I haven't heard much from my favorite Philly Phanatic, Duff. Maybe Duff, with his faulty GPS system, was chauffeuring Jimmy Rollins to Shea yesterday? If you haven't heard, Jimmy Rollins was benched for yesterday's rubber game versus the Mets, because he arrived an hour before the first pitch. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel decided Rollins could best enjoy the day watching the air traffic pattern over Shea.

How can Rollins allow this to happen? Is this Jimmy being Manny saying he can't control the lights? I've been ripping on Jose Reyes for his immature approach to the game, but how can Rollins fail to get out of bed on time? Did Rollins get seduced by the late night lights of Manhattan?

Rudy Giuliani's son, Andrew, is suing Duke University because he was dismissed from the men's golf team. Hey Andrew, you got cut because you can't play. There is no professional golf in your future. I'm sure you could play golf at a Division III program.

Some Advice To Andrew: Should I now sue all the coaches who cut me from teams ruining my chance at being a professional athlete? You were ranked twelfth out of thirteen golfers on the Duke University men's golf team and that means bye-bye. This is a ridiculous lawsuit. Andrew, you need to grow up!

The Phillies scored six runs in the ninth inning versus the Mets, let me repeat six runs in the freakin' ninth inning, to win the first game of their three-game series, 9-8. The only solace I can draw from the Mets' collapse in the top of the ninth - I was not one of the 55,000 fans in attendance. If I had been at Shea, I would have climbed to the upper deck and dove to my death. I haven't felt this low since Rob Lowe left The West Wing.

The Mets did battle back to score one run in the bottom of the ninth, but the damage had been done. When did my beloved Mets become the present day version of the Cubs or the Red Sox? Saying Buckner to a Sox fan, it just doesn't have the same wham factor it did years ago? The Cubs are battling to win the NL Central and the Mets are trotting out a parade of pitchers to get three outs in the ninth inning. Three outs! That's all the Mets needed. When did the "Wild Thing" Mitch Williams start to haunt the entire Mets bullpen?

The Mets and Phillies play a three-game series at Shea starting tonight. I still have nightmares thinking about how the Phillies crushed the Mets dream of a National League East pennant last year. Last year the Mets could not take care of business with the Phillies. The Phillies were a cockroach the Mets could not kill.

I'm not one of these Mets fans that hate the Phillies. The Phillies have been terrible for so long, I take pity on their fans. I have two friends, Duff and Tim, who are life long fans of the Phillies. Duff grew up with a Bake McBride poster over his bed and Tim owns an autographed jock strap from Larry Bowa. Tim likes to wear the jock strap into the office when he has to make an important presentation.

I've been stating for a long time that college sports is a cesspool filled with crooked agents, greedy coaches, a morally bankrupt NCAA, college presidents and athletic directors lacking moral compasses and players on the search for a pay day. I'm a hypocrite as much as the next guy, because this doesn't mean I don't get an erection hearing Keith Jackson on the call or watching the camera pan USC's cheerleaders - - I do.

I'll excuse the players, or as the NCAA deigns to refer to them as student-athletes, but college administrators are running an educational institution supposedly held to higher ethical and moral standards. Yeah, we all know that's a crock, but you have to read the great article in today's Newark Star-Ledger by Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman.

The Giants finally pulled the trigger and sent Jeremy Shockey to the New Orleans Saints for a second-round and fifth-round choice in the 2009 NFL Draft. Should anyone in New York care that Shockey was shipped to the Big Easy? I don't believe it's that big of a loss for the Giants.

Last year New York Giants football fans were lamenting the retirement of the ultimate self-promoter, Tiki Barber. Now, Giants g.m. Jerry Reese has bid adieu to Shockey and his constant carping. Is Kevin Boss as good as Jeremy Shockey? I don't know, but Boss is more than an adequate replacement for Shockey. Don't you think management, the coaching staff and the players tired of Shockey's shtick. It got old and when you can't suit up no one wants to hear you whine. According to the Bergen Record, Shockey decided to clinch the deal by going off on Jerry Reese at a mini-camp in June. (I never could understand why Shockey was watching the game from a luxury box.) It all adds up to Adios Jeremy!

Remember the scene in Bull Durham where Kevin Costner's character, Crash Davis, guarantees a rain out and accepts a bet from the rest of the team that it'll never happen. Crash finds the sprinkler system to the stadium and causes a deluge swamping the field for the next day's game.

Well, that happened to my softball team last night. We're ready to embark on our playoff run, we had practiced on Tuesday, we're amped to play under Thursday night's bright lights, our four fans are pumped and the sprinkler system comes on. First, the sprinklers started to drench the first base side in foul territory and then the storm clouds moved to short right field and behind second base. I got squirted by one of those water canons and the water was frigid.

I kind of like Chase Utley's attitude. Why not give it back to the Yankee Stadium denizens who coughed up big bucks to watch the Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby? After Josh Hamilton put on his freak performance, MLB should have ended the contest. Justin Morneau won the contest - yeah, go buy the Brooklyn Bridge and convince me Josh Hamilton wasn't last night's winner. (Also, Morneau is Canadian. I thought Canadians only won curling events.)

Brandon Jennings was a recent high school graduate waiting on his SAT scores to see if he was eligible to play college basketball at the University of Arizona. Brandon Jennings (AKA The Takeover) will now be a professional basketball player in Europe. Forget going to college for a year or playing in the D League, take the euros and head to Europe. Next year, Jennings will enter the NBA Draft with a year of professional ball on his resume.

........... that Glen Sather and the New York Rangers did not have the cojones to sign Sean Avery and Jaromir Jagr. I'm not really ticked off they didn't sign Jagr, but the Rangers need Avery's grit and sociopath tendencies. What are the Rangers beat writers going to do now that Avery is in Dallas? What is Vogue going to do without its fashion intern?

Does anyone else miss Yo! MTV Raps? Someone should hire Doctor Dre, Ed Lover and Fab 5 Freddy to give their takes on what is going down in 2008. How about Fox News adding some diversity to its core of commentators?

The NBA Draft might be the most over hyped event in sports today and this is from a guy who used to love the NBA Draft. I couldn't wait for the NBA Draft to start at the Felt Forum underneath Madison Square Garden. I couldn't wait to see what kid from the metropolitan area was selected in the fifth or sixth round. In 1982, the Celtics selected William Brown, from St. Peter's College in Jersey City, NJ, with the 115th pick. That's when the draft kept it real.

Freamon: A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that in the NBA playoffs teams can no no longer win on the road. This is something out of the X-Files. Scully and Mulder need to be set loose on the David Stern conspiracy theorists.

I heard Phil Jackson's post-game comments and he believes the inability of teams to win on the road comes down to parity. I do believe there is an element of truth to that, since we have seen very few players coming off the bench to contribute. Sorry, Manu Ginobili does not count as coming off the bench.

Can someone name me an instance where someone had a huge game coming off the bench in this year's playoffs? Teams now rely on their top players to carry them, which I guess, would fall under parity. Where are the teams with great benches?

I keep on reading where Mike D'Antoni was the wrong choice to coach the New York Knicks and Donnie Walsh was the wrong choice to run the Knicks. I am not a fan of Garden el jefe, James Dolan, but it's hard to argue with these moves.