“You got it. Have a seat. How’s your day been so far?”
“Good. Just finished up with Mr. Lurie. I’m very appreciative that you all were willing to have me in to talk.”
“Of course!”
“I mean, it’s not often you see an NFL FRANCHISE SEEKING OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR posting on LinkedIn. And I wasn’t even sure if that Easy Apply link actually worked!”
“Hey, you never know where you’ll find the right candidate. We like to cast a wide net. So why don’t you tell me why you think you’re the right person to be the next offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles.”
“Sure. Well, I think I have the experience necessary to thrive in the position.”
“How so?”
Mike McDaniel (left) is off the board and Brian Daboll seems unlikely, but head coach experience might still be on the Eagles’ OC checklist.
“I mean, my resumé kind of speaks for itself. I’ve been a quarterbacks coach, a wide receivers coach, and an offensive coordinator. I’ve called plays. I’ve been part of winning organizations. I know you respect the coaches and offensive minds I’ve worked for and learned from.”
“True. That’s absolutely true.”
“And, to be frank, Howie, I’m open to exploring a new role that will allow me to flex my coaching muscles in a way that I haven’t in a long time.”
“Totally get that.”
“And the idea of taking on this particular role with the Eagles would be a challenge that I’d relish.”
“You want to take on all the challenges and problems and obstacles that come with this job?”
“Definitely.”
“We have a quarterback who seems like he doesn’t want to run the ball anymore, even though running the ball was a big part of what has made him really good — even great — when he has been really good.”
Can the Eagles’ mystery OC candidate devise a plan to get the most out of Jalen Hurts’ legs?
“I know. I’ve been watching Jalen. I think I can help him. I think someone has to help him.”
“He doesn’t throw the ball over the middle of the field, either.”
“Seen it. Thought about it. Have plans to change it.”
“What about the pressure that comes with this job? I mean, you saw what happened to the last guy, right?”
“I did. Hey, Philadelphia is a passionate sports town. Nothing better. My kids and I already have tons of Phillies and Sixers apparel. We’re in.”
“As I’m sure you know, we cannot guarantee you egg-free housing.”
“I know.”
“It’s one of the … charming consequences, I guess you’d call it … of being an Eagles coach.”
Have the Eagles found the offensive coordinator candidate with a proper understanding of the fan base’s passions?
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me. I’ve coached at the Linc often enough to get a sense of it. Even had some spirited conversations with some fans about it. The atmosphere around here can be intimidating, I know, and man, those folks can say some things that get your back up. But I’m at the stage of my career where I think I can handle it.”
“All right. Well, as you know by now, I’m sure, we operate a bit differently from a lot of other teams around the league.”
“You sure do.”
“We view the head coach as more of a conduit between those of us at the top of the leadership pyramid and the locker room.”
“Yep.”
“Our head coach doesn’t call plays, for instance. That will be the new OC’s responsibility.”
“Well aware.”
“I mean, we’re not inherently opposed to the idea of having a head coach call the plays for the offense. But we’ve realized over the last few years that investing our coordinators with a lot of say-so over the direction of their units is the way to go. Look at Vic. Look how that’s worked out. Our goal is to find someone who fits that mold. There’s a certain … gravitas … that comes with being a coordinator here in 2026. You call the formations and plays. You oversee that side of the ball with near-unfettered discretion. In some ways, whoever we end up hiring as our new OC will have more power than our head coach.”
“That’s one of the reasons I want the job.”
“I can understand that. And I have to say, your resumé and experience show that you’re willing to be flexible. You definitely do what’s asked of you.”
“I try.”
“OK. So, Jeffrey and I will talk. We’ll ‘confab,’ as it were. Lots to get to in the meantime, of course. Draft prep. Free agency prep. Super Bowl week — San Fran! Are you going? The chowder in a bread bowl at Hog Island is a must-do. And don’t fret. When we reach our decision, we’ll let you know.”
“I understand. Thanks so much for the time, Howie. I’ll talk to you soon, I hope.”
With heavy snow expected this weekend, two Big 5 basketball programs are moving their tipoff times.
The St. Joseph’s men’s team was slated to take on Davidson at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Hagan Arena. Now, the Hawks will be starting at 2 p.m. to avoid interference with potential snowfall on Saturday night.
