Outdoor Hockey Comes to Philadelphia, the Phillies Continue Their Offensive Woes, and Last Week's Winner Announced

Despite Jimmy Rollins' ninth inning heroics on Wednesday night, it's been an otherwise rough sports week for the Philadelphia fans.  Hockey and basketball are in the rearview mirror, football seems like a distant memory, and the Phillies are becoming painful to watch, even when they win.

This week, we'll take a look at the excitement outdoor hockey can bring, the Phillies and their continued inability to hit, and the prospects of a stadium for the Flyers minor league club in Allentown. 

We'll also announce the winner of two free Phillies tickets, and as a new feature, we're adding the Philadelphia Union to our television schedule below. Yes, you've read that correctly. You win, soccer moms.

Let's get started!

The Good

The 2012 Winter Classic

The NHL's 2012 Winter Classic will be held at Citizens Bank Park on Jan. 2, as the Flyers play host to the "New Yawk" Rangers.

If you've never had a chance to see the spectacle that is outdoor hockey, you've been missing out.  It's one of the greatest shows in all of sports, and hosting the game at CBP makes it oh-so special. At two-and-a-half times the capacity of the Wells Fargo Center, Citizens Bank Park will be filled with more than 56,000 rabid hockey fans, watching a game on the same grounds as their beloved Phillies.

Of course, as with anything that has to do with Philadelphia sports, we did kind of get the shaft.

Normally, the Winter Classic is played on Jan. 1, but the NFL currently has a game scheduled between the Redskins and Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on that date. The NHL doesn't want to compete with football, so the Winter Classic was bumped back a day.

Considering the NFL hasn't even begun its league year, and the players are still locked out while the 8th Circuit takes their good old time ruling on a "stay," I think the NHL should sack up and tell the National Football League where they can stick their "scheduled" game.

Bitterness aside, it'll be a wonderful experience watching the Flyers crush the Rangers in an outdoor venue.

Question:  Have you watched the Winter Classic before?  What were your thoughts?

The Bad

Downtown or Bust

Allentown wants to build a hockey stadium for the Phantoms, the Flyers minor league club, by 2013. It seems like a good idea, especially because they're already the home of the Iron Pigs.  What doesn't seem like a good idea is the chosen location.

With all the riverfront land between the Hamilton Street and Tilghman Street bridges, they've instead decided to put the arena between Seventh and Eighth streets in the heart of the downtown area.

Mayor Pawlowski states that the arena could help a struggling downtown area, but more parking and a main street that isn't one-way could achieve the same results, and neither of those fixes would require kicking out local business owners under eminent domain.

It'll be nice to have the team's minor league affiliates stay local, and Allentown is the perfect city to play home to those teams, but utilize the already open space instead of pushing businesses out and making an already horrid parking situation worse.

Question: Would you prefer to see the arena downtown or on the waterfront?

The Ugly

Seven

That is how many hits the Phillies managed over the weekend against the Braves. The same weekend that saw Jair Jurrjens take a perfect game into the sixth, and the same weekend that Roy Halladay threw his second consecutive complete game loss.

Hitters 1 through 5 managed a single hit for the weekend, and that came courtesy of Michael Martinez, who filled in for Victorino on Sunday.

There are plenty of people out there who are saying, "Don't worry. They still have the second-best record in baseball." True, but they only have two wins against winning teams, and they're about to begin murderer's row with 11 straight games against the Cardinals, Rockies, Rangers and Reds. Ask the Flyers about how well early season success carries over to the end of the season.

The reality is that Halladay, Lee, Oswalt, Hamels and Blanton could throw five straight perfect games, but if you can't hit, you can't win. Teams that can hit well will muster a couple runs of guys like Halladay and Lee, and you need to be able to match that. Remember, we didn't lose last year because of pitching. We lost because the team couldn't hit, and that was with Utley and Werth in the lineup.

The Phillies will finish a period of 20 games in 20 days on June 1. At that point, I'm willing to bet we'll know a whole lot more about the team than we do now.

I'm not in the business of making predictions, but I'm going to go out on a limb here. By the training deadline, Domonic Brown will be the everyday right fielder, Ibanez will be benched or become a role player/pinch hitter, and we'll pick up someone like Carlos Beltran, who is having a great year for a terrible team.

Here is my prediction for the Phillies line-up after the trade deadline.

1)  Rollins (or Victorino)

2)  Polanco

3)  Utley

4)  Howard

5)  Beltran (or other stud outfielder)

6)  Brown

7)  Victorino (or Rollins)

8)  Ruiz

9)  Pitcher

That looks like a winning lineup to me, especially when coupled with our pitching.

For the week, the Phillies went 3-3, with a series victory against the Marlins, and a series loss against the Braves.  For the season, the Phillies are 4-5 against the Marlins and Braves.

Question: Of all the outfielders said to be available for trade, who would you like to see in left field?

Quote of the Week

“Our hitting has to pick up.  We have to score some runs, but we’re going to find somebody.  We’ll find the people — we will." - Charlie Manuel, after his squad managed only seven hits through 18 innings of baseball.

'Must See' Video of the Week

Chad Ochocinco, of the Cincinnati Bengals is definitely making the most of his time off.  First he tried soccer, and now he can cross bull riding off of his bucket list. 

Watch the hilarious video of Ochocinco getting tossed off a three-quarter-ton bull, after only one second.

Winners of Free Phillies Tickets Announced

After a large turnout, the winner of two free Phillies tickets is Mark Bryson, a newsletter subscriber of the Lansdale-Montgomeryville Patch. Congratulations, Mark. Your information will be e-mailed out to you for the tickets.

Patch would like to thank everyone for participating, and due to the turnout, we'll offer up another pair of tickets next week. As long as you guys keep up the participation, we'll keep giving away tickets.

Looking Forward

The Phillies have two two-game series this week, against the Cardinals and Rockies.  They also have a three-game series against the American League Champion Texas Rangers.

Also, I am conceding defeat in my efforts to ignore the men who kick a ball around for a living.  So men who don't enjoy real sports, as well as the soccer moms of Montgomery County, your beloved Philadelphia Union will appear each week in our schedule, even though they play in Chester.

Despite your victory, I refuse to change the name of the column to Phive for Phive.

Here's your Philadelphia (and Chester) sports schedule for the rest of the week.

Tuesday:

Phillies at Cardinals  8:15 p.m. on PHL 17 and MLBN

Wednesday:

Phillies vs. Rockies  7:05 p.m. on CSN and ESPN

Thursday:

Phillies vs. Rockies  7:05 p.m. on CSN

Friday:

Phillies vs. Rangers  7:05 p.m. on PHL 17

Saturday:

Phillies vs. Rangers  7:10 p.m. on FOX

Union at Chicago  8 p.m. on CSN

Sunday:

Phillies vs. Rangers  1:35 p.m. on PHL 17

If you have any questions that you would like to see answered in next week's Phour for Phour column, please email them to slavetologic@gmail.com, and they may now include the words "doop" and "soccer."