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  • Which prospects have met with the Flyers, the latest on free agency rumblings, and other notes from the NHL scouting combine

    Which prospects have met with the Flyers, the latest on free agency rumblings, and other notes from the NHL scouting combine

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — Blake Zielinski walked into his interview with the Flyers on Thursday at the NHL scouting combine and said the first thing general manager Danny Brière asked him was whether it felt like home.

    Zielinski said the question helped ease his nerves. A native of Berlin, N.J., he grew up a diehard Flyers fan, learning how to play at rinks like Pennsauken Skate Zone and skating for the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers. He is now preparing for his first NHL development camp by training at Holleydell Ice Arena in Sewell.

    At one point, the 18-year-old, who is heading to Providence College in the fall, wanted to be ex-captain Claude Giroux. These days, he’s keeping an eye on Travis Konecny’s game and told The Inquirer he thinks he was at every Flyers home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

    “I made it known I was a Philly kid, and kind of understood what it took to play for them, and hopefully they got that message,” he said Saturday after completing the last day of testing, including the dreaded Wingate test, which calculates a player’s anaerobic fitness. Zielinski finished 10th.

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    Now, while one would expect a kid from South Jersey to be a Flyers fan, how about a teenager from Finland? For the record, these days Juho Piiparinen is a Dallas Stars fan because his idol, Miro Heiskanen, plays there, but he grew up liking the Orange and Black.

    “They are pretty legendary,” said Piiparinen, who did meet with the team. “They’re from Philadelphia, and that was my dad’s favorite team, and I have their hat, too.”

    So, how did this all happen? His dad, Jarkko Piiparinen, liked watching in the ’90s “the legendary goalie” Ron Hextall, and Eric Lindros, “a big center.” And the 6-foot-3, 203-pound, right-shot defenseman who is strong defensively but is working on developing his offensive game, especially with getting time on the second power-play unit, is someone the team could snag at No. 21 in the first round of the NHL draft.

    A teammate of Flyers prospects Max Westergård and Heikki Ruohonen at the 2026 World Juniors, he’s also keeping an eye on the Flyers.

    “This season, they were in the playoffs, but they couldn’t get so far,” he said. “And there’s this big, big Finnish defender, [Rasmus] Ristolainen, and I really like his style, how he plays.

    “But I think it’s an amazing logo, too.”

    Defensive prospect Juho Piipparinen finished tied for third in the 10-meter sprint and force plate no arm jump, tied for fourth in VO2 max, and seventh in the bench press during the fitness testing at the NHL scouting combine.Staff/Jackie Spiegel

    Taking a Flyer

    Zielinski and Piiparinen were two of the approximately 50 players the Flyers, with only five picks across seven rounds, met with last week.

    The Inquirer can confirm the following prospects spoke with the Flyers. Players said the meeting was typically straightforward — no off-the-wall questions like Montreal is known for — with one player saying they seemed to want to know he was a good kid.

    How top NHL draft prospects fared at the final day of the NHL combine

    The players are divided by the position where the fitness testing schedule listed them, but keep in mind some wingers can play center, and some centers can play wing. Also note, The Inquirer did not speak to every player who was at the scouting combine. Center Viggo Björck thinks he met with the Flyers but could not remember exactly.

    Centers: Rūdolfs Bērzkalns, Ryder Cali, Alexander Command, Maddox Dagenais, Beckett Hamilton, Jack Hextall, Ilia Morozov, Brooks Rogowski, Markus Ruck, Oliver Suvanto, Blake Zielinski

    Left wings: Niklas Aaram-Olsen, Ethan Belchetz, Wyatt Cullen, Chase Harrington, JP Hurlbert, Adam Novotný, and Victor Plante

    Right wings: Jaxon Cover, Elton Hermansson, Simas Ignatavicius, Kayden Lemire, Casey Mutryn, and Liam Ruck

    Defense: Tommy Bleyl, Vladimír Dravecký, Malte Gustafsson, William Håkansson, Jayden Kurtz, Ryan Lin, Ben Macbeath, Piiparinen, Timmy Runtso, Maksim Sokolovskii, and Xavier Villeneuve

    Goalie: Michal Oršulák and Tobias Trejbal

    Center Jack Hextall’s uncle played in the New Jersey Devils organization. He is a distant cousin of Ron Hextall, the former Flyers goalie and general manager, and, Jack told The Inquirer, the two have never met.Staff/Jackie Spiegel

    Family ties

    Some players fell in love with the game because their dads played hockey. Plante’s dad, Derek, skated in 450 games, including 12 with the Flyers in 2000-01; he also spent time with the Phantoms in the American Hockey League that season.

    “We were always talking about hockey. We love hockey, and everything we do, we compete,” said Plante, who will join his brothers Max and Zam at the University of Minnesota-Duluth — Max just won the Hobey Baker as men’s college hockey’s best player.

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    “Whether it’s raking leaves or shooting pucks or we’re in the backyard playing Wiffle ball or something, we’re always doing something competitive. At the dinner table, definitely a lot of arguments about hockey and stuff, but we’re always having good, clean fun.”

    Dravecký’s dad, also named Vladimír, is still playing pro hockey in Czechia, and Dagenais’ father, Pierre, played across five NHL seasons, seven AHL seasons, and a handful more in Europe. Cali’s mom, Fiona McLeod, played professionally in Switzerland for several seasons, where she met his dad.

    Jaxon Cover and Ryder Cali (not pictured) spent part of their childhood in the Cayman Islands and played roller hockey together.Staff/Jackie Spiegel

    Cullen’s father, Matt, played more than 1,500 NHL games, winning a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and two with Flyers coach Rick Tocchet in Pittsburgh. He told The Inquirer that Sidney Crosby would come over to the house and play mini-sticks — and, yes, Crosby even won at that.

    But then there are the players whose parents excelled in other sports.

    Tyus Sparks, who did not meet with the Flyers, first skated on a frozen basketball court in Minnesota during a Christmas trip back to his mom’s home state at 2 or 3 years old. He returned to Boise, Idaho, and started playing hockey. How did the family land in Boise? His dad, Nate, was a quarterback at Boise State before suiting up briefly in the Canadian Football League for the BC Lions.

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    Rogowski was on the path to play baseball, but he is now a 6-7, 236-pound center who will play at Michigan State next September. Baseball runs in the family — his father, Casey, was drafted by the Chicago White Sox and reached triple A, and the Los Angeles Dodgers selected his uncle Ryan. “They’re super supportive, but they’re a bit bummed” that the youngest Rogowski, a first baseman, didn’t follow in their path.

    Ignatavicius was born in Memphis and grew up in Lithuania. His dad, Mantas, played college basketball at High Point University and then professional basketball overseas. And according to Mutryn, who Bērzkalns called the tough guy he faced in this draft class, his dad, Scott, is more than happy his son didn’t keep the family sport going.

    “My dad always made sure we knew how to throw a football, and we played other sports, but he never really wanted us playing football when we were younger,” he said of his dad, who was a QB at Boston College and spent time with the New England Patriots.

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    “He’s like, there’s no point in third grade playing tackle football, when the helmet weighs half as much as you do. So he’s like, just wait till fifth grade, and it was too late by that point.”

    Flyers general manager Danny Briere was busy talking with other league personnel at the NHL draft combine.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    Flyers news and notes

    While the draft prospects meet with front office staff and go through the gauntlet of fitness testing, the week in Western New York is also a chance for general managers to chat with each other and agents.

