Philadelphia Sports: Don't Phight it...

So judging from the title, I want to diverge here a little bit into something I don't talk about in this medium that often, if at all. Sports. Namely Philadelphia sports. At this point it seems like every active team in the city has just given up at this point. Granted, Donovan McNabb tore his ACL yesterday, but even before that, the Eagles weren't playing all that great. In the words of Coach Jimmy McGinty, from the movie The Replacements, "Heart. Miles and miles of heart." I just don't see it these days. And this from the city that brought us Rocky, fictionally of course. The real Rocky was from New Jersey. Don't even get me started on the Flyers. I'll reserve judgement on the Sixers for now, only because they're only 9 games into the season I believe.

On another note, the NL MVP goes out today. From what I've heard, read, etc., it seems to be a two horse race between Ryan Howard, of the Philadelphia Phillies, and Albert Pujols. And in everything I've read, it's always that Ryan Howard faded over the last month of the season, and Albert Pujols led his team to the postseason. What I never see is this:

1. Ryan Howard wasn't getting pitched to most of the time down the stretch. Hence, why the Phillies are trying to sign Alfonso Soriano to protect Howard.
2. The Phillies (85-77) actually finished the regular season with a better record than the Cardinals (83-78). In addition, there are 5 teams in the NL that finished 20 or more games under .500. 1 in the East (Washington), 2 in the Central (Pittsburgh, Chicago) and 2 in the West (Colorado, Arizona). Generally speaking, it looks like the Phillies played better teams, with the unbalanced schedule, including the team with the best regular season record, the NY Mets, whom they played to an 8-11 record.