The Phillies lost 2 to the Sox … including yesterday’s game in which Doc Halliday got chased out in the 6th.  Hope they’re geting something out of their systems!  On a positive note, the Red Sox seem to have rediscovered their bats … to go along with some nifty pitching.  Gotta wonder, though … is it mere happenstance that the Sox’ two wins coincided with the return of Ellsbury to their line-up … and the loss (after only a day back) of Rollins to the Phils?  Hard to know.

The Flyers face off against the Habs in Game 5 of their series tonight – possibly the clincher.  As an aside, I searched a bit and found the answer to the meaning of “The Habs” – a puzzlement to me ever since this round of the play-off’s got underway.  According to Wiki Answers, here’s the deal:

Habs is an abbreviation of “les habitants,” the informal name given to the original settlers of New France, dating back to the 17th Century. So it’s a natural fit for the The Montreal Canadiens, established in 1909 and marketed as a French-Canadian hockey team.

Having said that, the nickname might have been the result of an error. According to NHL.com, the first man to refer to the team as “the Habs” was Tex Rickard, owner of Madison Square Garden, in 1924. Rickard apparently told a reporter that the “H” on the Canadiens’ sweaters was for “Habitants.” Not true. The distinctive C-wrapped-around-H logo stands for “Club de Hockey Canadien.”

From The Writers Almanac this morning comes a poem by Howard Nelson … loved it!  Small moments of regret that linger … poignantly … for a lifetime.  Reminders of our tender and flawed humanness.

The Man in the Yard

by Howard Nelson

My father told me once

that when he was about twenty

he had a new girlfriend, and once

they stopped by the house on the way

to somewhere, just a quick stop

to pick something up,

and my grandfather, who wasn’t well—

it turned out he had TB and would die

at fifty-two—was sitting in a chair

in the small back yard, my father

knew he was out there, and it crossed

his mind that he should take his girlfriend

out back to meet him, but he

didn’t, whether for embarrassment

at the sick, fading man

or just because he was in a hurry

to be off on his date, he didn’t

say, but he told the little,

uneventful story anyway, and said

that he had always regretted

not doing that simple, courteous

thing, the sick man sitting in

the sun in the back yard would

have enjoyed meeting her, but

instead he sat out there alone

as they came and left, young

lovers going on a date. He

always regretted it, he said.

So anyway … Go Flyers … DaddyCornblog is rooting for you, I am quite sure … from a chaise lounge on some celestial patio (somewhere near suburban Philadelphia)!