Phillies make desperation move

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Phillies decided to fire Rob Thomson as their manager after four-plus successful years with him at the helm. I could’ve predicted this was going to be the case. Managers and coaches are always the scapegoat in professional sports when the players just simply don’t perform. I would’ve given him 10 more days or so to see if this team could turn it around. If the Phillies somehow do make the playoffs as a wild card, I hope all of the players text message Rob Thomson and apologize for their play to start this season. Now their manager is future Hall of Fame player Don Mattingly, who played for the Yankees in the ‘80s and ‘90s and has managed before.

Now that the NFL Draft is over, the sports world can focus on the NBA and NHL playoffs. The 76ers have extended their first round series against the Boston Celtics to seven games. I would still be surprised if they can pull off the slight upset in the series just because of how good Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are. Joel Embiid came back after the appendix surgery and in Game 4 he seemed rusty, but he played a whole lot better in Game 5.

And here's a crazy statistic. The 76ers have not beaten the Celtics in a playoff series since 1982. And they’ve had four or five chances in the meantime. Let's hope this is worth following.

The Flyers completed the upset of the Pittsburgh Penguins with a victory in Game 6 by score of 1-0 in overtime. Goalie Dan Vladar had 42 saves in the game! He stood on his head for the team. They will play a good team in the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. No one expected the Flyers to beat the Penguins. Anything can happen in this series as well. Go Flyers!

The local high school spring seasons are pretty close to their conclusions. It will be time for the playoffs soon. On Tuesday, I attended the regular-season boys’ lacrosse game between Cape and Sallies at Cape. The Vikings had a successful first half. They were leading 3-2 at halftime, but that's too close a margin. They needed to have scored at least two more goals in the first half to give them a bigger cushion going into the third quarter. By the end of that quarter, the game was virtually over with the score being 9-3 Sallies.

I expect these two teams to play again at some point in the state playoffs next month. Cape has to capitalize on scoring chances if they want to win the second game. They also have to figure out what happened in the third quarter when they lost all of the face-offs.

I also want to wish the girls’ lacrosse team and the softball team and baseball team great success to wrap up the season so that they can also get ready for their playoffs. Go Vikings!