    Here’s what we’ve heard about the Flyers:

    • Obviously, Dylan Larkin requesting a trade out of Detroit was the hottest topic after it broke Thursday. Multiple sources have confirmed to The Inquirer that the Flyers are interested in the top-tier center, and they do think they have the assets — speculation is that the Red Wings will want a young center and a combination of NHL players, picks and prospects in return — but does he want to come to Philly? The Detroit Free Press reported Monday that he submitted a three-team list of where he’d like to go; the Flyers were not one of them. And, at almost 30, does he fit the Flyers’ timeline?
    Mike Sielski: The Flyers are interested in star center Dylan Larkin. Can Danny Brière get him?
    • John Carlson is a name that has been tossed around as a perfect fit for the Flyers, specifically to help the power play. The Anaheim Ducks are currently on the clock to try to re-sign the defenseman whom they acquired at the trade deadline. He would prefer to come back east if that does not happen. However, at 36, he also wants to win another Cup before his career is done, and the Flyers are not in a position to do so next season. Could there still be a match?
    • The chatter that a contract extension has already been all but inked may have been a little premature for goalie Dan Vladař. Both sides want to get it done, but it doesn’t sound like anything is set in stone. They met this past week to get the ball rolling and, as a reminder, Vladař cannot sign until July 1.
    • Brière was also spotted chatting with Seattle Kraken general manager Jason Botterill. Shane Wright has been a hot topic these days as a possible solution to the Flyers’ need at center, as has Matty Beniers. But multiple reports have indicated that the ask for Wright, a 22-year-old center, is high and there is no indication that Beniers is available.
    Alexander Command could be available when the Flyers select at No. 21 in the first round.Jackie Spiegel

    Breakaways

    Hermansson’s older brother, Simon, a former hockey player, was the leading man for “The Bachelor” in Sweden in 2019 (check out his picture on Elite Prospects for proof). The younger Hermansson did not watch and, if given the option, he would not go on the show today. … The Montreal Canadiens upped their game of weird questions by making prospects decide how far back they wanted to throw a puck into a garbage can. Don’t recall a single player saying they got it in the basket. Like last year, they asked players what animal are they on the ice? Lemire had the best answer: “I’m a grizzly bear on the ice. I like to be that horse, that big body, and yeah, can’t really stop a grizzly bear going top speed.” Montreal also asked questions like, what type of boot would you be, would you kill someone you’re in the desert with if they had the only water bottle, and if you were the captain of a destroyer during World War II and had to sink a submarine but it meant killing 10 of your crew members who fell overboard, what would you do? “Oh, I killed them,” revealed Gustafsson. … Asked Suvanto what he knows about Philadelphia, “Obviously, Rocky is from that city. … Big rivalry with the Penguins. … they got Trevor Zegras, good talented player, a lot of young great players so I think they’ve got good future ahead of them.” He’ll also listen to Linkin Park’s “Bleed It Out” before games. … How did Oršulák become a goalie? “I hated skating.” … Asked Macbeath if he sees some comparisons between himself and Travis Sanheim, who also played for the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League: “Yeah, I can see it. Elite skater, too.” He’s off to Denver in September. … Villeneuve played competitive soccer as a midfielder growing up and thinks it has helped with his footwork and how he sees the game. … Sam Reinhart’s ears must have been ringing Saturday as several players said he was either a comparable, like Hurlbert and Liam Ruck, or, when asked what is one skill they would want to take from an NHL player, like Hermansson saying he wanted his shot. Of course, several players would steal Connor McDavid’s speed. Aaram-Olsen said he’d steal Tom Wilson’s fighting.

  • Mike Gansey will have one big question to answer as his Sixers tenure begins

    Mike Gansey will have one big question to answer as his Sixers tenure begins

    It is fitting that the Sixers will introduce their new personnel chief on a day that could end with the Knicks one win away from their first NBA championship in 53 years. The last time they held one of these press conferences, the Knicks were coming off their sixth straight season with fewer than 33 wins and heading into a campaign where their starting lineup would include Nerlens Noel and Elfrid Payton.

    By the end of Daryl Morey’s first season as president of basketball operations, the Sixers would have a 15-game winning streak against the Knicks dating back to 2017. Six years later, there’s no better way to measure the organization’s stagnation than against the ascendancy of its closest neighbor.

    In short, the Sixers have selected a heck of a contextual backdrop for Mike Gansey’s first meeting with the Philadelphia media. Not only are the Knicks up 2-0 in the NBA Finals, but they are there with a starting lineup that features four players drafted no earlier than 23rd overall, plus a center whom Joel Embiid once used as his literal and figurative punching bag. Granted, the Knicks were not the team that drafted any of the five. But they also weren’t the team that traded one of them away.

    Mike Gansey is the guy for Bob Myers and the Sixers on paper. But what exactly will that mean in practice?

    The Villanova angle has been well trod. For good reason. It is a remarkable twist of the knife. Less examined are the more painful connections.

    In 2017, the Sixers traded up for Markelle Fultz in a first round where OG Anunoby went at No. 23 and Josh Hart at No. 30. They are two of five players from that year’s draft who participated in this year’s conference finals.

    The following year is the year best known as the one where the Sixers drafted Mikal Bridges at No. 10 and then traded him away for a guy who would play 13 career games. It was also the year where they drafted Landry Shamet seven spots before the Mavericks took Jalen Brunson. The kicker is that Shamet is now on the verge of a ring as a key reserve with the Knicks.

    This exercise is mostly an example of the fun of cherry-picking your hindsight. But there is some level of truth in it. Like Morey, Gansey will be inheriting a team that is largely a function of some consequential missteps in its long ago past. The original vision was to lose a lot of games in the hopes of drafting a homegrown triumvirate like Fultz, Embiid, and Ben Simmons. The Sixers ended up with more chances than they deserved at executing a pivot. Each time — with Bridges and Jimmy Butler, notably — they kicked the ball right back out of bounds.

    Now, somehow, they have another chance.

    Gansey’s hiring comes at a critical time for the Sixers. Somehow, they find themselves at an inflection point that could prove just as critical as those they deflected in the past. Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe are both gifts from forgiving gods. Maxey was selected with the No. 20 overall pick that the Sixers initially traded to the Magic in the Fultz draft and then reacquired by trading a then-floundering Fultz to the Magic. Edgecombe was selected with the No. 3 overall pick that the Sixers landed because of how bad they were in Year 1 of the Paul George/Embiid Era.

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    Monday’s press conference will hopefully be an opportunity to hear Gansey’s response to a question that nobody from the Sixers has yet answered. Bob Myers and Josh Harris took turns dodging it a month ago in the wake of Morey’s firing. They surely posed it during their interview sessions with the former Cavaliers general manager. However much say Gansey ends up having relative to Myers, his hiring is pretty good evidence that their philosophies are all in alignment here at the beginning.

    Where do the Sixers go from here?

    While the futures of Embiid and George are clearly the biggest variables, they also might be beside the point. There is only one answer. Their future is here, with the Sixers. Each of their contracts renders impossible a mutually beneficial trade, at least for next year. Gansey’s real challenge is how to factor that reality into his attempts to build around Maxey and Edgecombe.

    Maybe that is giving him and the Sixers too much credit. I suppose there is a chance he comes out and says he sees a roster that is built to win now, that Embiid is still the centerpiece of this team and George is still a fine championship-caliber starter. I suppose he could look at the No. 22 pick in this year’s draft and the Sixers’ relative wealth in future drafts and see mostly the capital it would take to add a win-now player to George, Embiid, Edgecombe, and Maxey.

    But I doubt it.

    Josh Harris and Bob Myers meet with the media at the 76ers Training Complex on May 14.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    If that was a philosophy Myers and Harris agreed with, they wouldn’t have had a reason to part ways with Morey. The change at the top only made sense if they sought a change in vision. Let’s hope we hear Gansey articulate that vision.

    There are lots of different ways to build a championship contender. There are lots of different timelines. The Knicks remade their entire roster from scratch in the span of a couple of seasons, but they built a team so sensible that it feels like it was drafted and developed together. The Spurs hit on three top-five draft picks in Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper.

    In the push-pull between present and future, how much will the Sixers value players who make them a better team now vs. players who might make them the team they’ll need three years from now? Gansey’s first task as president of basketball operations is to sell his fan base on that vision.

  • Daryl Morey teams up with Philly-born chess master Jennifer Shahade at Rittenhouse Chess Club’s charity tournament

    Daryl Morey teams up with Philly-born chess master Jennifer Shahade at Rittenhouse Chess Club’s charity tournament

    There were two kinds of GMs on hand at Rittenhouse Chess’ charity tournament at Queen & Rook Game Cafe on Sunday afternoon.

    Former 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and Philly-born Woman Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade both attended the event, which drew 64 players from across the city.

    Despite parting ways with the Sixers after the team was swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Knicks, Morey kept his promise to show up for Rittenhouse Chess Club’s Charity Blitz Tournament.

    Daryl Morey made some poor decisions, but was he simply a victim of the Sixers’ circumstances?

