Bryce Harper has made his decision, per Washington sports talk host

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A Washington radio host is reporting Harper has made a decision

Everyone in Phillies Nation has been waiting with growing impatience for a final decision from free agents Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

If the alleged “real good source” to 106.7 The Fan sports talk broadcaster Chris Russell is to be believed, the process for Harper may be now winding to a close.

Russell stated on the air on Thursday that the superstar outfielder’s decision would “come in the next 24 hours” and added that he did not believe that Harper would be returning to the Nationals.

Then today, Russell joined local Philly FM sports talk Philly 94 WIP’s Midday Show and stated the following:

“… I’m led to believe by the people that I’ve talked to that are close to the situation—and I have, again, a real good source that has helped me through this process, let’s just leave it at that, that Bryce was in a mood to celebrate yesterday.”

“Now, the source said, ‘I believe it’s done.’ I don’t have concrete, 100 percent proof for you guys. I wish I did, otherwise I would have it and I would be running around with it. But I don’t have that, so I want to caution everybody in Philadelphia. But that’s what I was lead to believe, that this thing is now decided."

Russell went on to elaborate that if no formal contract has yet been extended, then there may simply have been an agreement reached. That would mean that specific contract details need to be worked out before any actual announcement might come.

Ben Krimmel at the 106.7 The Fan further quoted Russell: “I was, again, led to believe that there was some stuff going on yesterday in Las Vegas that indicated to me and my source that Bryce Harper was done with this decision. But it could still take a couple of days to get everything ironed out.”

Information from Russell’s supposed source might be given a bit more credence than some of the other information coming out regarding the Harper situation. It was this source that revealed the San Francisco Giants recent interest in the free agent slugger.

Phillies general manager Matt Klentak stated yesterday that he believes the club has enjoyed a strong off-season and responded to the many fans who have been vocal in expressing that, despite all of the team’s moves to date, the failure to land either Harper or Machado would prove fatal to the club’s chances of truly competing in the 2019 season.

Klentak was quoted by Matt Breen at Philly.com: “The notion that we hear is that if we fail to sign a big free agent, then it’s a failure of an offseason. I don’t agree with that. I’m not trying to throw cold water on the idea that we may still sign a free agent. We are going to continue to explore that market because there are several really good free agents out there.”

WIP's Angelo Cataldi dukes it out with Phillies manager Gabe Kapler

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I rehashed the Philadelphia Phillies collapse over the final two months of the season in last week’s piece on the “significant changes” that I feel general manager Matt Klentak needs to make in this coming off-season. So, let’s not wade through that murky water again.

A great many Phillies fans became disillusioned by the collapse of the team after they had spent a month in first place in the National League East Division. One of those fans was local morning talk show host Angelo Cataldi of SportsRadio 94 WIP FM.

In a piece published on Monday at The Philly Voice, Cataldi laid much of the blame for that collapse at the feet of Klentak.

“For the three puzzling years of his tenure running the Phillies, the novice executive has mastered only one skill, and that’s finding a way to wriggle out of blame for his own resume of failure.”

“Matt Klentak is incompetent.”

“The young double-talker has survived three years of bungling because he has hidden, effectively, behind the new wave of analytics.”

There is more. Much more. But I’ll let you click into that above link and read it all for yourself.

Cataldi then doubled down, ostensibly calling on controlling owner John Middleton to fire his team’s general manager.

“How much more patient can he be with a general manager who has no record of success and who just oversaw a debacle reminiscent of 1964? Hey, John. The fans want that bleeping trophy back, too. Do something.”

The Phillies 38-year-old GM has not responded publicly to this point. However, on Wednesday morning another member of the team brain trust felt that he had to step up in response. And so manager Gabe Kapler called in to the radio station during Cataldi’s program and confronted the host.

“I thought that your article was disrespectful to a man (Klentak) that gives everything he has to bring a World Series championship to Philly.” 

The Phillies skipper then went on a lengthy description of the team’s overall performance, and what he saw as the overall improvements made, while also acknowledging the depth of disappointment in the season’s final 45 days. He stated in strong terms that Klentak has played a pivotal role in leading the club to that improvement.

“I take issue with what you said. I’m a compassionate, competitive man. But generating anger for the sake of anger means that you end up just flat-out wrong like you were in that piece.”

Kapler then questioned Cataldi’s very sanity, calling the host out for what the manager feels has been a pattern of angry coverage of the team in recent years. “You’re still doing the same thing, Angelo. So, you talked about the definition of insanity. I’d take a minute to look in the mirror about that.”

Mike Schmidt embroiled in controversy over Odubel Herrera comments

Herrera (L) and Schmidt (R), photo from Sports Illustrated

Michael Jack Schmidt is the greatest player in the 134-year history of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise. You will get few arguments to that statement.

The Baseball Hall of Famer and Phillies Wall of Famer is also widely considered to be the greatest all-around third baseman in the history of the game. Some might still argue for Brooks Robinson, but most of the arguments end there.

Neither of those statements is particularly controversial. But the living legend did utter some statements himself on a local sports radio program today which have become controversial.

On Tuesday, Schmidt made an appearance on Philadelphia’s influential SportsRadio 94 WIP. He joined the station’s morning program crew, known around town for their sometimes irreverent, sometimes controversial statements and opinions.

Schmidt has never been shy about speaking his mind either. It is one of the reasons that he was hired to do color commentary for local Comcast TV broadcasts during Phillies weekend home games.

Phillies Abandon AM Radio

The Philadelphia Phillies will have no AM radio broadcasts in the 2016 season for the first time since the introduction of the medium.

Under the terms of a new contract reached with CBS Radio earlier this week, any 2016 Philadelphia Phillies games over radio, whether from spring training, during the regular season, or any possible postseason action, will be broadcast by sports talk station WIP at 94.1 FM.

Phillies games began broadcasting over the radio in 1936, and in those early days it was only road games that were heard by local fans. 

Those early owners, not only with the Phillies but all around baseball, were concerned that radio broadcasts of home games would reduce attendance.

The Phillies actually took part in the first Major League Baseball game ever broadcast over the radio, as the visiting team. 

That game took place on August 5th, 1921 when the Phils dropped an 8-5 decision to the host Pirates in Pittsburgh. The game was broadcast over KDKA and featured announcer Harold Arlin.

That fall, Grantland Rice and Tommy Cowan called the first-ever World Series broadcast over radio. 

Donovan and Eagles at a Crossroads

Despite what the gloom and doom crowd at 610 WIP AM Sports Talk radio would tell you, the Philadelphia Eagles football team does not stink. Their coach does not need to be fired. Their quarterback is not washed up.

Eagles fans have become spoiled by the Andy Reid era. That is a fact. They must have forgotten the Ray Rhodes era that preceded it, when the team went 29-34-1 over a four year period. Or perhaps the Rich Kotite era before that, when the team went 36-28 over four years but only made the playoffs once.

Maybe they loved those brash Buddy Ryan years before that, every one a winning regular season. Of course there was that little matter of zero playoff wins. None. Marion Campbell, the 'Swamp Fox', and his 17-29-1 over three years and no playoffs? Forget those.

Fact is that since the end of Dick Vermeil's final full season in 1981 and the start of the Reid Era, the Eagles floundered, sputtered, and crashed after brief periods of soaring.