Due to forecasted inclement weather in the Philadelphia region and in the interest of the safety teams, fans and staff, Saint Joseph's men's basketball game vs Dayton on Saturday, Jan. 24, has been moved up to 2:00 p.m.
Broadcast details will be announced when available. #THWND
The Drexel women moved its Sunday matchup against Towson at the Daskalakis Athletic Center to Saturday at 6 p.m., which will now be a homecoming doubleheader with the men’s team, which faces Northeastern at 2 p.m.
The women’s team will play back-to-back days, as the Dragons host Stony Brook at 6 p.m. Friday.
Due to impending weather on Sunday, January 25, the women's basketball game against Towson, originally scheduled for 2 p.m., will now be played on Saturday, January 24 at 6 PM as part of a Saturday doubleheader with the men's basketball team, which begins at 2 PM.
The Philadelphia region will be under a winter storm watch from 7 p.m. Saturday until midday Monday. As of Friday, the area is expected to receive anywhere from eight to 14 inches of snow.
While Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown made headlines during the season for his behavior, his attitude made headlines for a different reason this week. After the Eagles’ 23-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 11, Brown has remained relatively mum, especially following him jawing back and forth with coach Nick Sirianni.
Then Brown popped up Thursday, but for different reasons — gifting a PlayStation 5 to a stranger.
The receiver was seen in Florida making a kid’s day. While with his fiancé, Kelsey Riley, and his son, A.J. Brown Jr., he pulled his car to the side of the road, where a kid was selling candy. Riley rummaged through the assortment of candy, which included Nerd Gummy Clusters, Sour Patch Kids, and M&M’s before picking a bag of Gummy Bears.
Brown, on the other hand, pulled out a wad of cash before asking Riley a question.
“How much is a PS5 these days?” Brown said.
Riley responded that they typically are in the $500-600 range, prompting Brown to hand the kids several hundred dollars so that he could buy one for himself. Although Brown Jr., was less than impressed, pleading for an apple in the video .
But before departing back into Brown’s car, Brown and the kid took a picture together.
Rollie Massimino “did not mess around” when it came to drawing up defensive schemes against Patrick Ewing … or warding off gambling temptations that might filter through to his Villanova players.
“When we were playing, we had an FBI agent who was a former ’Nova basketball player give talks about gambling,” said Chuck Everson, a member of Massimino’s 1985 Wildcats title team that took down heavily favored Georgetown.
“Rollie did not mess around with that stuff. It wasn’t that far removed from the Boston College [point-shaving] scandal. Rollie brought in the FBI to talk to us. Coach Mass did a great job of teaching us, and it wasn’t all basketball; it was life lessons. And with gambling, it was, ‘Don’t do that.’
“To this day, I have never called DraftKings, or anything like that. I attribute that to being scared straight with Coach Mass.”
Everson, 61, played in an era when sports betting wasn’t legal in most of the country. These days, things are quite different. College athletes are compensated by their schools or through lucrative name, image, and likeness deals, and the legal/illegal gambling culture infiltrates every level of sports.
Last Thursday in Philadelphia, federal authorities announced a sweeping criminal indictment and related filings against 26 people on charges related to manipulating NCAA games and Chinese professional games through bribes, some as high as five figures.
It is the fourth federal criminal indictment that involves gambling and sports unsealed in the last six months, and the latest alleged gambling scheme involves one of the storied Big 5 programs: La Salle.
According to the indictment, at least one of the purported rigged games took place in 2024 in Philadelphia between La Salle and St. Bonaventure.
There are at least 39 players from 17 NCAA Division I schools who are alleged to have been involved in the scheme, but the indictment may underscore other, more troubling concerns.
Players at mid-major or smaller Division I programs might earn a fraction in NIL money compared to what their counterparts at elite programs take in, and therefore might be more susceptible to the temptations of illicit paydays. As one former federal prosecutor put it, this alleged scheme might be one of many dominoes waiting to fall.
“Anything that interferes with the integrity of sporting events, you’re going to get action by prosecutors,” said Edward McDonald, who prosecuted those involved in the Boston College point-shaving case in the late ’70s. McDonald, now senior counsel at the Dechert law firm, thinks that mid-major schools, like La Salle and some others in the Big 5, could be particularly vulnerable to gambling and bribery schemes.
