PHILLY SPORTS CORNER

PHILLIES-

 * It's official- Saturday night  the Phillies will honor the late, great Jim Bunning, Dallas Green and Darren Daulton.

Alumni weekend will bring in former Phillies' stars. The pre-game ceremony will include Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Dick Allen, Jim Thome and Charley Manuel.

It should be a sentimental, bittersweet evening. The Phils always do up tributes the right way. What could have been a night of disgrace with the morally-corrupt Pete Rose, will honor and celebrate three Phillies' Wall of Famers who died this past year, including Daulton, who died last Sunday night.

I expect it to be an emotional yet fulfilling time, as opposed to what could have been. It would be nice if the organization made some former players accessible to fans who attend Saturday night, such as players greeting fans at the gates, or autograph tables before the game.

* Well, the Phils leave Atlanta on a three-game winning streak. They are 11-2 against the Braves this season, with 5 games yet to play with Atlanta.

Odubel Herrera again proves how talented he can be, slashing two triples on the night, yet again going brain-dead on the base paths. It's either something the Phillies need to get used to or they need to trade ehim this off-season while his value is high. Either way, Herrera isn't going to change.

Vince Valasquez goes tonight vs. the Mets, who, unlike the Braves, have been a thorn in the Phillies' side for the last few years. But New York is having a tough year as  well, so it may be time to kick them while they're down as well.

In fact, the Phils have won 8 straight games against National League East competition ( Miami and Atlanta). They held their own against Washington earlier in the year.

The games don't matter, but the schedule proves to be an interesting one for the remainder of the season. Road games against doormat clubs like the Giants and the Padres have yet to be played, however, home contests against the world champion Cubs and the red-hot Dodgers are still on tap.

Add the fact that the Phillies play 16 of their last 19 games at home, and maybe- just maybe the team avoids 100 losses?

52 games remain. The Phillies need to win at least 22 of the 52 to avoid 100 defeats. It once looked like even 110 losses would be reachable, now, not so much. The club hasn't lost 100 games since 1961, so it's something to strive for as September rolls around.

It looks like the Phhils will be in a battle to see who has the worst overall record and who gets next June's no. 1 selection in the baseball draft. San Francisco is right there in futility. I have no problem with Philadelphia finishing with the worst record again. This rebuild is still going to take time. Having their pick of all the players in the draft next year would help to speed up the process.

Now, the organization must make the right choice.

SIXERS-

The 2017-18 NBA schedule will be released any day now, but some leaks are happening.

Apparently, the Sixers will play on Christmas Day, but not against the Lakers, as was rumored. Instead they will play the Knicks in New York on Christmas afternoon. It's still a great double header of Philly sports, as the Eagles take on the Oakland Raiders at the Linc that night.

Another quirk in the upcoming schedule is a game in London on January 12 vs. the Boston Celtics. It's a 76er home game, and with tickets a hot commodity this year, that's one less home game to consider.

Won't Joel Embid go over but  in England?

EAGLES-

The season starts tonight! The first exhibition contest vs. green Bay kicks off tonight. The starters will probably play one series. As long as no one gets hurt.

Fans will over-react wither way tomorrow morning. We won't really know about the fortunes of the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles until live bullets start flying on September 10 vs. the Redskins But starting tonight, we will have a slight clue what to perhaps expect.

Will Nick Foles play tonight and how will he look after he has battled a sore right shoulder this camp? Is the secondary as bad as the writers have made out? Will WR Alshon Jeffery play? Who will get the majority of the carries from the running backs? Which rookie or undrafted player will step up?

Football...the tail-gates, the weekly anticipation, the rivalries, the fantasy leagues and pools, Sunday night Football, the playoff watch- it all begins for the Birds tonight.