost him the potential $1.2 million dollar finish in Dublin, Ohio. Just WOW.
I can continue the “thrilling finishes” theme when we turn to our local sports, as the Ocean City Red Raiders essentially played TWO games with Pascack Valley before finally winning the State Group 3 Championship 3-2 at Bob DeMeo Memorial Field in Mercer County’s Veterans Park last Sunday. Jack Perry bunted home James Mancini with the winning run, while Duke McCarron finished off three and a third innings of scoreless relief to win it in 14 innings. Ben Hoag fielded a ground ball, tagged the runner and threw to first for a double play to end the ballgame. It’s Ocean City’s first state baseball title and the last high school game of the scholastic year in New Jersey. What a way to go out!
Major props to Holy Spirit too, as the Spartans win the Non-Public B Championship 7-1 over Morristown-Beard, also at Bob DeMeo Memorial Field in Mercer County. You have to tip your cap to Holy Spirit baseball coach (and Athletic Director) Steve Normane as he put together a schedule that included Don Bosco, St. Augustine, St. Mary (Rutherford) and the Hun School, along with C.A.L. powerhouses Mainland and Ocean City, plus Egg Harbor Township and Cedar Creek. But there was a method to “Norm’s” madness as the Spartans win it all. I feel the need to write this because I’ve heard it so much at the school in Absecon. “H-S-H-S….we’re the BEST!” This year, they truly are!
One last local item and that’s about the Carpenter Cup the Phillies put on every year. Well, almost every year. There’s always representation from our C.A.L. athletes in both baseball and softball, and this year is no different as Spirit grad Jayden Shertel blasts a solo home run to help Tri-Cape advance to the baseball Carpenter Cup final at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. Tri-Cape also features Chase Petty, Mark Elliott and Cole Campbell from Mainland along with Ryan Taylor & Jackson Vanesko from St. Augustine. Cole Mercado from St. Joe and David Appolonia & Justin Sweeney from EHT are there. Finally, let’s not forget Shertel’s fellow Holy Spirit alum Dave Hagaman. If I forgot anyone local, I apologize…but good luck boys…let’s bring that Carpenter Cup trophy home for the first time!
As always, I’ll close with a few items from entertainment as I addressed the Get The Led Out concert I went to at the top of this column. There’s major news from Hollywood as I write as none other than Steven Spielberg has reached a deal with Netflix…! This is a big one because for years, Spielberg has criticized the streaming channels like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. However, now, the streaming service has announced a new deal with Amblin Entertainment to produce “multiple new feature films per year.” Sounds good to me!
Lastly, Conan O’Brien goes away from traditional TV on Thursday. In fact, by the time you read this, he may have already aired his last show. But, it wouldn’t be a proper goodbye for Conan without one last “Mac and Me” comedic bit from Paul Rudd. The Ant-Man star crashed Conan O’Brien’s TBS late-night show last Monday during its final season to bring back the long-running gag that has both delighted and driven the host mad over the years. To write about it doesn’t do it justice, but suffice to say, I always laugh when Rudd comes on, pretends to have an “exclusive” clip of something he’s working on, and then instead shows a hilarious clip from the 1998 film “Mac and Me”. If you want to watch what I’m writing about, just go to YouTube and put in Paul Rudd & Conan O’Brien Mac and Me. I think you’ll laugh like I did!
I’ll close with a word about masks. Most places are now mask OFF. However, I still encourage you to carry one with you just in case. Be courteous and check what the rules & protocols are for each place prior to entering. The weather is warming up and summer is here. Let’s enjoy it SAFELY, okay?
Pete has been the local “sports guy” at the Jersey Shore since 2004. After a decade with TV 40, he joined 97.3 ESPN radio to talk Eagles, Phillies, Sixers & Flyers with Mike Gill on “The SportsBash” each day from 2-6 p.m.
Pete is proud to be a “voice” for the annual ShopRite LPGA Classic each June, and does emcee work for groups like the National Football Foundation, The Old Grad Awards, and The 200 Club of Atlantic County. You can hear Pete each Tuesday on 97.3 ESPN at 5:30p, and if you see him out & about in the community, he requests that you please say “Hi”. Send comments to PBrooksT@aol.com
