The Phillies are headed to the Field of Dreams

👋 Good morning! I will be tuned in for this one.

Are we going to get full clarity on what is going on with A.J. Brown? Probably not. But are we going to see the Eagles likely win the division in resounding fashion? Works for me.

You know what else works for me? Righteous Felon Craft Jerky!

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Long day of podcastin’ for your boy yesterday. So, a bit of a shorter newsletter today. I will make it up to you tomorrow, I promise.

And, in lieu of Trivia Thursday, guess the player by his career path.

As always, answer at the bottom. You can reach me at [email protected]

Injury report: This one was not reported during the game, but Cam Jurgens apparently left late on Sunday because of a concussion… not a knee or back injury. That obviously puts his availability for Dallas this weekend in question. Concussions are not always, but often are treated with a one-week absence.

And two other quick links:

Pieces! Two good ones on the site for our Flyers peeps: Charlie on the struggling Sam Ersson and Maddie with her weekly Phantoms check-in.

The Phillies are headed to Iowa: Jhoan Duran will play his former team. I wonder if they can play the Durantula music from the cornfield.

This is the third Field of Dreams game that MLB has put on. I remember the first one, it was pretty sick Yankees-White Sox game in which Tim Anderson hit a walkoff homer. The Phils will play the Twinkies on August 13th, the first game of a three-game road series. And then they will go to the Twin Cities for the next two. Sounds good to me.

And this one will be broadcast on Netflix. Hopefully this service is better than that Mike Tyson/Jake Paul fight.

Toronto 121, Sixers 112: Not a bad loss considering who the Sixers had out, as Toronto is playing with a full deck and they are a red-hot team. But same as it ever was, another brutal third quarter (44-26) did the Sixers in. The post-game show is below.

This one yet again boiled down to the Sixers offense struggling in the halfcourt. The actually shot the ball pretty well — 47 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3, 89 percent from the line — but the Sixers turned the ball over a staggering amount. 21 turnovers for 31 Raptors points! You cannot win that way!

When the Sixers were winning games early, there was a sentiment of, “Who cares about Joel Embiid and Paul George?” As someone who really enjoys watching them every single night, trust me, I now very much care about Joel Embiid and Paul George. If they can get healthy, they need to get back on the court.

These Sixers are at a size, shooting and playmaking deficit against these defenses. You know who helps fix all of those things? The Big Fella.

Embiid can be a skeleton key for the type of aggressive, switch-heavy defenses that the Sixers are struggling with. Tyrese Maxey was awesome last night, but it did not matter because the Sixers could not get him the ball enough. You cannot play that way when Embiid is in. Case in point: The Sixers put 130 on these same Raptors the last time Embiid played.

(Man, the turnovers that 2017-18 team had were special stuff. They would just vomit all over themselves for, like, quarters at a time. It was amazing.)

Kelly Oubre: One of the other reasons that the Sixers lost last night is that they do not have any playable wings. Wings are important in basketball! George was out and so was Kelly Oubre. Justin Edwards was their starting small forward, and he is an unproven player at this point.

Well, decent news on Oubre at least.

That sounds like a Grade 1 sprain. My guess is that the Sixers are cautious here and Oubre could be out until, say, Christmas. But even then, that is certainly a better outcome than season-ending surgery.

Oh, and Jared McCain scored his first points of the season. Five of them, in fact! His reaction to his first basket was quite funny.

Ernst Tanner: After that bombshell Guardian piece dropped two days ago, MLS has re-opened its investigation into Ernst Tanner. Not only that, the Union have placed its sporting director on administrative leave. Not great, Bob.

While Tanner may or may not be running the show in Chester much longer, I am letting you know that I am not letting this news lower my enthusiasm for the players in their quest for The Cup. I might have to break down Sunday’s quarterfinal against NYCFC with Deniz-level detail. You will see tomorrow.

So, what do we have on tap for Thursday? Big night.

Well, for one, we have a Flyers game. Remember those? It really has been a while. The Orange and Black are taking on the St. Louis Blues (7:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly) for the second time this week, and this time in South Philly. And we also have the Sixers on the second half of a dreaded back-to-back, this time against the Giannis-less Bucks (8:00 p.m., NBC Sports Philly Plus) in Milwaukee. Beware of Shorthanded Doc, one of the greatest coaches I have ever seen.

And outside of that, Buffalo-Houston is the Thursday night game. I might catch up Ken Burns’ American Revolution doc as well, if I am lucky.

Your tentative Thursday schedule at PHLY:

And oh yeah, the trivia answer: LeGarrette Blount

Let’s make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS