Ten thoughts before a trip to Ocean City closes out summer

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Doing our radio show -- 9-11 a.m. on AM 1470 -- in the morning and then heading to Ocean City, Maryland for a week with a brief stop in Philly to get my son, who is hopefully recovered from his bachelor party with the boys.

Weather, as usual, doesn't look that great for me in OC, but hey, it's a change of scenery and one last chance to charge the batteries for the football season and the school year ahead.

Hope to sneak in a few days off around the holidays, but this may be the last lengthy stay outside the Valley for awhile. I am hoping to spend my 50th birthday next March in Vegas, but that may be difficult financially and schedulewise considering the high school basketball season will be in full bloom at the time of my big 5-0.

Anyway, here are some things in my head before I hope to clear them on the beach.

1. Thank God for rehab appearances because Ryan Howard's stop in Allentown the next couple of days seems like it may generate the biggest excitement of the entire season at Coca Cola Park. The All-Star Game was ok, but the rain put a damper on a lot of stuff and the game was kind of a bore. Lots of people still enjoy the night out at an IronPigs game and there's usually at least one attraction there to keep the baseball fan interested. But all of the initial euphoria generated in the first couple of seasons has worn off, at least a bit. Don't hear nearly as many talking about them as I did in 2008 and '09, but Howard's arrival here at least created a buzz that hasn't been felt since Domonic Brown's brief stay.

2. The Phillies are still the odds-on favorite to win the NL East and the National League. With Halladay and Oswalt atop that rotation, even an inconsistent offense won't keep the Phils down. Braves are hanging tough, tougher than expected, but the Phils should still catch them and eventually nail down No. 1 seed for NL postseason.

3. My Cardinals are toast. They have gone in the tank at home, losing five in a row to the Cubs, Brewers and Giants, while the Reds are on a major roll. Seems like St. Louis stopped playing after it swept the Reds in Cincy last week on the heels of that ugly brawl. I've been saying this for awhile, but it's a flawed club, still lacking in weapons besides Pujols. I still liked the speedy Cardinals of the 80s better with Ozzie and Lonnie Smith, Vince Coleman, Willie McGee etc. Even the Tommy Herrs and Terry Pendletons could run. Speed never slumps.

4. Central Catholic will turn back to the clock to the 1990s with the way they should dominate most teams this fall. Brendan Nosovitch continues the line of quarterback excellence we've had in the last five or six years around here -- a lineage that includes D.J. Lenahan, Dan Persa, Anthony Gonzalez and Tyler Smith. I am not doing the league preview for the paper, and my predictions for the LVC won't see print but here's how I see it -- 1. CCHS; 2. Easton; 3. Parkland; 4. Whitehall; 5. Freedom; 6. Northampton; 7. Nazareth; 8. Liberty; 9. Emmaus; 10. Becahi; 11. Allen; 12. Dieruff.

5. The Colonial League will be fun. Wilson has had an amazing run in this league and many figure it's about to end. But after talking to coach Bret Comp tonight, I don't think he's ready to unfurl the white flag just yet. Having him and Tim Moncman on the same staff is lethal. The league is going to have a lot of good teams and good players and watch out for Pen Argyl, Bangor, Northern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh in particular. But the Warriors will still be among the league's elite and back in the District 11 playoffs.

6. It's weird for Eagles fans not to be talking Super Bowl. It's the first time in a decade I can remember Eagle fans tapering down expectations. I still think the offense has enough weapons for 9 or 10 wins, but the defense I think is still shaky. When you look at the NFC, however, I don't see a lot of great teams out there, even with Favre back in Minny. So, if you get into the postseason anything can happen.

7. I am enjoying the Jets' "Hard Knocks" show on HBO. Can't believe Mike Pettine went from CB West to a defensive coordinator position in the NFL. He's Rex Ryan's right-hand man with this intriguing team. Ryan, by the way, is an enjoyable character. I thought his father, Buddy, was an overrrated, nasty SOB whose mouth got more notoriety than any of his teams. But Rex seems to be a genuinely good man with the right perspective. I am rooting for him.

8. USC continues to take a beating, even on "Hard Knocks." This week's show exposed the struggles of former Trojans running back Joe McKnight. It kind of revealed him as not being the smartest player to come into the league and then you heard the standard: "He's just ticked off because he had to take a pay cut" line that everybody uses to knock the Trojans.

9. Speaking of guys who live in a different world, the Jets' Antonio Cromartie having eight children (all seemingly under the age of five) with six different women is creating a buzz around the blogosphere. He appeared to struggle to name all of the kids in a segment on the show, but said that scene was staged by HBO to make it look like he didn't know the names. Why would Cromartie agree to do that? It wasn't a flattering portrait. Let's just hope he continues his NFL career for a long time, or else Angelina Jolie may have to step in to adopt some of those kids.

10. Just watched "Hoosiers" on HBO on this late Friday night/early Saturday morning for about the 20th time. What still attracts me besides the old picket fence play and the great acting of Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper, is how passionate the fans are for that team in that small town. That's what high school sports was originally intended to be. We've lost a lot of that around here. Too many things to do, too much going on. But there was something special in the days when everybody in the same town would get behind its local football or basketball team and lived and died with them. Now it's a struggle to find anyone -- besides the family members of the players -- who care. That's a shame.

Now's it off to dodging the seagulls and any hurricanes that may be barreling up the Eastern seaboard. I will check in here on the Corner in a few days to see what's going on.

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