COASTAL EROSION

The weekend series with the A's was a chance wasted to pick up some ground on T.F.N. On Friday night, the Phils were more or less back to their home selves, chasing Barry Zito with a five-run seventh and coasting to a 6-1 victory behind the once-again stellar pitching of Robbie Tejeda and the lower rungs of the bullpen. On Saturday, though, they ran themselves out of several run-scoring opportunities en route to a 2-1 loss, and blew a 2-1 lead in the sixth on Sunday to lose 5-2. Jon Lieber lost the Sunday game, and continues to disappoint. He's not keeping the ball down consistently, and he gives up way too many homers. Did somebody just give Kevin Millwood a haircut and a shave and sew Lieber's name on his uniform?

Washington didn't fare much better on their West Coaster, going 3-3, but it was enough to extend their lead from 1.5 to 2.5 games. The Phils returned home last night and will face the Mets starting tomorrow, followed by, for some unknown reason, the Boston Red Sox. T.F.N. play the relentlessly mediocre Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh starting tonight before heading home to play their erstwhile Canadian rivals the Blue Jays. It looks like we're just going to have to beat Washington ourselves, much like we couldn't do for lo those many years against the Braves.

I hate to mention it this early, but we still maintain a 1.5 game lead over the Atlanta Evil Spawn for the N.L. wild card. While it's not the most advantageous place from which to embark on a playoff journey, the wild card has been popular recently for World Series champs. We'll definitely take it if we can get it.

The Blue Rocks were giving away Johnny Damon bobblehead dolls on Friday, but we arrived far too late to get one. Due to the crowd for the promotion, we ended up sitting in the upper boxes behind home plate, in the middle of a row of a mostly full section, uncomfortably wedged between an incredibly fidgety corporate outing in front of us, two 250-lb. guys who liked to spread themselves out to my right, a family with incessantly yapping teenagers behind us, and some people to my wife's left who didn't bother us but who we still wished weren't there so we'd have some room. The night was also kind of a downer because the Rocks' longtime PA announcer, Johnny McAdams, had passed away the night before. In addition to doing Blue Rocks' games, Johnny Mac was the PA voice of the Palestra, and he's the only PA announcer I've ever known at Frawley Stadium. They played the entire game without any public address during the game in his honor. Johnny Mac's voice was a rich baritone, as smooth as any I've ever heard at a big-league park. I'll especially miss "8 o'clock, Bulova Watch Time" and his signature call of the "The Wilmington Blue Rocks aaaaaaaaaaaand friends" at the beginning of the game when each of the Blue Rocks take their position with a kid from some local little league team. Thanks for everything, Johnny Mac, you'll be dearly missed.