    “[It is] very cool of him to still come here after not being with the Sixers,” Zach Pepsin, one of the event’s organizers, said. “He definitely loves chess, and it’s a cool thing to do for charity.”

    Pepsin said that through the tournament’s $30 entrance fee and raffle, Rittenhouse Chess will able to donate more than 100 chess boards to local organizations, including the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Ronald McDonald House and After School Activities Partnerships, among others.

    Morey makes moves

    Pepsin, a 32-year-old software designer, has been an active member of Rittenhouse Chess since it started in 2021. The club, which meets twice a week, on Wednesday and Sunday in Rittenhouse Square, runs occasional tournaments, including one in February at the Brauhaus Schmitz restaurant.

    Pepsin was not organizing that tournament, but he asked to see the list of entrants to see which of his friends he could expect to see. Instead, Pepsin spotted Morey’s name among the registered players.

    “No one else who runs Rittenhouse has any idea who Daryl Morey is,” Pepsin said. “I’m a huge Sixers fan. I’ve had season tickets for over 10 years now. When I saw his name, I thought it was a joke. I was like, ‘Oh, who put his name on here?’ They had no idea who he was. It turned out it was real, and he just wanted to play some chess.”

    Morey missed out on the tournament in February, as the Sixers were in the midst of a three-game road trip, but for Pepsin, the executive’s sign-up was kismet. Pepsin was planning to reach out to Morey, whose love for chess is documented through interviews and a bot on chess.com, to see if Morey would be interested in helping Rittenhouse with a charity event after basketball season.

    Pepsin reached out to Morey, and the executive agreed to come for the club’s tournament in June. There were concerns among the organizers that Morey’s dismissal from the Sixers in May would change his plans for the summer, but Morey remained committed to the tournament.

    Daryl Morey was hired by the Sixers as president of basketball operations back in 2020.Isaiah Vazquez / For The Inquirer

    Morey declined to speak with media at the event, but he found his way to Queen & Rook as the tournament was entering its final round.

    He played alongside Shahade in a “hand and brain” team game against two of the tournament’s top performers. Shahade, playing as the brain, told Morey which piece to move, while Morey, the hand, had to decide where to move the piece Shahade selected. Morey and Shahade lost the match after their 10-minute timer ran out.

    Shahade plays simultaneous exhibition

    Shahade and Morey are friends, having met at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Shahade, who became a Woman Grandmaster in 2005, has attended the conference each year since 2021 and has spoken at the conference multiple times about chess and poker, which she also plays professionally.

    “I’ve known [Morey] for a long time,” Shahade said. “He’s a pretty good chess player. He’s especially good with strategy.”

    Shahade, who drops into Rittenhouse Chess meetups monthly, also played in a simultaneous exhibition against five players at once. The players were selected as part of the raffle, which also included five copies of Shahade’s latest book, Thinking Sideways. Shahade beat four of her opponents in the timed exhibition.

    Jennifer Shahade (center) is a three-time National Chess champion.Isaiah Vazquez / For The Inquirer

    Shahade said seeing organized tournaments and club meetings across the city is a testament to the game’s ability to bring people together in a time when isolation is becoming more common.

    “Ever since the pandemic, there’s been a huge hunger [for chess],” Shahade said. “But there’s also been hunger around board games in general, churches, synagogues. There’s real interest in people getting offline and meeting each other in real life. I think you see that in chess.”

    Shahade said she expects the interest around chess and other face-to-face games to increase as the role of artificial intelligence expands in people’s daily lives.

    “Now, not only are you not necessarily talking to someone you might be friends with, you’re probably not even talking to a person at all,” Shahade said. “I think that’s just making people crave the real-life interactions even more.”

    Sixty-four players competed in the Charity Blitz Tournament.Isaiah Vazquez / For The Inquirer

    Chess in the Square

    Andrew Graham, 31, started Rittenhouse Chess in 2021 to try to meet new people in a new city. Graham moved to Philadelphia from Cheyenne, Wyo.

    “I didn’t know anybody,” said Graham, who works as a data scientist for PECO. “I wasn’t that into chess, but I needed activities to meet people. So, I picked chess.”

    Graham looked for a preexisting chess club, but the city’s most prominent club, the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club, closed during the pandemic. So Graham set out to start his own club, bringing a board with him to Rittenhouse Square and waiting for passersby to come over and play.

    “I started making friends, and some people started to return,” Graham said. “Slowly, it picks up, and then over the course of two months it picked up pretty good.”

    Andrew Graham (right) started the Rittenhouse Chess Club. He runs it alongside Helen Sdao, Sarah Court, and Zach Pepsin.Isaiah Vazquez / For The Inquirer

    Sarah Court, a 27-year-old freelance artist, claims to be the club’s second member, as she walked up and played Graham in the club’s early days.

    “It was just Andrew out there, and I walked out and played with him,” Court said.

    Court, who does artwork for the club’s social media and merchandise, helped run the tournament on Sunday.

    Now, a handful of people come together every Wednesday and Sunday to play in Rittenhouse Square, one person on each side of the wall that surrounds the center of the square.

    Roughly 100 people came to Sunday’s tournament, and the 64 players came from the vibrant chess community around the city, including players from South Philly Chess and Capitolo Chess Club, among others.

  • Duke Lacroix’s soccer career has taken him from Penn to Haiti’s World Cup team

    Duke Lacroix’s soccer career has taken him from Penn to Haiti’s World Cup team

    Here is another of the kind of story that the World Cup is so good at creating.

    Fifteen years ago, Markhus “Duke” Lacroix arrived at Penn from New Egypt, N.J., a small town in Ocean County near Fort Dix. He had 25 goals and 15 assists in 68 games for the Quakers, earning All-Ivy League honors in all four of his varsity seasons.

    He earned a pro career from that, but not in MLS. Instead, he has spent a decade grinding through a series of lower-division American clubs: first in the former North American Soccer League, then in the USL Championship since 2017. His sixth team, the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, has been his home since 2023.

    It’s rare for that resumé to open a door to a national team career. But Haiti, the country of Lacroix’s ancestors, scouted him and offered him an opportunity in 2019. Though it didn’t work then because of passport issues amid the pandemic, he remained interested.

    In 2023, the time was right, and everything came together. Lacroix now has 16 caps for Les Grenadiers as a left back, including five last year in a run to their first men’s World Cup qualification since 1974. He has three goals for the team, including one last Tuesday in a World Cup warmup game vs. New Zealand.

    Earlier this month, he earned a place on Haiti’s tournament squad, meaning a return to Philadelphia is in the works. But it won’t just be to potentially play against mighty Brazil in South Philadelphia.

    Haiti is also expected to use Penn’s Rhodes Field soccer facility as a game-day eve training site, which means Lacroix will get to return to his old college stomping grounds.

    What a way to come full circle.

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    “To be there representing Haiti, part of my identity, part of who my parents are, and my family, friends, loved ones, being Haitian, and to be able to represent that national team is truly special,” he told The Inquirer. “And to be a part of the group that’s got us there, and then have the opportunity to play in the World Cup, is amazing.”

    On a personal level, he said, “It’s a dream. Every professional player who plays this game wants to play in front of the largest crowds, in front of the biggest stadiums, at the highest level, and the World Cup is the epitome of that for this sport.”

    Lacroix also happily embraces the unlikeliness of his path.

    “I think if you were to tell me at the outset upon graduating that this would be kind of the trajectory or a possible destination, I would have chuckled a little bit and been really happy,” he said. “But to make it happen, a lot of things have to go right. Very, very fortunate to be in this position where I’m at now. A lot of people who supported, helped, and guided along the way to make it happen — none of it was explicitly my own.”

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    His sociology degree has come in handy plenty over the years, but it’s especially useful now. The U.S. government’s ban on Haitian citizens entering the country means they can’t come for the World Cup. Even though Haiti has a big diaspora in the U.S. and Canada that will attend (pending the exorbitant ticket prices, of course), the situation matters to Lacroix.

    “A cliché about this in soccer, or sport, is there’s certain things that are bigger than sport, and what we do can be a connector at times, even though it’s such a simple game,” he said. “I think this is a moment where what is being done on the pitch, the sentiment and the support and the sensation from the Haitian fans around what this team has done, has kind of been a unifying and rallying thing for the Haitian country given what is going on, where the World Cup is being hosted, and the restrictions being placed on our supporters and on our people to come and watch the matches.”

