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                         May 10, 2002

What's left to beat Murphy up about?

Commentary by Jim Fox
Staff Writer

What will Murphy crow about now?

He doesn’t have any Philly teams to chortle about anymore.

His Flyers were embarrassed by the Ottawa Senators in five-games, three by shutout, in the first-round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the defending Eastern Conference champion 76ers were done in by the torrid shooting of the Boston Celtics May 3.

All he has to look forward to now are his inept Phillies, who if it weren’t for a three-game winning streak entering Tuesday’s games, would be at the bottom of the National League with the Milwaukee Brewers.

And speaking of people who jump on the bandwagon, how about ol’ Murph and the Boston Red Sox?

Every year they are his best chance to de-throne the New York Yankees. This year he will probably try to buy some Red Sox stock since they own the best record in baseball at 21-7.

He has a very selective memory of my "record." I have stated from the beginning that I don’t like the make-up of this year’s Yankees. He continually ignores that point in an attempt to get people to read about Law Day, etc.

I guess if I had the burden of trying to get bullet comments on my OER I would go to any lengths to get people to read my column too.

At any rate, Murphy, I’m sure will get as much mileage as he can from the Red Sox this season. He should be good to go until about mid- to late August as usual.

The best thing Boston did over the off season, aside from getting their ownership problems settled was getting rid of former general manager Dan Duquette.

Of course, eliminating the Carl Everett problem didn’t hurt either.

The Red Sox, it seems, finally have some team chemistry.

Things are going good. There are few distractions. No one seems to miss Hideo Nomo, yet. Or noticed that Derrick Lowe has made a pact with the devil.

Boston has the services of Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra and some other good starting pitching and all is well.

I think the whole region is still in a somewhat state of shock that the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl and that both the Bruins and Celtics were back in the playoffs, but that’s beside the point.

Long after the sting of the Bruins playoff choke to Montreal and the C’s eventual demise at the hands of Detroit or New Jersey will come the Red Sox annual summer swoon.

Everything will return to normal by the end of August as the Sox dive back down the standings in the American League East when their pitching staff falls apart just in time for football training camp and the regular NFL season when Red Sox Nation’s hearts will return to the Patriots.

Teams from Philly are now a distant memory in 2002. We don’t even have to go to the Vet this year for the Army-Navy game.