November 6, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opinion

Nice guys do finish first

How quickly things change.

Several years ago Philadelphia sports fans — driven by many, but not all, of the experts known as sportswriters and sports anchors — believed that the Phillies didn’t care about winning. They were, so the story ran, cheap and only concerned about the bottom line.

Then they went out and signed Jim Thome. That was just a year before they moved into their new ballpark. People didn’t really know what to think.

During the next couple of years General Manager Ed Wade, followed by Pat Gillick, drafted and traded, never doing quite enough, or so the fans opined on sports talker WIP and in their loud chorus of boos at Citizens Bank Park.

But funny things began to happen. The beloved Larry Bowa was fired as manager and replaced by the countrified Charlie Manuel. “Good God,” people said, “he couldn’t win in Cleveland. What’s he gonna do here?”

He was also mocked for his folksy but not exactly articulate approach to the English language. Manuel would never succeed. Despite that, the fans in the stands and those who knew it all on WIP had less to boo.

The Phillies began to win.

Last year they made it to the National League Division Series. They did it, many people noted (in Philadelphia the glass is always half empty), not because of what they did but because the hated New York Metropolitans collapsed down the stretch.

In that series, the Phillis quickly lost three games to the upstart but unstoppable Colorado Rockies.

Another disappointing season. Couldn’t those lugs who run the team do anything right?

When the 2008 season began, the Phils were division favorites. As they had the normal ups and downs every team experiences during the 162-game season, fans and pundits were up one minute and down the next.

But there was hope. Charlie became sort of lovable. Brett Myers began to win after getting off to a horrid start. When one key player was in a slump someone else stepped up. The Philadelphia Phillies had the makings of being a team, and a damn good one at that.

In September they got hot and again made the playoffs. What a postseason it was. They were 11-3 in the three series and undefeated at The Bank.

All of a sudden the Phillies were the town’s darlings. CEO David Montgomery — who lives in Wyndmoor — and Manuel were geniuses. When they won the World Series the town went absolutely bananas. Two million people descended on Broad Street Friday to cheer their team.

I will not claim objectivity here. I have been blessed to know David Montgomery personally and professionally for a number of years. In all my conversations with him, on or off the record, I never once doubted his desire to win or his commitment to bringing Philadelphia that long-overdue championship. He took the hits from the fans and the pundits and never complained. He is one of the classiest men I know. As much as anything, I am thrilled for him and the others in the Phils organization I’ve worked with and covered.

It’s amazing to me that those who wrote or spoke with such venom not all that long ago are now saying what a great bunch of people run the team.

It is understandable how much we all invest in our sports teams. They allow us to escape the troubled world in which we live. They allow us to pretend we are kids again. They allow us to dream and to imagine what it would feel like to be part of the team.

With Philly’s 25-year championship drought (28 for the Phils), it is also understandable when fans boo some bone-headed play or stupid administrative decision. Where I think we all make a mistake is to challenge the quality of the decider rather than the quality of the decision. Manuel was the same Manuel in July he is now. So were Montgomery, Myers, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jason Werth, Carlos Ruiz and all the rest.

I have always hated Leo Durocher’s comment that “nice guys finish last.” That’s far from the case. Think of Cal Ripken. Think of Wayne Gretsky. Think of Michael Jordan or Dr. J. Think of Andre Agassi. Think of John Cheney. Think of Joe Paterno. And now add to that list David Montgomery, Charlie Manuel, Jamie Moyer, Cole Hamels and all the others.

As much as anything, the 2008 Phillies exemplify the best of sports. I’m sure we would have been just as excited if the team were an obnoxious but talented squad. We would have been just as excited but nowhere near as satisfied.

I have gotten several e-mails from friends who know I know David Montgomery. They all want me to tell him the same thing: “Thank you.”

So, for Phillies’ fans everywhere, thank you David. You’ve done something very special for Philadelphia, for millions of fans and for all those of us who believe it’s best when nice guys do finish first.

Clark Groome

The Audacity of Reality
by ED  (I wrote this on Sunday night — I sure hope he won) FELDMAN

It’s the day after Election Day, and I wanted to be the very first to criticize the Obama Administraton because we don’t have to be quiet any more. By “we” I mean those of us who didn’t want to screw up his chances by expressing any doubts in print. He had enough troubles, what with the color of his skin and all.

I will first retroactively criticize the omission of a key piece of his résumé; it wasn’t mentioned in any campaign ad, speech or debate. It was a job he held for some time, but was never used as a qualification for the office being sought, nor cited to justify expertise on the subject at hand, that being government.