    People who watched Lacroix in his youth and college days have enjoyed watching his career since then.

    “I don’t think any of his success and impact, on or off the field, is surprising to those that coached or played around Duke at at any point in his career,” said his Penn coach, Rudy Fuller. “As an undergrad, he was very driven and focused and serious and mature, and it was reflected in our team and the success we had. … There’s no question that we would never have won the Ivy League title and played in the NCAA Tournament [in 2013] and achieved the success we achieved without Duke — his leadership, his impact on the field, and just his overall approach as a human being.”

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    Fuller was happy to “take very little credit” for Lacroix’s success, “because he has really worked hard to develop himself as an athlete, as a leader, as a man, and he’s been paid dividends for that.

    Kevin Nuss of the semipro Ocean City Nor’easters coached Lacroix with the USL League Two club for a few summers during his college years. He recalled a player who “was extremely successful on the field, but I also think set the tone in terms of the type of person that we wanted at the club.”

    Duke Lacroix had 25 goals and 15 assists in 68 games for Penn.Drew Hallowell

    Nuss added that Lacroix plans to visit the current Nor’easters during Haiti’s pre-World Cup training camp at Stockton University in Galloway Township, not far up the road.

    “Kids, especially for us at the Nor’easters, at our academy level, are able to see a guy that went through all of the levels and made it real,” he said. “The fact that it’s Duke is the perfect vessel, the perfect person, the most humble guy that you can walk right up to, shake hands, have a conversation with.”

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    Both coaches also praised Lacroix’s work with the USL Players Association, of which he has been the president for two years.

    So, what about that return to Rhodes Field? It doesn’t look like much, wedged between the Schuylkill Expressway and the Amtrak tracks, but it happens to be the Big 5’s only soccer venue with natural grass. The pitch has been used by a lot of visiting pro teams over the years, from U.S. national squads to David Beckham’s Los Angeles Galaxy back in the day.

    It was no surprise that Penn and the city put the venue forward as a World Cup practice site. But it’s still a long-shot tale that a former Quaker will train there as a tournament player.

    “To walk on that ground again as an international footballer,” Lacroix said, “I’ve been back a couple times, obviously. But to be able to walk back in to wear the Haiti jersey at the same time — the last time I was wearing a jersey was the Penn jersey.”

    Inside Lincoln Financial Field’s transformation into ‘Philadelphia Stadium’ for the World Cup

    He said it will be “a really special, full-circle moment for me,” even compared to the other big one in town.

    “I mean, playing Brazil at Lincoln Financial [Field], few moments will ever elevate above that,” he said. “But on a smaller, personal note, to have that moment back on Penn’s campus will be special.”

  • ⚙️ Kicking into gear | Sports Daily Newsletter

    ⚙️ Kicking into gear | Sports Daily Newsletter

    The World Cup is set to begin later this week, and Philadelphia will host its first match on Sunday. The United States last hosted the men’s FIFA World Cup in 1994, and this year marks the first time that Philadelphia is a host city.

    But why didn’t Philly welcome the World Cup the last time it was here? Well, it was actually up for consideration, thanks to Diane McGraw.

    Before she married Phillies reliever Tug McGraw, Diane led the charge to make Philly and Veterans Stadium a host city for the 1994 World Cup.

    Diane, who went from having no interest in sports to living a life full of them, organized celebrity tennis tournaments and national and international sporting events throughout her career. She eventually found herself atop sports and entertainment commissions in four U.S. cities — Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Louisville, Ky,, and Orlando.

    But her most fulfilling project was one that never came to be. Now, she feels grateful to have played a small part in the largest sporting event in the world coming to Philly.

    — Isabella DiAmore, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

    If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here.

    ❓What game or team are you looking forward to watching in the World Cup? Email us back for a chance to be featured in the newsletter.

    ‘Trying a little too hard’

    Andrew Painter has a 6.21 ERA, 108th among 111 pitchers who have worked at least 55 innings this season.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Sometimes you have to go back to the basics, and for Andrew Painter, that’s as basic as throwing a strike. Eleven starts into his major-league career, Painter has a 6.21 ERA, 108th among 111 pitchers who have worked at least 55 innings this season. It’s not what the Phillies expected from the 23-year-old.

    Meanwhile, interim manager Don Mattingly confirmed that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts asked him to join the National League coaching staff.

    And the Phillies recorded 11 hits in Sunday’s 9-5 series finale win over the White Sox.

    What we’re…

    👕 Wearing: After two years of planning, the U.S. Soccer Federation released its 11X11 World Cup clothing collection in a collaboration with designers from each hosting city.

    🏀 Learning: The Sixers promoted Jameer Nelson, formerly the organization’s assistant general manager, to vice president of basketball operations.

    📖 Reading: James Develin grew up in Gilbertsville, Pa., rooting for the Eagles before defying long odds to play in the NFL with New England. Now he’s selling smoothies down the Shore.

    🤔 Wondering: What advice Kyle Schwarber had to offer to Brandon Marsh and how it’s helped him break through against left-handed pitching.

    Wrapping up NHL combine

    Alexander Command could be available when the Flyers select at No. 21 overall later this month.Jackie Spiegel

    Alexander Command, a Swedish center, could be available when the Flyers select at No. 21 overall in the NHL draft on June 26-27. He finished tied for 11th in the peak power output test that concluded the combine for each player. Also, consensus top pick Gavin McKenna was among those who dominated the testing during the final day of the NHL combine.

    Coming full circle

    Haiti midfielder Duke Lacroix grew up in New Egypt, N.J., and played college soccer at Penn.AFP via Getty Images

    Fifteen years ago, Markhus “Duke” Lacroix arrived at Penn from New Egypt, N.J. He has spent a decade grinding through a series of lower-division American clubs. Earlier this month, he earned a place on Haiti’s tournament squad.

    Now he gets a World Cup trip not just to Philadelphia, but to his old college field.

    And even after a 2-1 loss to Germany in its last Friendly, the United States men’s national team has some momentum going into the World Cup.

    Sports snapshot

    St. John’s pitcher Liam O’Leary hugs his coach. St. John’s is in the NCAA super regionals against host Alabama.St. John's Athletics

    Marcus Hayes’ take

    A.J. Brown (right) hurt the Eagles financially and limited his one-time close friend Jalen Hurts’ on-field options.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer

    Philadelphians generally seem relieved that A.J. Brown’s diva act no longer will be a distraction for a perennial title contender.

    That’s just Brown fatigue. What he has done is no better than what Carson Wentz did five years ago: hamstrung his franchise, dissed the fan base, and hung his teammates out to dry, writes columnist Marcus Hayes.

    We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Alex Coffey, Marcus Hayes, Lochlahn March, Scott Lauber, Jonathan Tannenwald, Jackie Spiegel, Ariel Simpson, Gina Mizell, Brett Friedlander, and Becca O’Reilly.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

    Happy Monday, and thanks for reading. I’ll be back in your inbox with Tuesday’s newsletter. — Bella

  • James Develin faced the Eagles in Super Bowl LII. Now he’s selling smoothies to Birds fans down the Shore.

    James Develin faced the Eagles in Super Bowl LII. Now he’s selling smoothies to Birds fans down the Shore.

    James Develin was raised in Gilbertsville, Pa., on the voice of Merrill Reese and the mystique of Brian Dawkins, “Weapon X.” But in the wake of Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4, 2018, he felt sad.

    There was good reason for this. The fullback was in his sixth season with the New England Patriots. He’d won two Lombardi trophies, in the 2014 and 2016 seasons, and was eager to add a third.

    But the Eagles were a team possessed. They were dominant in the trenches. Bursts of offense came from unlikely contributors. Backup quarterback Nick Foles had the game of his life.

    Develin returned home a few days later to a barrage of clips from the Super Bowl parade. Hoagie shops started selling sandwiches called “Philly Special” and “Philly Philly.”

    Every Wawa had championship T-shirts on display. Develin couldn’t even get his coffee without being reminded of the worst loss of his career.

    “Losing that one … you were so close, and now you know exactly what the Eagles are enjoying,” Develin said. “And you’re home, watching them doing it, right outside your front door. Man, that was tough.”

