👋 Good morning! You know, Aaron, just when I think you couldn't possibly be any worse, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!

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Some feedback that I solicited from readers about out “Best Philly athletes by jersey number” tweet. I have a few more emails to get to.

From Mike, about No. 34: Loved Doc, but this is easily Charles Barkley.

I think Mike is right about this one, if we are going for longevity. Limited to peak, I think there is a good argument for Roy Halladay… even if Charles Barkley’s peak in Philly was also quite good.

Chuck’s Sixers run is criminally underrated, in large part because his teammates were not very good and Michael Jordan played in his conference. He goes to Phoenix, is largely the same player, and they are in the finals that first year. My favorite Chuck stat, from looking at his Basketball Reference page: Over a five-year span in Philly, he shot SIXTY THREE percent from two-point range on 5,100 two-point field goals. That is absolute dominance.

Watching Roy Halladay pitch in 2010 and 2011 was a borderline spiritual experience. That is someone who absolutely mastered his craft. You cannot go wrong with Doc, but yes, Chuck probably has the better statistical case when narrowing it down to Philly.

One from Johnny: How many more Super Bowls does Jalen Hurts have to win to wrangle #1 from Bernie Parent? I say two more.

I say one. What a special player and character Bernie was, but two Super Bowls for a quarterback beats two Stanley Cups for a goaltender. At least in this town. Tough luck for Richie Ashburn on No. 1, too.

And another one from Johnny: I know the list is Eagles-heavy, but 68 just has to go to Jordan Mailata. Jagr was only here one year, with an embarrassing second-round sweep loss to the Bruins. And I'm a huge Flyers fan.

I think Johnny has a good case here. Man, that Jaromir Jagr year (2011-12) was so much fun. His chemistry on the first line with Claude Giroux, his salute celebration, this fan from Episode 1 of 24/7: Road to the Winter Classic… truly an enjoyable experience. But yeah, Mailata (another great personality) probably deserves that honor. The good news is that Jordan has a few more years to leave no doubt.

Had ‘em all the way.

What was the longest two minutes of your day yesterday? If you watched the Phillies beat the New York Mets 1-0, I bet it was the same as mine: Jeff McNeil’s at-bat with one out in the ninth inning.

The Phillies led 1-0, but Jhoan Duran was facing second and third with just one away. The infield was in, and McNeil, a player who I very much do not care for, missed a double down the first-base line by a few feet. It was not a bad at-bat at all from McNeil.

But Duran struck McNeil out, on a ball that might have been foul-tipped. If it was, J.T. Realmuto held on. Realmuto had called a heckuva baseball game to that point, and he saved his best for last against another Met who I very much do not care for: Francisco Alvarez. J.T. read Alvarez like a book, as Duran went off-script and threw three straight knuckle curveballs that were nowhere near the zone. Alvarez fished, fished again and then fished one more time for old-time’s sake. A truly hilarious at-bat with the game on the line.

Legitimately terrible plate appearance by Alvarez — If Nick Castellanos (who knocked in the game’s only run!) had done that in a big spot, I might write 800-ish words on that at-bat alone for the next day — but I love that Duran was mixing in his breaking ball. That can be such a weapon to keep hitters off-balance. If he can locate it, they just cannot sit on the heater and the splinker.

Also…

The Phillies got great pitching all night. Jamie’s optimism on the David Robertson live reaction pod is aging like a fine wine, as that guy is absolutely dealing. What a year for Bryant University: Phil Martelli Jr. first leads the Bulldogs to the big dance, and then the campus hosts Robertson’s mid-season workout that turned him into a Phillie. Some magical stuff happening in Smithfield.

Burying the lede here: How about Aaron Nola? Six shutout innings, at an absolutely perfect time. Jim was down at the ball yard for us:

J.T. really called a great game. Nola, who had been getting shelled, threw way more changeups and sinkers than usual to keep the Mets off-balance. The knuckle curve is usually his bread-and-butter, but the Phillies went with more variety. I wonder if this was that legendary Garrett Stubbs game-planning behind the scenes. Anyway, it worked.

