Fresh off of his press conference at Citizens Bank Park, Roy Halladay took a walk (or more likely, a limo ride) across the street to the Wachovia Center to watch AI’s 1 & 2 take on ‘Bron-’Bron, Shaq and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  There, he was interviewed by the very lovely, very Italian, Jaime Maggio from his comfortable suite at center court.

Also in attendance were Phillies slugger Ryan Howard and his twin brother Corey, Desean Jackson and Leonard Weaver of the Eagles, as well as Ray Emery, Riley Cote, Mike Richards and Daniel Carcillo of the Flyers.  It was like a cot damn Philly athlete convention!

But enough words, I’m sure you came here for pictures and video. You can find them both — ATJ.

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When your life moves as fast as highfalutin pitcher Cole Hamels’ does, you expect your internet to keep up. That’s why Cole Hamels uses Comcast. This way, even when Cole is on the road (he must take his internet with him), he can watch crappy highlights of non-MLB games, rock out to the latest Good Charlotte album or whatever emo-sappy California music it is that Cole listens to, and reply to all those “WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME!?” e-mails from Heidi.

It’s COM-FUCKING-CASTIC!

Prior to Hamels being taken out of the game last night against the Diamondbacks, CSN Philly flashed one of those helpful ‘pitches-by-inning’ graphics that allow fans who just tuned in to catch a glimpse of just how effective the starting pitcher has been up until that point.  As you can see, Hamels had a rough third inning tossing 51 pitches, but more than made up for it in the first, second, and fifth:

You must watch/listen to Mike Schmidt’s 500th home run call at the 4:50 mark:

In between fielding grounders, taking cuts in the batting cage, and stealing Leslie Gudel’s camera to snap pictures, Jimmy Rollins found some time to hook up with a golf instructor down at Spring Training in hopes of improving his golf swing.  Luckily for us, the CSN Philly cameras followed him there to document it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the next Rick Rhoden:

Now I don’t know much about golf, but I don’t think it helps Jimmy when the instructor tries to relate every cot damn thing he does to baseball. Did you hear this guy?

“Golf’s the same as baseball.”

“You hit a baseball, the ball and the bat are together for a period of time… same thing as golf!”

“Everyday is Spring Training. Batting Practice, everyday.”

“If I ask you to hit an outside pitch, blah blah something golf.”

“We’re getting base hits, we still don’t have a double yet.”

“You fouled off that pitch! Still alive”

Jimmy: “Who’s pitching?”

Instructor guy: [thinking of a baseball player... I KNOW! John Smoltz plays golf!]

“John Smoltz.”

“You know what it is? It’s the World Series!”

“I actually think you got hit by a pitch!”

Alright. We fucking get it.

Perhaps the most accomplished Philadelphia athlete of my lifetime, Bernard Hopkins, was a panel guest on Comcast SportsNet’s Daily News Live earlier this week and got in on a little Phillies talk while he was there. It’s always fun to listen to Hopkins talk sports, mostly because he knows what he’s talking about and he’s so candid about it, but it was extra special to hear him gush about the Phillies and let everyone know he wore his throwback Schmidtty jersey to the parade.

After reaffirming his hatred of Andy Reid, The Executioner echoed the sentiment of an entire city in regard to the Phillies winning the World Series when he admitted that now, he can finally rest.

And if the hardest working man in boxing since 1988 can finally rest, I feel as though I can as well.

Listen to Bernard:

Being that a couple members of the Mets have taken it upon themselves to rekindle the one-sided feud they have going on with the Phillies, it was only a matter of time before one of our boys responded to their over-confident spiels.

Well, it looks like that time has finally come… and the first player from Philly to acknowledge the Mets preseason jabs is postseason hit machine, Brett Myers. He sat down with Leslie Gudel of CSN Philly for a little one-on-one yesterday, and from his perspective, he feels the Mets are being a bit disingenuous and isn’t really interested in trading barbs anymore:

“I don’t care what they’re saying, it doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter anymore becuase it’s just like something they’re trying to prove to themselves that they are they team to beat.  They can think that.  We thought it, Jimmy said it, it’s over.  That’s been a two-year thing, what are we still talking about it for?

Great.  Now we’re on — not a sequel — we’re on the third time and those movies really suck.”

If you would rather listen to it while checking out how much weight Brett has dropped since last October, this may be of some interest to you:

Ahhhhh… you know baseball season is right around the corner when Jimmy Rollins starts predicting things.

During an interview with Marshall Harris of CSN Philly last night, Young James claimed that he was “out of the predicting business” and then proceeded to predict about five different Phillies-related things that he felt will come to fruition during the 2009 season.

First, Jimmy reiterated his belief that the Phillies could reach the 100+ win plateau in the regular season as well as the 11 postseason wins it would take for the Phillies to repeat as World Series Champs.

After that, his forecasting got a little more specific.  Take a look:

• For the 3rd time in 4 years, a member of the Phillies will bring home the NL MVP award
• Hollywood Hamels will win the NL Cy Young award
• Brad Lidge will continue his streak of consecutive appearances without a blown save “until he’s tired of it”
• There will, once again, be a parade down Broad Street in honor of the repeat champion Philadelphia Phillies

Here’s the proof:

(Jussoyaknow, that drum machine laden instrumental in the background was not added by I)

In the midst of the post-game celebration yesterday evening, Brett Myers took a break from the division winning festivities to sit down with Michael Barkann and Mitch Williams of Comcast SportsNet. It was during this interview where Myers issued a guarantee for this year’s playoffs.

“We will NOT go three and out this year!”

Okay, so it’s not exactly on the level of Joe Namath or Mark Messier, but it’s a start…

Here’s the proof:

• thomas on Ryan Howard Garden Gnome Night Highlights R-Phils’ Promotions
• The Lone Filafel on Ryan Howard Garden Gnome Night Highlights R-Phils’ Promotions
• Tam on Ryan Howard Garden Gnome Night Highlights R-Phils’ Promotions
• az on Ryan Howard Garden Gnome Night Highlights R-Phils’ Promotions
• Walklett on Ryan Howard Garden Gnome Night Highlights R-Phils’ Promotions