    Life has gotten easier since then. Develin retired in 2020, but won a third Super Bowl with New England before that. He began to pursue a career in business.

    James Develin, pictured at a news conference days before his Patriots’ Super Bowl LII loss to the Eagles. David Swanson / Staff Photographer

    He and his wife, Jenny, grew up together and decided to stay in the area. They moved to Collegeville and got a place down the Shore. In 2021, Develin purchased Soulberri, a smoothie shop in Brigantine where he was a frequent customer.

    The longtime Patriot is not your typical athlete-turned-entrepreneur. During the summer, he’s at Soulberri every day. When Develin added a location in Ocean City in 2023, it was he and general manager Ryan Bonanni who built it from the ground up.

    Develin handles payroll. He sands and stains mahogany wood benches. He plants flowers and paints walls. There is no task too small for the former fullback.

    “He doesn’t like to sit around,” said Bonanni. “He’s hands on.”

    It has been an interesting and atypical career path, one that is not short on irony. Eight years after Super Bowl LII, Develin is selling açai bowls and dairy-free ice cream to people who actively rooted against him.

    But the former Patriot has embraced this.

    “Every once in a while, someone driving yells, ‘Go Birds,’ or something,” he said. “And it could be anybody. Because 90% of the area is Eagles fans.

    “And I have no qualms with that. I understand what it’s like being an Eagles fan. So I am all for it.”

    James Develin (46) played alongside some of the biggest NFL stars of his era including Rob Gronkowski (87) and Tom Brady (12). Bill Wippert

    From ‘hating’ Tom Brady to becoming teammates

    It was not long ago that Develin was one of those fans.

    He says he can still remember picking up hoagies on Sunday afternoons as 94.1 WIP hummed in the background. Develin’s father, Jim, lived and died with every snap, and passed his unbridled enthusiasm on to his kids.

    James Jr. started following the team in the early 2000s, a successful era of Eagles football. He gravitated to the ruthlessness of Jeremiah Trotter, the dynamism of Brian Westbrook, the passion of Dawkins.

    He also experienced the heartbreak. Develin was 16 years old when the Eagles made it to their second Super Bowl during the 2004 season, against none other than the Patriots. He was in his friend’s basement in Gilbertsville, watching it on a big-screen TV with some neighbors.

    Develin described the aftermath as a “somber scene.”

    “That game was a tough one, because it was somewhat close, and in the end, in typical Eagles fashion, they would just kind of break your heart,” Develin said. “McNabb’s throwing up. T.O comes back on the broken leg. You just wanted them to do it, but they didn’t quite have enough ammo in the gun.”

    He added: “I was hating on Tom Brady and the Patriots so bad.”

    James Develin rooted for the Eagles as a youth in Gilbertsville. courtesy of James Develin

    After graduating from Boyertown High School in 2006, Develin attended Brown University, where he studied mechanical engineering. He played football all four years, primarily as a defensive lineman, and had success — but not enough to attract NFL attention.

    Nevertheless, Develin was itching to stay in the game. The Ivy League alum had few resources to do so. No teams or agents reached out initially; Jim Ulrich of Enter-Sports Management eventually did, in late 2009, and brought Develin on as a client.

    The Cleveland Browns invited him to a tryout ahead of rookie minicamp in the spring of 2010, but he was quickly cut.

    Not long after that, Ulrich reached out to longtime former Cowboys scout Jim Garrett, who lived in Monmouth County, N.J., and was the father of then-Cowboys assistant Jason Garrett. Ulrich asked if Develin could have a workout.

    The Eagles-loving Develin family had mixed feelings about this.

    “I remember my dad making a comment, like, ‘Man, I want you to succeed, I want you to get in the NFL, but if it’s the Cowboys … man, that might be a tough sell,’” Develin recalled.

    But Develin’s first gig in professional football would come not with Dallas but the Yard Dogs of the Arena Football League, a team that paid $200 per week ($400 for active players).

    Develin lasted just over a month, playing in only one game in 2010. Later that year, he tried out for the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League, and earned a spot as a backup fullback, a position he’d never played with regularity.

    The team’s starting fullback developed vertigo, and all of a sudden, the rookie found himself playing every week. NFL teams began to call.

    He bounced around practice squads, from the Cincinnati Bengals in 2010 and 2011, to the Patriots in 2012, before finding a permanent home in New England.

    James Develin would develop into an NFL veteran and win multiple Super Bowls at a position he had never played before becoming a pro. Matt Rourke / AP

    By 2013, Develin was appearing in every game. He was now teammates with the quarterback he derided from a Gilbertsville basement in 2004, and realized that Brady wasn’t a “cry baby,” like he’d originally thought.

    “When I got there in 2012, I was a practice squad guy,” Develin said. “I had a tumultuous journey, playing in two different leagues, changing my position, and doing the whole thing. He didn’t know me from anybody.

    “I could have been there one day, and gone the next. But he gave me the time of day, introduced himself, and said, ‘Hey, we’re happy to have you.’”

    The Patriots re-signed him in the summer of 2015. By 2018, Develin had a Pro Bowl appearance, 81 regular-season games and 10 playoff games behind him.

    When it became apparent that Philadelphia would be his opponent in the Super Bowl, his heart sank.

    “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Develin said. “Do I have to play the team I grew up idolizing?’”

    The Develins had about 30 family members in attendance at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. James was able to get tickets, but so was Jenny, who had a cousin who worked for the Eagles at the time.

    James Develin (46, with future Eagle LeGarrette Blount) played in 97 NFL games (regular season and playoffs) across seven seasons.

    They were not all donning Patriots gear. The fullback estimated that of the group of 30, about 25 people were in green and white. Some tried to be diplomatic.

    “There were a couple cousins who wouldn’t wear Pats stuff, but they didn’t want to wear Eagles stuff to disrespect me, so they’d wear my college jersey,” he said. “The only person to ever wear a Brown University jersey to an NFL game.”

    In the first quarter, after the Eagles went up 3-0, the Patriots started driving down the field. They had second-and-4 from the Eagles’ 8-yard line, and Develin was tasked with blocking Nigel Bradham.

    He’d blocked Bradham before, when Bradham was with the Buffalo Bills, and felt confident he’d be able to do it again. But on this night, the linebacker was more explosive than ever.

    Bradham beat Develin across his face and tackled running back James White for no gain. It’s a moment the Gilbertsville native thinks about often. If he’d made that block, perhaps the Patriots wouldn’t have had to settle for a field goal.

    “Man, if I had just made that block, would it all have been different?” he mused. “Would I have had to sit around and watch Jason Kelce’s Mummers speech for the next two months?

    “It is such a such an Eagles fan thing to happen. I had a front-row seat to them winning their first one, but I’ll never be able to really enjoy it, because it was at my expense.”

    James Develin and his family became business owners in Brigantine and expanded the operation to Ocean City. courtesy of James Develin

    A ‘little haven’ in Brigantine

    After Develin retired in early 2020, he decided to take a year off. He enrolled in business classes through the NFLPA, and eventually ended up working for the players’ trust, as a liaison between the union and its members.

    He and Jenny and their four kids spent the pandemic at their Shore house in Brigantine. They fell in love with the quiet beach town. It wasn’t too congested, even during summer holidays.

    Life was simpler, almost by necessity; Develin said there was “pretty much one of everything” on the island.

    “It became our little haven,” he said. “I just fell in love with the speed of life down there. Even in the winter, going down there, and just the small-town feel.”

    A mutual friend introduced Develin to the owner of Soulberri, Will White, who was looking to sell the business. Develin bought it in October of 2021, and dove right in.

    The cadence was completely different from what Develin was used to. Instead of getting ready for minicamp in the spring, and training camp in the summer, he was now on Soulberri time, figuring out when to apply for a mercantile license, and pay for insurance.

    James Develin (second from right) has rekindled his Eagles fandom despite his Patriots connection. courtesy of James Develin

    But he was a quick study, and made it clear that he was willing to learn. Even before Develin became owner, he had one of Soulberri’s long-tenured employees give him a tutorial.

    She walked him through every station, from washing the dishes, to filling the blender, to topping off the açai bowls. It was a busy weekend, but the former fullback wanted to try a shift himself.

    So he got behind the counter, and worked for a few hours.

    “It was chaotic,” he said. “I didn’t know the recipes, so I felt like I was holding everything up. But I started to get the hang of it.”