Was everything perfect? No, Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber went 0-7 with a walk. I understand the logic behind it (more at-bats), but I would probably get Bryce out of the leadoff spot. That said, the Phillies lost three starters from Sunday’s game (more on that in a second) and were on the wrong end of a massive starting pitching mismatch heading into this one. And they won! Huge, huge, huge.

The lineup might be a bit wonky for this week — Max Kepler batted cleanup last night — but at least the Phils have their three horses going the rest of this series: Ranger tonight, Cris tomorrow, Jesús on Thursday. Let’s see if the bats can get going against the Mets’ vets, starting against Sean Manaea tonight.

September is Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Month! (PUT YOUR MARKET NAME HERE) and ALLCITY is proud to support their mission, and we’re raising money all month long. You can donate — or even learn more about becoming a Big — at bbbs.org/allcity

The Tank: Poor Britain Covey.

Howie and James Gladstone are gonna cook up some truly diabolical stuff as long as the latter is employed in Jacksonville. And now Howie has dealt a 5, 6 and 7 for Tank Bigsby and Fred Johnson. The live reaction pod is here.

As Bo and Fran mentioned, this idea that Bigsby is more of a kickoff returner (which is gonna be important with the new rules, we saw that against Dallas) does not really pass The Smell Test. Will Shipley suffered a rib injury in the opener, I wonder how healthy he is right now.

Bigsby, who is in his third year and has a great name, rushed 168 times for 766 yards last year. He is 215 pounds, and looking at some highlights, he seems like a one-cut running back with some juice. Why would the Jags trade him? I dunno, but for two Day 3 picks, I hope we seem him do more the return kicks. Howie once acquired Jay Ajayi for a Day 3 pick! Let’s not aim so low here!

In other news, the Eagles worked out veteran slot corner Mike Hilton.

Rookie Camp: We got some pucks right around the corner. But before the big team gets going, the Flyers’ rookies will have their camp in Voorhees. That is a two-part process over this week:

🎶 Well, we're living here in Allentown
Oliver Bonk holding the blue line down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Denver Barkey, tickling the twine 🎶

I am sorry, I am so stupid. Anyway, a lot of these guys are probably gonna play in the PPL Center for a more-interesting-than-usual Phantoms team this year. Excited to read what Maddie Campbell has for us on the team. Our Flyers show will have pods for you today through Saturday.

Looking at the roster for rookie camp, the most interesting names via Charlie’s excellent prospect rankings: Jett Luchanko, Alex Bump, Oliver Bonk, Denver Barkey, Nikita Grebenkin, Carson Bjarnason.

Luchanko is in a weird spot, similar to the one Porter Martone is before he chose to go to Michigan State. He is probably the most interesting guy in camp, because ideally, he would be playing no lower than the AHL this season. And if this was next year, the Flyers could put him there. But not yet. So, it might be make the Flyers-or-CHL.

The Flyers have four centers on the roster: Sean Couturier, Trevor Zegras (who they want to see play center), Noah Cates, and Mr. Balloon Payment himself, Christian Dvorak. Considering that Luchanko held his own as a 3C last year and plays with the Washington Generals of junior hockey, I would like to see make the big club. From Charlie’s preview:

Injury news: Let’s meme this baby up.

Busy pregame yesterday for our Phillies…

Thomson said Bohm sill be back in ten days. And if you would have told me headed into yesterday that Trea’s hammy was a Grade 1 strain, I would have taken it. I was gonna put that in the newsletter but did not want to jinx it. (*pats self on back*)

Trea had a Grade 2 strain last season that caused him to miss six weeks. And as Tyler pointed out, the big issue after Trea returned was not his batting average or hitting. It was that he was limited on the basepaths: In 2.5 months after returning from that hammy strain, Trea stole four total bases. For reference, he has not had a single month this season with less than five steals, and just came off an August with ten swipes.

I just hope Trea is not as ginger as he looked running the bases last June. And look, this is clearly not ideal. It stinks that Trea will be out of the lineup when he is on fire, and it stinks that he will be out of the lineup against the Mets and Dodgers. But when Trea initially pulled up lame, I figured this was not gonna be a three-day injury. Topper said verbatim, “We expect him back by the playoffs.” I will take it.

Ranger Suárez vs. Sean Manaea (6:45 p.m., NBC Sports Philly). Let’s see if the bats can wake up a little bit.

Your tentative Tuesday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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