“These smaller schools, the compensation to players is not as great [compared to larger programs], even for the better players on the team,” said McDonald, who learned of the Boston College scam through his investigations of organized crime family members with the Justice Department (and played himself in the Martin Scorsese-directed mob film Goodfellas).
“Players going to big-time schools are making 10 times more. A player [at a smaller program] might not be having a good season or might think they’re not going to play in the NBA or professionally, and they might say, ‘What the hell, I might as well cash in now.’”
Prop bets on a La Salle game
According to the court filings, one of the defendants, Jalen Smith, and former LSU and NBA player Antonio Blakeney (who is “charged elsewhere,” according to the indictment), attempted to recruit players on the La Salle men’s basketball team for the point-shaving scheme.
The fixers offered the La Salle players payments to underperform and influence the first half of a game against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 21, 2024, according to the filings.
Prosecutors allege that before the game at Tom Gola Arena, defendants who acted as fixers placed bets totaling approximately $247,000 on the Bonnies to cover the first-half spread. A $30,000 wager was made in Philadelphia at a FanDuel sportsbook, according to the indictment. But those bets failed after La Salle covered the spread.
“Neither the university, current student-athletes, or staff are subjects of the indictment,” La Salle wrote in a statement. “We will fully cooperate as needed with officials and investigations.”
La Salle coach Fran Dunphy directing the Explorers in November 2023. Dunphy retired after last season.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told The Inquirer that several years ago he received complaints from a number of college coaches in his state about online abuse directed at players and threatening calls from gamblers who had lost big.
“I called up [NCAA president] Charlie Baker, and asked him, ‘What do you think of prop betting?’” DeWine said. “He said, ‘We don’t like it.’ And I said, ‘Give me a letter that says that.’
“Under Ohio law, if I can get a letter from a league saying, ‘Don’t bet on certain things,’ that gives me the ability to go to my Casino Commission and they can [enact rules] without any legislation. Charlie sent the letter, I took that to the commission, and that stopped collegiate prop betting.”
The Ohio Casino Control Commission granted the NCAA’s request to prohibit proposition bets on collegiate sports in February 2024, but the decision affected only Ohio.
“It doesn’t really eliminate the problem,” DeWine said.
The ban in Ohio is only a drop in the bucket against a sea of pro-gambling momentum, legislation, and, most significantly, lucrative revenue streams.
CJ Hines, a guard who was dismissed from Temple’s basketball team on Jan. 16, allegedly participated in a point-shaving scheme during the 2024-25 season while playing for Alabama State, according to the indictment. Hines transferred to Temple in May but didn’t play this season after the university announced that he was under investigation for eligibility concerns before his enrollment.
Former Alabama State guard CJ Hines (3) averaged 14.1 points in 35 starts last season.
The Atlantic 10 Conference — which includes La Salle and St. Joseph’s — weighed in on the latest gambling indictment.
“Any activity that undermines the integrity of competition has no place in college athletics,” commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said in a release. “The Atlantic 10 and its member institutions will continue to work closely with the proper authorities to combat illegal activities.”
A St. Joe’s spokesperson added: “St. Joseph’s University has not been approached by federal investigators or any other entity about suspicious sports wagering activity involving St. Joe’s student-athletes or team.”
Villanova, which plays in the powerful Big East Conference, has numerous resources and protocols in place to address the sports wagering issue.
Handbooks, which include NCAA rules on gambling, are distributed annually to athletes, who also must sign a sports wagering document before being declared eligible. The athlete must acknowledge he or she won’t engage in activities that influence the outcome or win-loss margins of any game.
In 2021, 2023, and 2025, Villanova brought in speakers who have a history with sports gambling to talk with athletes about the risks and dangers associated with it. Villanova’s athletic compliance office meets twice annually with every athlete to review NCAA compliance standards, including its rules on sports wagering.
Former Villanova basketball star Maddy Siegrist told The Inquirer last year that her college alma mater ingrained in her mind the potential devastating consequences of gambling, values that she continues to adhere to as a WNBA player.
‘The integrity of sports is at risk’
Even after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that legalized sports wagering state to state, the honesty and integrity component still comes into question when so much is riding on any sports wager.