    Every now and then, locals will ask if he’s the “football player,” but it doesn’t come up often. And now that Develin is back in the area, he has rekindled his Eagles fandom.

    His kids wear their father’s jersey, but also Dawkins’ and Reggie White’s. They’ve watched “Weapon X” highlights over bowls of cereal.

    Now that Develin has more free time, he is teaching them the unabridged history of the franchise, including “deep cuts” like former quarterbacks Ty and Koy Detmer.

    “So they understand that it wasn’t always the Eagles going to Super Bowls,” he said. “There were a lot of lean years, too. But we’ve had good players, so respect the team and understand what your fanhood means.

    “I loved growing up here. That’s why I came back here. That’s why I want to raise my kids around here. Even though I won a lot of games as a Patriot, I still have a lot of respect and loyalty to this area.”

  • Brandon Marsh sparks Phillies’ offensive surge in 9-5 series finale win over White Sox

    Brandon Marsh sparks Phillies’ offensive surge in 9-5 series finale win over White Sox

    The mural covers the side of a restaurant on a city block in Fishtown. It’s impossible to miss. It also symbolizes promise during this half-decade of Phillies contention.

    And it came to life Sunday.

    It wasn’t only that Brandon Marsh continued a yearlong rise into an All-Star before our very eyes by homering in his third game in a row and leaping to make a catch against the left-field wall.

    No, this time, Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott — the other members of the trio that teammates once dubbed “The Daycare” and inspired the artwork on Frankford Avenue — delivered big fifth-inning hits in a series-winning 9-5 victory over the White Sox in Citizens Bank Park.

    “The best thing about this team,” said backup catcher Rafael Marchán after the Phillies won for the ninth time in 12 games to maintain their hold on a wild card, “is if the big guys can’t do it that day, there’s going to be someone that’s going to find a way to help us win.”

    Marchán might as well have been speaking for himself after homering in the second inning of a seesaw game in which the Phillies led 3-2 and 4-3 but also trailed 2-1 and 5-4.

    But it’s really more about Bohm and Stott. Like Marsh, they were supporting characters who brought youthful energy when this run began in 2022. Now, they bat behind the star trio of Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, and Bryce Harper.

    You might say the Daycare is all grown up.

    Brandon Marsh’s breakthrough no surprise to Kyle Schwarber: He has a ‘high ceiling, and he’s tapping into it’

    Into what, though? Marsh has matured as a core player, perhaps even the Phillies’ most consistent hitter in their season-reviving 26-11 run under interim manager Don Mattingly. He leads the majors with a .338 average and has an .889 OPS.

    Remember when Marsh started only against right-handed pitching? Yeah, that’s a thing of the past. He has been one of the best outfielders in the majors.

    “It seems like now we’re starting to talk about him every day,” Mattingly said. “He’s just swinging the bat, and he continues to swing it. And not only average but power, you know? It’s extra-base hits, he’s driving in runs.”

    Said Marsh: “I don’t know about the power. That was first row, bro.”

    OK, so Marsh’s leadoff homer in the third inning did eke over the fence. But it came on a curveball, and he drove it the other way to left field to restore the lead for the Phillies at 4-3.

    Alec Bohm hits a sixth inning RBI single against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    And if Marsh had plans to go away for a few days in the second week of July, he should probably cancel.

    The All-Star Game is beckoning.

    “I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t on my mind, but I’m really not focused on that,” Marsh said. “I’m really just trying to enjoy right now. I’m just enjoying this moment. I’m really focused on just trying to be present here with these guys and still just be a sponge to my teammates and just keep learning from them and just trying to be the best I can be.

    “But it would be really, really cool to be a part of that group this year, especially here in Philly.”

    Yet while Marsh has ascended to the level the Phillies believed he could reach when they traded for him at the deadline in 2022, Bohm and Stott struggled through much of the first two months of the season.

    What if the Phillies’ most impactful addition was a resurgent Trea Turner? He’s working to make it happen.

    Even now, these were the numbers they carried into the fifth and sixth spots in the batting order entering play Sunday:

    • Bohm: .218 average, seven homers, .624 OPS.
    • Stott: .216 average, six homers, .638 OPS.

    But trailing 5-4 in the fifth inning, Bohm punched a game-tying double the other way to right field before Stott drove in Marsh as the go-ahead run with a single to center field.

    Marsh, Bohm, and Stott combined to go 5-for-10 with three runs and five RBIs.

    And there it was: hope, symbolized by the three players in a 2-year-old mural of the “Daycare.”

    “That whole middle of our order, all really good today,” Mattingly said. “It felt like it was up and down the order today.”

    The Phillies recorded 11 hits, five of which came with runners in scoring position. And they needed it. Aaron Nola lacked his usual control. He walked four batters, three of whom came around to score, and lasted only 4⅓ innings.

    After weeks of being pushed back into contention by otherworldly starting pitching — “If we wouldn’t have won those games, you all would have been asking a lot more questions about the offense,” Mattingly said — the Phillies busted out for 20 runs in the three games against the White Sox. Before this week, they went 13 games without scoring more than four runs in a game.

    It surely helps when it’s more than Schwarber, Harper, and Marsh driving in the runs.

    “We’ve just got to keep this train going,” Marsh said. “It’s been driven by our pitchers. They’ve set the tone for us. And as hitters, we’ve picked it up as well. We’re just trying to give those guys a couple of runs because that’s pretty much all they need.

    “Just trying to do our part so they can do theirs.”

  • Andrew Painter presses for command; Don Mattingly asked to join NL All-Star staff

    Andrew Painter presses for command; Don Mattingly asked to join NL All-Star staff

    The lessons are coming quickly for Andrew Painter in his first major-league season.

    Sometimes, though, it’s as basic as throwing a strike.

    Take, for instance, the first batter Saturday. Painter fell behind in the count and tried to get White Sox leadoff man Sam Antonacci to swing at a fastball above the zone. Instead, Painter hit him, the beginning of a tone-setting three-run rally in an eventual 6-3 Phillies loss.

    What if the Phillies’ most impactful addition was a resurgent Trea Turner? He’s working to make it happen.

    “He beat himself there by trying to command a pitch [in a] 2-1 [count] when I just need you to control the zone and collect a strike and move it to 2-2 on a foul ball,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham said Sunday. “Say that wasn’t commanded as well, but you’re 2-2 now vs. you commanded the heck out of trying to go up and in and you missed two inches left of where you’re trying to go.

    “You need to command the count by throwing strikes, and that, for him, comes first. If you’re ahead in the count, you get to throw to more aggressive locations. He’s trying a little too hard to command perfect locations, which gets him behind, and it’s tough to work back from that on good hitters.”

    Eleven starts into his major-league career, Painter has a 6.21 ERA, 108th among 111 pitchers who have worked at least 55 innings this season.

    It’s not what the Phillies expected from the 23-year-old righty, their most hyped pitching prospect since Cole Hamels.

    Andrew Painter throws against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Most surprising, though, is the ineffectiveness of his fastball. Opponents are batting .390 and slugging 585 on a heater that ranks in the top 75th percentile in average velocity (96.6 mph), according to Statcast.

    Some rival talent evaluators suggest that Painter may be able to amplify his fastball by getting more extension through his delivery. With less time to react, hitters perceive the pitch to be even faster than it is.

    Despite his 6-foot-7 frame, Painter ranks in only the 51st percentile with 6.5 feet of extension. By comparison, 6-7 Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski reaches upwards of 7.5 feet.

    But Cotham is focused on less complicated things.

    “I can sit here and say I don’t necessarily care about extension as a metric,” Cotham said. “I think extension is as important as it is for a person to throw good pitches.”

    Cristopher Sánchez’s scoreless innings streak ends, but not before he made history in Phillies’ 3-2 win

    After the first inning Saturday, in which Painter walked two batters in addition to hitting Antonacci, Cotham said they talked about “trying to let it rip with full belief right down the middle.”

    “If he’s in the zone a little bit more, I’ll take my shot there,” Cotham said. “When he’s at his best, he’s controlling down and up. It’s not just this constant up, kind of noncompetitive miss.

    “Big-league hitters are very good at hitting fastballs, and obviously the fastball’s gotten hit. But there’s a different type of fastball where it’s like, if I have enough stuff behind it, belief behind it, the same pitch that a guy maybe hits out, now he fouls it off.