If a job held for a decade by a candidate is not extolled by the campaign, then you can bet it was a conscious decision by that campaign to withhold the fact, the only possible reason being that public knowledge of it would not help, and would most likely hurt the candidate’s chances. The job was that of constitutional law professor.

We were told all about the community organizer stuff. And the Senate stuff. And the white relative stuff. But why had we not been told and told again that the candidate had such an extensive knowledge of our nation’s operational documents that he could teach them at the very highest level of academia? Shouldn’t this be the most impressive of qualifications, considering the job? Like a minister knowing the Bible, a pharmacist knowing the PDR, or a porn star knowing the Doc Johnson catalogue. If I were the job interviewer, I’d want it to be a prerequisite.

But it’s not hard to figure why O didn’t make a fuss. It’s because, for every one of us who thinks it’s good for a president to know the law, many more of us would think it makes her or him an elitist — someone not-beer-drinking-worthy. But now it can be told: Our president is not only black, he’s a (gasp) college professor! From Harvard! A law professor who can drive the lane. It’s my political equivalent of the Phillies winning the series.

But now we must address the bad news to come. And discuss the differences in temperament between the parties. And the fact that, in a way not usually discussed, the Democratic Party is not as American as the Republican Party. Because the Republican Party can always be counted on to display the uniquely American trait: bald-faced audacity.

The loss of the popular vote, and an election awarded by a single vote on the Supreme Court?  Sounds like a mandate to us. Call the oil companies! Full speed ahead! Another kiss on the lips, King Abdullah? No problem! What do we care that you kissed Idi Amin with those lips, and he used to eat people?

The Republicans don‘t even care if you find their “these are the people we are going to scre” list. You know, the poor, the unions, the lawyers who sue big business on behalf of its victims, but not the lawyers who defend those businesses.

Yes, you can always trust the Republicans. They do whatever they want and dare you to stop them. And if you try, they call you un-American, socialist, godless, or under the influence of some evil mastermind: Stalin, Satan, bin Laden. Since the minions on the right always seem to follow leaders blindly (they call themselves “dittoheads”). They figure no one thinks for himself or herself. It’s just hard for them to understand … well, let’s just leave it at that.

The Democratic Party has, since the 30s, been linked by Republicans to every violent left-wing communist, socialist and anarchist in the world, from Trotsky to William Ayers. And every time a liberal stands up and growls, these names are invoked. And it’s all done by mainstream Republicans. The last time you heard someone using fascist and Republican in the same sentence, he was wearing a headband and had a Country Joe and the Fish T-shirt. Stalin’s been dead for a half-century but the Dems still feel him, like an amputee feels the phantom pain.

This is part of the reason the Dems always bend over instead of kick ass. They’re afraid. Not of foreign dictators, but of seeming radical. So they reach across the aisle and … pull back a bloody stump. Because if the Dems don’t reach a filibuster-proof majority the Repubs will act as if they had won — you can book it. They will logjam everything they can, and pull the midterm “the Dems can’t govern” thing. And you know what? They’re kinda right — because the Dems try to compromise with a group who look at conciliation as a weakness to be used against their adversaries.

Here is my thesis: After being given this mandate, compromise is not a correct response. I further propose that, under the circumstances, it is un-American. The acclamation of the American people is tacit permission to be audacious, whether it is Paris Hilton or the President. It’s what we do. We don’t go for the bronze, we go for the gold. We shoot for the moon. As a matter of fact, we did shoot for the moon.

You even have a role model. The last time a Democratic president kicked ass and took names we got the Civil Rights Bill, Medicare and the War on Poverty, which, as I recall, was not fought on false pretenses. Yes, LBJ’s domestic achievements put every one of his successors to shame, even the ones who didn’t try to dismantle them. Vietnam may have put him in Hell, but Head Start probably got him a junior suite with an air conditioner.

So O, why don’t you take a tip from the Ol’ Perdenales Cowboy (I can’t believe I’m using my old nemesis as a role model) and get some Congress folk to kiss your butt in Macy’s window.

Ram through a Hillary-style health care plan that gives newborns the same chance European infants have. If you try and reason with HMOs, they’ll laugh in your face. Screw ’em, and take every oil company tax break away and give a total tax holiday to every company developing Green Tech, until profitability reaches a predetermined threshold.