DeWine, the Ohio governor, is taking a proactive role in trying to address malfeasance in the gaming culture.
“I’m writing letters to all other major [sports] leagues,” DeWine said. “They need to get on this. If they sit back, they’re making a huge mistake. I think the integrity of sports is at risk. I’m continuing to urge these leagues to take care of business, because they’re the ones that are going to get hurt.”
But McDonald said that with the flurry of recent indictments involving sports and gambling, “you have to wonder how pervasive [the illegal gambling problem] really is.”
“This could very well be the tip of the iceberg,” McDonald said.
None of this makes America great again. It doesn’t bring down the cost of groceries. It doesn’t help Americans whose healthcare premiums have skyrocketed. It doesn’t make our streets safer. It doesn’t do anything but rile up Confederate flag-waving racists in Trump’s base. They had an awful lot to say about preserving history when monuments honoring traitorous soldiers who fought for the Confederacy and the right to own Black folks were torn down. But not so much when it comes to the destruction that happened at Sixth and Market Streets Thursday afternoon.
National Park Service workers remove the displays at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on Thursday.
I hope the spirits of the enslaved Africans whose stories had been immortalized in that display adjacent to the Liberty Bell will forever haunt Trump. It is my sincere wish that he and the henchmen who took down signs and dismantled the panels documenting the sad history of the nine enslaved Black people owned by our nation’s first president will never forget what they’ve done.
From this day forward, may they toss and turn each night as they remember the destruction they have wrought, as well as the names of the enslaved whose memorial they defiled: Austin, Paris, Hercules, Christopher Sheels, Richmond, Giles, Oney Judge, Moll, and Joe.
Trump and his enablers can try to hide the facts, but chattel slavery is an undeniable part of America’s founding. This nation wouldn’t be what it is now without the free labor of Africans dragged to these shores against their will and forced to toil for free in brutally inhumane conditions. It’s our story and one that should be acknowledged — not played down because Trump says so.
What will he do next? Take a sledgehammer to the Martin Luther King Jr. statue in Washington, D.C.? Empty out the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture? Burn the books about slavery and Black codes that have been for sale in museum gift shops and national parks?
The exhibit at the President’s House was the first I’d ever seen that, instead of glorifying the nation’s first president, humanized the poor people Washington held in the worst kind of bondage. The offices of The Inquirerare right across the street, and I’ve walked through the free outdoor exhibit many times. I used to enjoy seeing the expressions of tourists as they learned about the side of Washington that’s left out of most history books.
Workers remove display panels about slavery at the President’s House site in Independence National Historical Park on Thursday, leaving only empty spaces where history has been redacted by President Donald Trump.
Now all that’s left are the empty spaces where the various signs used to be. These sudden omissions at Independence Park make it feel like the historical account now being told at the site is a lie — not unlike the foundational lie of white supremacy that was used to justify the sin of slavery in the first place.
The removals are just another step in Trump’s brutal agenda to take things in America back to how they used to be when white men had everything and Black people had nothing.
Since his return to power, it has been one thing after another: his attempts to destroy all vestiges of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including his decision to no longer allow free admission to national parks on the federal holidays celebrating the late Rev. Dr. King and Juneteenth. Instead, parkgoers can enjoy free admission on Trump’s birthday, as if that’s really a thing.
The president would destroy Black History Month, too, if he could, and I don’t put it past him to try. He’s been clear about his racial animus, restoring the names of Army bases to those of Confederate military figures and using U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to inflict a reign of terror on Black and brown people.
I’m proud Philadelphia has filed suit to take back what was removed from the President’s House. This is the beginning of the City of Brotherly Love, showing the Trump administration that, in the words of Sheriff Rochelle Bilal, “You don’t want this smoke.”
YANACOCHA RESERVE, Ecuador — Deep in the Ecuadorian Andes, an ancient forest stands as a final sanctuary against the encroachment of human activity. This is the Yanacocha Reserve, the last refuge for the Black-breasted Puffleg (Eriocnemis nigrivestis), a tiny hummingbird teetering on the edge of extinction.
Measuring just 3.5 inches, this emblematic bird of Quito is one of the most threatened species on the planet. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, its global population has dwindled to between 150 and 200 birds.