    “So, I think the path through is not, try harder to be more pinpoint. It’s more belief that I’m good enough, and I need to throw strikes when I need to throw strikes and balls when I need to throw balls.”

    Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly has an offer to serve on the National League coaching staff for the All-Star Game next month.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Star man

    Fan balloting for the All-Star Game got underway only a few days ago, but the Phillies already have one All-Star.

    Interim manager Don Mattingly confirmed that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts asked him to join the National League coaching staff. He deferred comment until MLB announces the staffs, but USA Today reported that Roberts reached out to Mattingly and Cardinals manager Oli Marmol.

    It would be the second time that Mattingly has coached in an All-Star Game. As manager of the Dodgers, he was on then-Giants manager Bruce Bochy’s NL All-Star staff in Cincinnati in 2015.

    Is it finally time for Mike Trout to be traded? The all-in Phillies make too much sense.

    “Any time you can be involved with the All-Star team, obviously it’s an honor,” Mattingly said, “The All-Star Game is a big deal. It’s kind of like an award show almost for MLB, right?”

    Mattingly, hired in January by the Phillies as bench coach, thought his managerial days were over until he was tapped to replace deposed manager Rob Thomson on April 28.

    As a player, Mattingly was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games. His favorite memory: meeting Rod Carew at his first All-Star Game in 1984 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

    “He was kind of the guy I watched as a kid and kind of patterned hitting after, and Rod signed a bat for me and brought it to me,” Mattingly said. “He obviously read something that I talked about it. That was probably my [biggest memory], just making the first one and then having Rod reach out.”

    Extra bases

    Top pitching prospect Gage Wood allowed one run in four walk-free innings Friday night for double-A Reading. He has allowed three runs in 11 innings with 14 strikeouts and one walk in three starts since the Phillies promoted him two levels from low-A to double A. … Cristopher Sánchez (7-2, 1.46 ERA) is scheduled to start at 7:07 p.m. Monday in Toronto against Blue Jays lefty Patrick Corbin (2-2, 3.98).

  • The USMNT has momentum going into the World Cup, even after a loss

    The USMNT has momentum going into the World Cup, even after a loss

    CHICAGO — The big crowd was buzzing, the fireworks were rising, and local legend Jim Cornelison was belting out the national anthem in his famous way.

    But the mood lasted barely 43 seconds after the U.S. men’s soccer team’s last World Cup tuneup kicked off.

    That’s what the clock read when midfielder and longtime locker room leader Tyler Adams tripped up Felix Nmecha just outside the Americans’ 18-yard box. Joshua Kimmich of German club superpower Bayern Munich took the free kick, then Kai Havertz of newly crowned English Premier League champion Arsenal raced past Miles Robinson for an open header past a frozen Matt Freese.

    Just like that, the good vibes were down the drain.

    “I think we all looked at each other and said, ‘Well, it just got a lot more difficult, but we need to battle,’” Adams said.

    “I think instantly, it was frustration,” said left back and fellow locker room leader Antonee Robinson, who scored the equalizer later in the half. “You could see that we don’t know how we’ve let quality players and quality opposition just get a free header in our box — that shouldn’t really be possible.”

    The USMNT falls to Germany, 2-1, in its last game before the World Cup

    U.S. manager Mauricio Pochettino was upset, too. But he quickly realized that he had a measuring-stick moment on his hands, and he started to relish it.

    “I was thinking that we were lucky,” he said. “Because to face a situation — conceding a goal against a team [like] Germany is, with top players, was an amazing challenge for us. To see how we react, how we show character, how we show togetherness, how we start to play under pressure.”

    More than a few recent U.S. teams might have folded. This one, though, took the game right back to the four-time World Cup champions and had the better play for much of the rest of the first half. The payoff came in the 37th, when Antonee Robinson belted in a highlight-reel strike from just outside the 18-yard box.

    “The reaction was amazing, was really positive,” Pochettino said. “And that’s why it’s good, you know, that something not so good happened: to see the reaction and to create that atmosphere that we can deal with this type of situation that we can find in the future, and during the competition in the World Cup.”

    Former Union sporting director Earnie Stewart takes pride in helping build the USMNT’s World Cup team

    Antonee Robinson added: “I think that response shows that when things are going against us, which in tournament football is bound to happen, that we can come back from anything.”

    Germany ended up winning, 2-1; Leroy Sané scored the winner just before both managers started making mass substitutions. For the casual fans just tuning in before the World Cup, the final score might be all that matters. But if you’re one of them, know that many U.S. diehards were pleased with the performance.

    “I don’t think any of us are fazed by playing Germany,” Adams said. “To play a top team like that though, going into the World Cup. I think increased our confidence tenfold. I think for us, we already have a confident team, but to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the world, [it] shows that we’re ready and capable.”

    The stats and the eye test backed that up. The Americans outshot their star-studded opponents, 16-12, with both teams registering four shots on target. Christian Pulisic had a double chance in the 48th minute that he should have converted, and Brenden Aaronson forced a big save out of Oliver Baumann in the 87th.

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    “I don’t think this game is about the result,” Adams said. “This game is about again showing the character, the mindset, what we’re trying to be, what we’re trying to become.”

    Perhaps if the U.S. had tied or pulled off an upset, Adams would have said something different. This was a moment for big-picture thinking, though, and he provided some.

    Germany and Bayern Munich star midfielder Jamal Musiala (center) dribbling between the U.S.’ Malik Tillman (left) and Tyler Adams during the first half.Nam Y. Huh

    “The final product and the result matters next week, obviously first and foremost,” he said. “But that being said, we showed our character. And we showed that we’re able to create a high volume of chances [and] not concede a high volume of chances against a really good team.”

    With all due respect to Paraguay and Australia, the first two teams the U.S. will face at the World Cup, their attacks don’t have the firepower of Germany’s. Havertz scored in the Champions League final the previous weekend, and the starting playmakers behind him were Florian Wirtz of England’s Liverpool, Jamal Musiala of Bayern Munich, and Sané of Turkey’s Galatasaray (and formerly Bayern and England’s Manchester City).

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    If that quartet clicks in the World Cup, they can carry the Mannschaft a long way — including a potential round-of-16 game in Philadelphia, which a lot of local fans hope for.

    The U.S., meanwhile, will have to have everyone clicking to make that round, and to a quarterfinal that is the bar for a successful run. These two warmup games have shown that they can do it, but the requirements are clear.

    U.S. defender Alex Freeman (left), who’s been one of the team’s best players in the last two games, dueling with German counterpart David Raum.Nam Y. Huh

    “We have to do it when it comes down to it for sure, when the World Cup starts and we have the big games,” Pulisic said. ”But it definitely helps us and makes us feel good. I feel like the last performances have been really good and absolutely it should keep us in high spirits.”

    One of them is the return of centerback Chris Richards. Pochettino picked what might be 10/11ths of his World Cup starting lineup on Saturday, with the remaining one, Miles Robinson. It didn’t take long to see how that turned out.

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    Still, the signs are there overall. If they were not, you’d see that said here.

    Now it’s on to California, where the U.S. team’s World Cup base camp opens Monday with the lone open practice of the run in Irvine. The moment really has arrived, and at last, it really feels that way.

  • Before she married Tug, Diane McGraw led Philly’s bid for a World Cup. There was one problem: They wanted the Vet for two months

    Before she married Tug, Diane McGraw led Philly’s bid for a World Cup. There was one problem: They wanted the Vet for two months

    Diane McGraw was never a sports person. As a young girl in Ridley Park, she dreamed of being an actress, and paid far more attention to the film industry than she ever did to the Phillies or Eagles.

    This ethos applied to her day-to-day life, as well. In the late 1960s, McGraw slipped and fell while playing field hockey for Notre Dame High School in Moylan, Pa.

    It would be the end of her short-lived athletic career, but she was unbothered and quickly found a way to occupy her time.

    “I was the athletic rep for my class,” she said, “that helped organize the intramurals.”

    Little did McGraw know, the role would become a precursor to her future profession.

    Over the coming decades, she’d organize celebrity tennis tournaments and national and international sporting events, from NCAA volleyball championships to the Ryder Cup to the MLB All-Star Game.

