{"id":28275,"date":"2013-03-04T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rcntv.rcn.com\/?p=28275"},"modified":"2023-02-17T23:10:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T23:10:26","slug":"the-sportstalk-shop-march-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this the best time of sports year? &#8211; The SportsTalk Shop &#8211; March 4th"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is this the best time of sports year? Andy Williams (ask your parents about him if you don\u2019t know who that is) may disagree, but if your sports-interests cross over many different areas, it\u2019s hard to find a better several weeks of the calendar year than the time period we\u2019re currently in &#8211; especially in the Eastern PA region. Consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you\u2019re a Flyers fan, this is traditionally the time of year in which you start to get your line rotations down and start looking forward to potential matchups for the post-season. The Flyers are also quick to try to tweak-and-improve heading down the stretch run. Things are never dull when you\u2019re talking hockey this time of year in the Delaware Valley region.<br \/>\n&#8211;<\/li>\n<li>Spring training is a time when hope springs eternal. Whether the Phillies are looking to return to the post-season, or hoping for a miraculous turnaround, the exhibition season is a time when you\u2019re technically in first place for a month, you have younger and\/or journeymen players hitting .400, mop-up men with ERA\u2019s under 3, and areas where the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d of an organization show glimmers of hope that your team could actually be in the hunt for the playoffs. Even when the current core of all-time Phillies greats succumb to Father Time, and a World Series appearance is not a realistic outlook, spring training, at the very least, gives us a look at what\u2019s to come\u2014even if it\u2019s just to grow envious of the people in short-sleeve shirts and shorts.<br \/>\n&#8211;<\/li>\n<li>We may not have a perennial #1 team in the NCAA men\u2019s or women\u2019s basketball tournament, but the Big 5 is still one of the greatest city battles in the country. We\u2019ve been blessed by having some great teams offer us some exciting runs in March Madness, from Mark Macon\u2019s Temple team getting to the Sweet 16, to the outstanding guard play of St. Joe\u2019s in the Big Dance a few years ago, to the hard working Liberty HS grad Darrun Hilliard, now establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with at Villanova, as the Wildcats look to continue knocking off some of the top teams in the nation. And let\u2019s not forget the efforts of a team from Bethlehem just about this time a year ago making some national news by slaying the mighty goliaths of Duke. The beauty of the structure of league tournaments &amp; March Madness gives even passive basketball fans a rush of excitement by seeing your local teams, whether you\u2019re from that school or not, beat a couple teams this time of year.<br \/>\n&#8211;<\/li>\n<li>Unless you covered the 76ers in the 1990s (like I did) and used this time to hope for horrible play (and often got your wish) for a chance at more ping pong balls in the lottery, this is also an interesting time of year. If the team has had any kind of success, you\u2019re looking to make a push for the playoffs and maybe surprise some people with some upset series victories (as the Sixers did last year and again in 2001). Even when the team has hovered around or slightly below .500, there\u2019s usually a few interesting storylines, young players to watch, et al to keep your interest and give us some semblance of hope for the following season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So what do you say? Is this the greatest time of the sports year or not? Hey, even football fans have those involuntary \u201cvoluntary\u201d camps sprinkled in and also previews of potential draft choices to chomp on right now. Let us know via email at <a href=\"mailto:RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com<\/a> and\/or post a comment below, and we\u2019ll see what is YOUR favorite sports season.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is this the best time of sports year? Andy Williams (ask your parents about him if you don\u2019t know who that is) may disagree, but if your sports-interests cross over many different areas, it\u2019s hard to find a better several weeks of the calendar year than the time period we\u2019re currently in &#8211; especially in&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5],"tags":[7,190,364,421,494],"class_list":["post-28275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","category-the-sportstalk-shop","tag-76ers","tag-flyers","tag-ncaa","tag-phillies","tag-sixers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is this the best time of sports year? - The SportsTalk Shop - March 4th - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is this the best time of sports year? - The SportsTalk Shop - March 4th - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Is this the best time of sports year? Andy Williams (ask your parents about him if you don\u2019t know who that is) may disagree, but if your sports-interests cross over many different areas, it\u2019s hard to find a better several weeks of the calendar year than the time period we\u2019re currently in &#8211; especially in...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-04T13:57:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-17T23:10:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Michael\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"headline\":\"Is this the best time of sports year? &#8211; The SportsTalk Shop &#8211; March 4th\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-04T13:57:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-17T23:10:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":647,\"commentCount\":1,\"keywords\":[\"76ers\",\"Flyers\",\"NCAA\",\"Phillies\",\"Sixers\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Sports\",\"The SportsTalk Shop\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is this the best time of sports year? - The SportsTalk Shop - March 4th - ATVN\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-04T13:57:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-17T23:10:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/the-sportstalk-shop-march-4\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/\",\"name\":\"ATVN\",\"description\":\"Local Programming &amp; Astound Digital Cable, Internet &amp; Phone Services\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.astound.com\\\/atvn\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6aba8df7f74bf50b72426776afd0067a\",\"name\":\"Chris Michael\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"url\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"\\\/atvn\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/11\\\/Chris-Michael-Sports-Talk-Shop-Author-Image1.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Chris Michael\"},\"description\":\"Chris handles play-by-play for RCN sports events, including baseball, football &amp; basketball games and produces\\\/hosts the station\u2019s 60-minute live call-in show. 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