Founded 25 years ago by the Jocotoco Foundation, the Yanacocha Reserve has become a centerpiece for Andean biodiversity.
“We realized we were conserving an entire ecosystem, not just one species,” conservationist Paola Villalba told the Associated Press.
The bird is easily identified by the striking white “trousers” of feathers around its legs, which contrast sharply with its deep, metallic black chest and bronze-green wings. Despite its beauty, its survival is at risk as high-altitude forests are cleared for grazing and agriculture.
Shirley Farinango, of the Birds and Conservation Foundation, notes that the pressure is most intense because the puffleg occupies a narrow ecological niche between 9,800 and 11,400 feet above sea level. This specific elevation, she said, is “prime territory” to be converted to agricultural land.
On the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, 27 miles northwest of Quito, conservationists are now racing to restore this cloud-shrouded forest.
For the “smallest fairies” of the Andes, these dense trees are more than just a habitat — they are their last stand.
Students are going home from school Friday with charged computers, but Watlington, speaking at a city emergency services news conference, said he wanted students to focus on having fun.
“We’re inviting students and staff to enjoy this snowfall, which will be the most I’ve seen during my nearly four years here in Philadelphia,” the superintendent said. “Sledding is appropriate. Snow angels are appropriate, and [Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel] gave us permission to have one or two safe and fun snowball fights.”
If conditions require more days out of school buildings, “every subsequent day will be a remote learning day,” Watlington said.
Philadelphia Achdiocesan high schools and parochial elementary schools also will have a virtual day Monday.
Suburban schools prep
Philadelphia isn’t the only district that has already announced plans or warned that closures were likely.
In Upper Darby, school officials told families Thursday night to prepare for the prospect of virtual instruction on Monday, and possibly Tuesday.
“If the weather is more significant than anticipated, and there are power outages in the area, we will shift to a snow day,” with no virtual school, Superintendent Daniel McGarry said in the message.
In the Cheltenham School District, Superintendent Brian Scriven told families that “if weather conditions require us to close schools and offices,” the district will have a traditional snow day Monday. Tuesday is to be determined — and Wednesday could be virtual instruction, “if conditions are significant enough,” Scriven said.
Colonial School District Superintendent Michael Christian told parents Friday that “if the accumulation is as high as some meteorologists are projecting, we would call for a traditional snow day on Monday and quite possibly Tuesday as well.” And Wednesday could be a virtual instruction day, Christian said.
Meanwhile, the Council Rock School District said that “if school buildings must close on Monday,” students would have virtual instruction.
Rob Thomson served dinner at a soup kitchen in Kensington and read books to students in Germantown. He spoke at banquets in Cherry Hill and Bethlehem. For four days this week, he met fans and talked baseball across the region.
And in case he wasn’t previously aware of the discourse about the Phillies’ offseason, let’s just say the phrase “running it back” came up a few times along the trail.
Thomson’s take:
“We’re going to have three new relievers,” the manager said at one stop of the Phillies’ annual winter tour. “We’ve got a new right fielder. [Justin] Crawford’s going to get every chance to play. We’ve probably got a rookie starting pitcher in [Andrew] Painter. We’ve got Otto Kemp, who wasn’t here at the start of last year. We’re turning over 20 to 25% of our roster.
“So, if you think that’s turning it back, or running it back, whatever the saying is, I can’t help you.”
OK, Thomson isn’t wrong. But two things can be true. The Phillies can change two-thirds of the outfield and half the bullpen and still bring back the guts of a roster that accounted for nearly three-quarters of the team’s plate appearances and almost 70% of its innings pitched last season.
Does that constitute running it back? Maybe. Maybe not.
Regardless, it misses the point. Because whether or not you think president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski made an appropriate number of changes after a second consecutive NL East title and another loss in the divisional round of the playoffs, the pertinent question is this: Are the Phillies better or worse today than when last season ended Oct. 9 at Dodger Stadium?
The Phillies are replacing Nick Castellanos (right) with Adolis Garcia in right field.
And on that topic, Thomson was less definitive.
“I think it’s to be determined,” he told Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. “But I feel better about it.”
