Sixers and Penn State Face Cold Hard Truths

Cold enough for you? We’re all pushing through an unwelcome and unnecessarily early Arctic blast. So we lead off today with a warm, cozy memory of a time when we thought the 2024 Phillies were a team of destiny. After that, though, it’s harsh reality for the Zombie Sixers and for the myth of how well Penn State football fans travel.

In the email today:

• ⚾ Top 15 Phillies Games of 2024 - No. 14

• 🧟 Zombie Sixers' Late Rally Falls Short in Loss to Magic

• 🕳️ Plenty of Good Seats Remain for the Big Ten Football Title Game

  • 📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

  • 📊 Poll

  • 🔗 Links

  • 📺 Coming Up

On Pattison's countdown of the 15 best Phillies games of 2024 continues with a comeback victory immediately nicknamed "The Cal Stevenson Game."

14) September 14, 2024 - The Cal Stevenson Game

A scorching hot Mets team visited Citizens Bank Park in mid-September for a three-game weekend series. The New Yorkers won 11 of 13 before coming to town, and in the Friday night game they lit up Aaron Nola en route to 11-3 beatdown of the Phillies.

In Saturday's game, it looked like more of the same early on. Kolby Allard started for the Phils and lasted just three innings, allowing four runs on six hits and three walks.

Down 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Bryce Harper put the Phillies on the board with a solo home run.

After Allard left the game, Taijuan Walker, recently demoted from the starting rotation, threw three scoreless relief innings to keep the game close.

"He's a great teammate," Phils manager Rob Thomson said of Walker after the game. "He's handled this like a pro."

As Walker kept the Mets' bats quiet, Harper launched another home run to make it a 4-3 ballgame in the sixth.

Should this victory be nicknamed "The Bryce Harper and Cal Stevenson Game?" Technically, yes. But that doesn't exactly roll of the tongue.

In the bottom of the seventh, with runners on second and third and two outs, Stevenson ripped a double off the right field wall. The Phils took a 5-4 lead.

"Just a huge at-bat by Stevenson," Harper said afterwards.

And Stevenson wasn't finished. In the top of the eighth, he robbed Mets' designated hitter J.D. Martinez of a home run to preserve the Phillies' narrow lead.

Not bad, Cal.

JT Realmuto added an eighth-inning RBI double to make it 6-4, and Carlos Estevez closed it out in the ninth.

Stevenson, of course, received the wooderboys treatment during his post-game interview.

The Phillies may have gone on to play some other important games against the Mets in October. Not sure, nobody knows. But whatever happened there shouldn't detract from the magic of the The Cal Stevenson Game.

There are only so many ways to say “Joel Embiid and Paul George sat again and the Sixers lost again.” We’re not enjoying it either.

For that matter, even X posts are running out of both patience and new ways to say the same thing.

So last night the Sixers rolled out Tyrese Maxey (16 points on 7-19 shooting) and Jared McCain (24 points, seven rebounds) and the usual supporting cast of journeymen and career backups and, in fairness to them, made a game of it for three quarters.

But there is only so long that the Sixers can hold out against more talented teams without Embiid and George. The Magic went up ten with 4:07 left.

A furious Sixers rally cut the deficit to one with 22 seconds left, but the Sixers never managed to tie the game and seized another non-existent moral victory.

It’s a shame for the Sixers who are actually out there trying their hardest to stay competitive while Embiid and George are doing whatever the hell it is that they’re doing.

Also not helping is how the injury updates on Embiid become more weird and inscrutable by the day.

“Personal reasons?” Embiid is missing games for “personal reasons” and they’re still paying him? Where can we find a job like that? And what is a “ramp-up process”? We don’t trust that.

As for George, no one was suggesting that he should come out last night and run 40-plus. But he couldn’t give them 25 minutes? Or maybe just be available if it’s a tie game going into the fourth quarter?

There’s a very ugly question that no one wants to think about, which is this: Even if Embiid and George are “healthy” in April, can they stay healthy playing every game of a seven-game series?

Of course, the Sixers have to make the playoffs for that question to get an answer.

Saturday’s Big Ten Championship game features 12-0 Oregon (#1 in the AP Top 25) against 11-1 Penn State (#3 in the same poll).

This is a great game on paper. Oregon is favored by 3.5. That’s not a huge line for an undefeated team this late in the season. At the very least, the betting public thinks this game will be very competitive.

So what gives with the tickets at Lucas Oil Stadium?

There are some tangible and intangible factors at play here.

• Medium Stakes: Both teams are likely College Football Playoff-bound. The winner secures a first-round bye and the title of a now basically unrecognizable conference. This isn’t Keith Jackson’s Big Ten.

• The Unwelcomes: Oregon only joined the Big Ten this year. Penn State last won the Big Ten in 2016, which is also the last time that a team other than Ohio State or Michigan won the conference.

• The Geography: Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is nearly 2,000 miles from Eugene, OR and is almost exactly 500 miles from State College, PA. And you’re almost certainly not flying direct from either college town to Indiana.

One more thing: Both of these teams are virtually guaranteed at least one more game that will be more meaningful than this one…and the loser might end up playing three more times.

The local angle here is our favorite. All we’ve ever heard about from Penn State fans is how well they travel.

If Lucas Oil Stadium is two-thirds full with the Nittany Lions in with a shout for a Big Ten title, blaming Oregon fans for not making the trip won’t cut it.

📆 This Day in Philly Sports History

On December 4, 2004, the Eagles racked up some insane stats in a 47-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers:

• Donovan McNabb threw five touchdown passes, all in the first half. He finished the day with 464 passing yards (a team record at the time, broken by Nick Foles in 2018).

• Brian Westbrook caught 11 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns.

• Terrell Owens caught eight passes for 161 yards and a touchdown.

This was the first Eagles/Packers game after the famous “4th & 26” playoff matchup. Green Bay was probably looking for revenge. Didn’t go too well for them.

📊 Poll

Results from Wednesday:

Pretty sure the “depends on the details” voter was Rob Manfred.

🔗 Links

• 🏥 Trevor Lawrence ended up on IR, which is probably for the best.

• 💰️ MLB is eventually going to need to step in on the Dodgers’ deferred payment scheme.

• 🏒 Johnny Gaudreau was remembered fondly in Calgary.

• 🐅 Everyone wants Tiger Woods to get healthy enough to play on the PGA Tour again, but he’s just not there right now.

📺 Coming Up

Games before our next send.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

• Panthers at Flyers, 7:00 p.m. (NBC Sports Philadelphia)

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow.

Be sure to follow On Pattison on social media:

• Follow on X

• Follow on Instagram

• Follow on Facebook