As gas prices rise, green prices will fall. Your fifteen billion a year for green development is B.S. That’s a month and a half of Iraq! If people don’t like windmills, screw ’em. They go to Holland and love them. They’ll learn. Legislate Green Tech into all building codes. Builders will complain, just like they did over fireproof material codes years ago. Screw ’em — nothing drops costs better than volume. And if you don’t force Detroit to do the right thing, the next time the Japanese beat them will be the last time they’re both in the race.

And screw the Republicans. It’s the only language they understand –— don’t you know this by now? They took their shot for the last eight years — they went for broke. They dared to fail and they did. We got screwed, but you have to admit it worked for their friends. But we’re your friends. Go for broke for us.

You get the idea. Your book was called The Audacity of Hope. We don’t have to hope anymore. We’ve won. Now you must act, audaciously. And if they get in your way, dunk on ’em.

Opinion: PennDOT project rife with poor planning, problemsa
by Adrian Hickman, Owner, TLA Video

I read with great disappointment Laura Siena’s letter attempting to paint a rosy picture of the PennDOT Germantown Avenue construction project,  [“PennDOT not as bad as reports imply,” Oct. 23.]

As one of the impacted business owners, I have seen a much different side of this project. Laura has done a good job informing affected residents of project details but she needs to remember that business owners are also a significant part of the Mt. Airy /Chestnut Hill community.

This project may be improving, but it is no bed of roses.  It is easy to say the goal of a beautiful Avenue justifies our hardships, but that ignores the difficult process along the way. This process has been long and arduous, causing financial loses and loss of jobs, among other negative effects.

If it wasn’t for the efforts of Ken Weinstein — a dynamo for area businesses — I can only imagine what this project would look like. With help from people like Paul Egonopoulos of Brewer’s Outlet, Lizza Robb of Cresheim Cottage Cafe and community leaders like Dan Muroff, the state’s failure to help area businesses that are severely impacted would have had more dire consequences.

Despite the availability of Lou Marraffino and John Harakal, and their willingness to listen, this project has been poorly planned from the beginning and still is not moving at a set pace. By looking at what was supposed to be a seven-week project in front of the Diner that turned into a 17-week debacle, you can see that this is not a well thought out plan.

The problem is not with the soldiers in the field; the problem is with the planning and guidance from above. This construction project is a major undertaking, but it seems that any suggestion is dismissed if it doesn’t suit PennDOT’s plan. 

Case in point is the Mermaid Lane intersection.  When this project was announced, Mermaid Lane was “Phase Five” and included the closing of this intersection. Then, a couple of months ago, the PennDOT team informed me that the closure wouldn’t be necessary and that there would be two lanes of traffic in both directions at all times. Two weeks ago, I was informed that beginning next week, the Mermaid Lane intersection would be closed for three weeks. In addition, I found out earlier that week, that TLA Video would be losing its lower driveway for at least a week, beginning that Friday, which is a busy night for my shopping center.

Short notice and shifting plans happen all the time. I had requested something as simple as a stop sign here, because I saw the shift in lanes in front of my store confuse drivers trying to enter my parking lot. The lane shift didn’t occur until cars were in the intersection, and that is almost where the upper driveway is located. The stop sign would have forced drivers to notice the shift.  I had to pay an employee to stand in my parking lot to make sure my customers were able to get out safely.  PennDOT should have a stop sign or flagger during the busy times.

The community meetings that served  as a major informational source have been discontinuedhe reason is not clear.  Lester Toaso, PennDOT’s District Representative, told me that it had nothing to do with the trash issue [Three weeks ago, Ken Weinstein dumped street trash in PennDOT’s Mt. Airy offices], yet, if it does not, why discontinue them when the project is still ongoing?  Did PennDOT cancel the meetings so they can divide and conqueror the business community?

As for the trash issue, I don’t agree with the conclusions that Ms. Siena draws. I’ve seen the significant amount of trash in the construction zone and I believe that PennDOT and the contractor have a real responsibility to keep their work area clean and clear of any trash or debris, construction or otherwise.  I’ve seen the construction workers assume that any car is fair game to sit on, any parking space is theirs for the taking and any request to move is met with a bit of disdain.

Ken Weinstein has done an amazing job of representing small businesses in Mt. Airy/Chestnut Hill during this construction project.  He lives in the area and fully understands how this construction project impacts everyone.  After more than 12 months of road construction, it is clear that it takes a loud voice to get PennDOT’s attention.  Ken has been this voice and has been fighting for everyone in Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy and Germantown to mitigate as much as possible, the negative effects of this massive project.