It’s a manager’s job to be optimistic — and as importantly, to project optimism to the public, especially in a week when single-game tickets went on sale. Thomson listed reasons to be bullish. He likes the addition of free-agent reliever Brad Keller and suspects new right fielder Adolis García tried too hard to put the injury-wracked Rangers on his broad back last season and is primed to rebound. He also believes Crawford and Painter will bring youthful vigor as rookies with substantial roles.
It surely didn’t help that the Mets followed their backdoor deal with Bichette by trading for center fielder Luis Robert Jr. and top-of-the-rotation starter Freddy Peralta, the biggest splashes in a roster overhaul that needed to happen after a three-month collapse caused them to miss the playoffs last year. Add it all together, and Fangraphs upped its projection of the Mets’ total WAR to 46.7, third-highest in baseball and better than the Phillies’ 43.9 forecast.
Whatever, Thomson said. Step back from the last seven days, and he contends the Phillies’ internal outlook remains as bright as the Florida sun that awaits them in a few weeks.
“There are a lot of really good things going on,” Thomson said. “Because of the Bichette thing, a lot of that stuff gets overlooked a little bit, and I understand that. But we’ve got a really good club. We’ve just got to play better in the playoffs.”
So much will happen before that. In the interim, let’s attempt to answer whether the Phillies are any better with a cast of characters that is one year older but almost as familiar as ever. A few factors to consider:
After a long free agency, J.T. Realmuto finally re-signed with the Phillies on a three-year, $45 million contract.
Letting go of Bo
There isn’t much use for the Phillies to cry over the spilled milk of having Bichette slip through their fingers.
But there’s still milk all over the floor.
Signing Bichette would’ve set several dominoes in motion, including a likely trade of third baseman Alec Bohm. J.T. Realmuto almost certainly wouldn’t have been re-signed, with the Phillies getting so far down the Bichette road that Dombrowski phoned Realmuto’s agent, Matt Ricatto, to tell him they were headed in that direction.
“I wouldn’t want him to read about it in the paper,” Dombrowski said.
Within an hour of Bichette-to-the-Mets, Dombrowski called back Ricatto. The Phillies boosted their three-year offer to Realmuto to $45 million, with $5 million per year in incentives, and the iron-man catcher was right back where he has been since 2019.
But there was an underlying awkwardness when the Phillies announced their deal with Realmuto in a video news conference. Such occasions are typically celebratory in nature. Instead, Realmuto sounded like a human consolation prize.
“There’s no secret the Phillies had other opportunities,” he said. “Luckily, after they missed out on an opportunity there at the end, they called back, improved their offer, and got to a place we were happy with.”
Swell. As long as both sides are really happy.
The Phillies have developed a band-of-brothers culture over the last several years, especially since Thomson took over as manager in June 2022. Kyle Schwarber is the leader in the clubhouse; Realmuto on the field. There’s a bond here that players have been eager to join.
But given how much management clearly wanted Bichette, how can anyone be sure that Realmuto, Bohm, and others who may have been collateral damage are in the right frame of mind as spring training begins?
“It’s a good question,” Thomson said. “I think for the most part, our guys, because we’ve got a pretty experienced club, they understand the business side of it. They understand that things happen and things don’t happen, and they have to keep moving forward and stay focused on what they can control. They’ve been through it quite a bit, free agency, trade rumors. That’s all part of the business.
“I think they understand that. And now that we’re past that, I think they’re ready to go.”
From left: Prospects Justin Crawford, Andrew Painter, and Aidan Miller should all be in the mix for the Phillies in 2026.
In making the playoffs four seasons in a row for only the second time in their 143-year history, the Phillies built this core through free agency. Most of those signings worked out well, save Nick Castellanos and Taijuan Walker. Still, the number of long-term, big-money contracts on the books has limited their flexibility.
If it feels like the Phillies keep running back the same roster, that’s why.
The only way, then, to really alter the mix is to assimilate young, inexpensive players from the minors. And since 2023, the Phillies have had only 12 players make their major-league debuts — fewer than any team, based on Fangraphs research.
Crawford and Painter could change that. The Phillies expect Crawford to win the center-field job out of camp at age 22, which would make him their youngest player in an opening-day lineup since Freddy Galvis in 2012. Painter, 23 in April, could claim a spot in the season-opening rotation.
“If you want to have a really healthy organization,” Thomson said, “I think you have to be able to infuse some youth along the way.”
Thomson witnessed it firsthand a decade ago.
In 2016, he was the bench coach for the Yankees, who had the second-highest payroll in baseball and seven players in their 30s who made 240 or more plate appearances. They contended for the playoffs, but fell short with 84 wins. The roster had become stale.
A year later, the Yankees got younger without rebuilding. Gary Sánchez replaced Brian McCann behind the plate; Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery emerged as the team’s best starters at age 23 and 24, respectively; a rookie named Aaron Judge took over in right field.
The Yankees changed the mix on the fly, won 91 games, and went to Game 7 of the AL Championship Series against the trash-can-banging Astros.
“There were some warts there, no doubt, some growing pains,” Thomson recalled. “But when we turned it over into ‘17, they just took off and ran with it, and it was really good. I think there’s some similarities there.”
The biggest difference, according to Thomson: Whereas the 2017 Yankees were carried by the kids, the Phillies won’t have to ask theirs to do as much because the stars are still closer to their primes.
“Our core guys are really good, so if Crawford can come in and just kind of do his thing, don’t put too much pressure on him, he’s going to be fine,” Thomson said. “Same thing with Painter. If Painter’s in our [No.] 5 spot to start the season and he just relaxes and just grows with it, he’s going to be fine.
“I’m really excited about it. I love young guys. I just love the enthusiasm, the energy that they bring to the team that filters throughout the clubhouse and into those veteran players. And sometimes they need that.”
The Phillies need it like they need oxygen. You might even say it’s their best chance to be better than last year.
Based on what the computers and their human interpreters are saying, a key question this weekend will be whether measuring the snow in the Philly region will require a ruler or a yardstick.
This no doubt will be a moving target, but on Friday morning, the National Weather Service in Mount Holly was seeing eight to 14 inches for Philly, said meteorologist Alex Staarmann. Several inches were possible even at the Jersey Shore.
Friday AM Update: A major winter storm is still expected to impact the region Sat Night through Mon Morning. The primary change with this update is a slight reduction in snow totals across the Delmarva into southeastern NJ due to increasing sleet/freezing rain potential. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/OqV4a5QiHW
A wild card would be a potentially unpleasant atmospheric parfait that would add ice to the mix on Sunday, and computer models Friday were suggesting that mixing was likely near I-95 and in Delaware and South Jersey. However, the weather service expects that to yield to all snow Sunday night.
While this is all quite a complicated meteorological setup, in essence Arctic air is pressing southward and it is going to interact with an impressively juicy storm to the south.
“Having the Arctic front come through before the onset of wintry precipitation, that’s really concerning,” said Ray Kruzdlo, the staff hydrologist in the weather service office, where “it’s all hands on deck.”
Below-zero windchills are expected Saturday morning, prompting a cold-weather advisory, and temperatures in Philly may stay below freezing the rest of the month.
What time will the snow start and end?
The timing and duration of precipitation aren’t among the strong suits of computer models.
The weather service’s winter storm watch, which covers the entire region, all of Delaware, and most of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is in effect from 7 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m. Monday.
The daytime Saturday “looks fine if you have to get out,” said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
The weather service is listing the likeliest starting time as the early morning hours of Sunday, with snow likely into the early morning hours of Monday.
Sunday is going to be one of the colder days of the winter with temperatures in the teens and lower 20s. The weather service introduces the possibility of freezing rain and sleet by 1 p.m., with a forecast temperature of 19 degrees.
Yes, it can rain when it’s below 20 degrees at the surface, and precipitation doesn’t get much more dangerous.
Snow and sleet, liquid that freezes on the way down, can at least provide traction on the roads. Rain that freezes on contact becomes an ice sheet. Also, when freezing rain accumulates on fallen snow it can bring down trees and power lines.
Peco has heard the storm rumors (who hasn’t?) and will have crews on call through the weekend, said spokesperson Candace Womack.
The threat of ice is related to the possibility of warm layers of air, borne on onshore winds from the ocean, at levels of the atmosphere where precipitation is formed.
That could well happen Sunday as the coastal storm intensifies, said Kruzdlo, and winds build from the Northeast, perhaps gusting past 20 mph. Any rain or sleet would encounter very cold air at the surface, locked and dammed in place by the Appalachian Mountains.
“That’s the complexity of living where we are so close to the ocean,” Kruzdlo said. “We have tens of thousands of observations at the surface,” he added, but data from the upper atmosphere is wanting, adding challenges to forecasting changeovers.
Along the I-95 corridor, storms of purely snow are the exceptions, Kruzdlo said.
One of the more notable busts occurred in January 2015 when forecasts called for an I-95 East Coast snowstorm so ferocious that the mayor of New York imposed a curfew.
His boss at the time, weather service head Louis Uccellini, said no apology was necessary: Science has its limits. Busts have been known to happen in the battle of science against nonlinear.
This time around, meteorologists are all but certain something “impactful” is going to happen.
Said Kruzdlo, the slim chance of this storm “not being significant is leaving us.”
Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampiric period film starring Michael B. Jordan, made Academy Award history on Thursday when it was nominated for 16 Oscars, more than any other film in the history of the award ceremony’s 98-year run.
It toppled the 14 nominations previously received by All About Eve (1950), Titanic (1997), and La La Land (2016). In addition to Michael B. Jordan’s best actor nomination and Coogler’s best director nod, Sinners Oscar-winning costume designer, Ruth E. Carter, was also nominated for for her work on the film. It’s her fifth overall Oscar nomination.
That includes Smoke and Stack’s (twins played by Jordan) memorable 1930s-era three-piece suits, with complementary fedora and newsboy cap, timepieces, and tiepins.
Ruth E. Carter’s Oscar-nominated costumes from “Sinners” starring Michael B. Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack.
Coogler’s only direction to Carter was to dress Smoke in blue and Stack in red, she told The Inquirer in November.
Carter, not one to fret long, dove into her arsenal of research. By the time she began the fittings, she’d amassed an array of blue and red looks befitting of the 1930s sharecroppers-turned-bootleggers and juke joint owners.
“[And] when I put that red fedora on him, Ryan flipped out and said, ‘That’s it!’,” Carter said. “We wanted people to resonate with their clothing and it did.”
The Smoke and Stack effect went beyond Sinners. This Halloween there were tons of social media posts of revelers dressed as the mysterious twins.
Ruth E. Carter during the “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” opening gala at the African American Museum in Philadelphia on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.
Also a part of AAMP’s Sinners display is the flowy earthy dress that best supporting actress nominee Wunmi Mosaku wore in her role as Annie. Annie is Smoke’s lover and a root woman who discovers the vampires in their Clarksdale, Miss., town.
Cornbread’s (Oscar Miller) tattered sharecropper outfit is on the dais along with Mary’s (Hailee Steinfeld) blush knit dress with its short-sleeved bodice and pussy bow accent. Her matching knit beret and pearls are also on display. In the film, Mary is Stack’s childhood friend, turned girlfriend, turned vampire.
“I immerse myself in the mind, body, and soul of my characters,” said Carter. “Then I see them in my mind, how they move and with research, I come up with a look that I feel is unique to them.”
The Sinners pieces are among the more than 80 looks featured in the “Afrofuturism” exhibit, joining outfits from The Butler (Lee Daniels), and from Malcolm X, Coming 2 America, Black Panther, and its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The show, headlining the African American Museum’s celebration of the nation’s Semiquincentennial, will be on display through September.
Lace gloves and knit dress detail of Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) costume from sinners.
During her five decades in the movie business, Carter has worked on more than 60 big-screen documentations of where Black Americans have been, who they are at the given moment, and who they dream of becoming.
Her work has shaped how the world sees African Americans.
In the 2010s, a friend of hers suggested she plan a museum exhibit around her costumes. After Black Panther, she partnered with Marvel, and in 2019, “Afrofuturism in Costume Design” debuted at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Atlanta Campus.
The “Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” exhibit at the African American Museum in Philadelphia on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025.
Philadelphia is the exhibit’s ninth — and longest — stop. It’s also the first stop for the Sinners costumes.
“I am a griot,” Carter said. “[Throughout my career,] I’ve developed a knowledge base that embraces our culture and speaks to all of us in a positive way.”
“Ruth E. Carter: Afrofuturism in Costume Design” will be on view through Sept. 6. at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, 701 Arch St., Thursday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children.