    As executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress, Diane McGraw (née Hovenkamp-Robertson) was instrumental in trying to bring the 1994 FIFA World Cup to Philadelphia.Courtesy / Diane McGraw

    McGraw would find herself atop sports and entertainment commissions in four U.S. cities — Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Louisville, and Orlando — and in 1995 married longtime Phillies reliever Tug McGraw.

    The aspiring actress went from having no casual interest in sports to living a life full of them. And among her most fulfilling projects was one that never came to be.

    Under McGraw’s leadership, Philadelphia became one of the first major U.S. cities to host international soccer matches throughout the late 1980s and 1990s. They drew well, often with attendance numbers as high as 45,000.

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    In the early 1990s, she was put in charge of Philadelphia’s bid to host the 1994 World Cup. The bid was unsuccessful, but McGraw did prove something in the process.

    Major corporate sponsors like Aramark and Blue Cross helped fund the bid. It was clear that there was local interest in the sport. The timing just wasn’t right.

    Now, it is. As Philadelphia hosts its first World Cup this month, McGraw is grateful to have played a small part.

    “I was thrilled [to hear] that it was coming here,” she said. “Finally. We deserve to have it here. And I’m just sorry we missed out on it back then.”

    A look at materials that became Diane McGraw’s memorabilia from Philly’s 1994 World Cup bid.Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer

    From acting aspirations to a life in sports

    McGraw’s entry into sports was unconventional. After graduating from high school, she worked part-time as a model, which landed her a few appearances on local daytime talk shows.

    In 1977, she moved to New York, determined to fulfill her acting aspirations. McGraw had no job and only a little money, but continued picking up modeling gigs here and there and was eventually hired as a personal assistant to the president of Sassoon Jeans.

    Diane McGraw (right) shows the graphic for Philly’s 1994 bid for the World Cup at Veterans Stadium. Courtesy / Diane McGraw

    Two years later, she left for a position at the Screen Actors Guild, thinking she could parlay it into a career in entertainment. That did not pan out, but the role did open some doors.

    Not long after McGraw began her new job, she attended a networking event at East River Tennis Club. The pros, well aware that the SAG assistant had contacts, asked if she’d be open to organizing a pro-celebrity tennis tournament.

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    It was the first of many sporting events to come. McGraw started her own business, under her maiden name, Robertson Productions — of which she was the only employee — and taught herself everything she could about the industry.

    She began with tennis, but quickly broadened her scope to other sports. This meant spending a lot of time with sponsors, and one day, while on the sidelines of a New York Cosmos game, McGraw had an encounter she’d never forget.

    A small, athletically built man with a warm smile approached her and asked for an autograph. English wasn’t his first language, and McGraw realized that what he actually wanted was her phone number.

    She demurred, giving him the business card for Gaylord’s Restaurant, one of the sponsors of the Cosmos game. The man walked away.

    A few minutes later, Gaylord’s owner, Jati Hoon, returned with the same suitor.

    Diane McGraw with soccer legend Pelé.Courtesy / Diane McGraw

    “He says, ‘Diane, I want you to meet Pelé,’” she recalled. “I had no idea who he was.”

    By that point, McGraw was fairly used to meeting world-class athletes. Through the tennis community, she’d gotten to know John McEnroe and Björn Borg, among other stars of the game.

    But her run-in with the soccer phenom was different, in that it would come to a serendipitous conclusion decades later.

    After a few more years of star-studded galas and tournaments, McGraw married her first husband, Jan Hovenkamp. He was a native of Holland, and the young couple moved to the Netherlands in 1983.

    You don’t need a ticket to experience the World Cup in Philly

    She continued to plan celebrity tennis events, and at one of them, she met the president of AFC Ajax, a professional football club in Amsterdam. He suggested that McGraw bring “real football” to the United States and offered to help provide a team from Holland and Brazil.

    When McGraw returned to Philadelphia in 1986, she kept this in mind and reached out to the general manager of Veterans Stadium about renting it.

    It was a short conversation.

    “He said, ‘Diane, we don’t like soccer here,’” McGraw said. “‘We’re the Philadelphia Eagles. We’re only football.’”

    He directed her to the group that ran Franklin Field, which directed her to the Philadelphia Sports Congress. They agreed to support the project, if McGraw could find the sponsors.

    She did, and in 1989, McGraw brought the first international soccer match to the Delaware Valley. Dubbed the Philadelphia Cup, the game between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. drew 43,000 people and was broadcast on WIP (94.1-FM), which at the time was on AM radio as SportsRadio WIP. (Holland and Brazil were unavailable due to scheduling conflicts).

    The program for the 1989 Philadelphia Cup, which at the time was the first soccer match between the two nations. Courtesy / Diane McGraw

    A year later, in 1990, McGraw organized another match, this time between Sheffield Wednesday and the USMNT. Forty-five thousand fans showed up.

    The two matches netted over $500,000 and earned McGraw a job as executive director of the Philadelphia Sports Congress — as well as a new unofficial title.

    “I ended up becoming the World Cup person,” she said.

    A fortuitous encounter with Pelé

    Because McGraw had successfully convinced two European soccer teams to travel to the City of Brotherly Love, the Sports Congress decided to have her lead their efforts to bid for the 1994 World Cup.

    This was a daunting task, as Philadelphia had never hosted an international soccer tournament. But McGraw felt strongly that they had a case, and not just because of the attendance numbers from the 1989 and 1990 matches.

    The congress had collected data from the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association, which showed that more than 100,000 local families were actively engaged in the sport.

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    McGraw couldn’t offer state-of-the-art facilities. But she did have an audience: a city full of passionate fans, who had shown they’d pack a stadium for events beyond American football.

    It was a grueling process. The Sports Congress had to dole out $250,000 just to submit a bid. Once Philadelphia was approved, McGraw spent the next three years finding sponsors, mapping out hotels and security, as well as transportation and venue options.

    As fate would have it, this role reunited her with a familiar face. In 1991, a group of soccer supporters testified in front of Congress.

    Their goal was to convince the federal government to mint a commemorative coin as a means of fundraising for the World Cup.

    Among those who testified? Pelé.

    Pele, then with the New York Cosmos, waves to the crowd at Veterans Stadium in June 1975.Bill Ingraham

    McGraw reintroduced herself and explained what she was trying to achieve. The three-time World Cup winner was on his way to a dinner, but before he left, he reached for his wallet and gave McGraw a gift.

    It was a four-leaf clover.

    “He said, ‘Diane, I’m going to help you get the World Cup to Philadelphia,’” she said with a laugh. “And then we got out of the car and I never saw him again.”

    For a while, McGraw was optimistic — and not just because she had Pelé on her side.

    The event organizer seemingly had an answer for every problem, even those as granular as the surface the athletes would play on.

    (Astroturf wasn’t going to cut it.)

    “We came up with a formula from a company here in Pennsylvania,” McGraw said. “They were going to grow the grass outside the stadium in trays, and bring it in, and let them fit it together. We had it all planned out.”

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    But there was one quandary she couldn’t solve. FIFA wanted control of the local stadiums for roughly two months. That ruled out the Vet; Major League Baseball was not about to send the Phillies on a road trip for six to eight weeks.

    The congress didn’t have any other location to offer. The bid failed.

    “I’ll never forget sitting in the boardroom of the convention and visitors bureau, with FIFA on the phone, saying, ‘These are our host cities,’” McGraw recalled. “‘We’d like to thank Boston. We’d like to thank so and so.’ They never mentioned Philadelphia.”

    Diane met former Phillies reliever Tug McGraw in 1992. They were married three years later.

    A full-circle moment

    Diane met Tug in 1992. She was in the Sports Congress office, and the former Phillies reliever was picking up tickets for an ice skating event at The Spectrum.

    He invited her to the opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. A day before they were supposed to leave, McGraw gave her a call.

    “He goes, ‘I want to take you out to dinner first so we can have a predate, before our regular date,’” she said. “We went to some restaurant on South Street, just to get to know each other.”

    They were married three years later. Diane’s job took her all over the country — from Florida to California — but Tug accompanied her every step of the way.

    FIFA promised a $1 million gift to Philly to spur ‘legacy’ initiatives. The city is still waiting.

    In 2003, their lives took a devastating turn, when Tug was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died 10 months later at his son’s home in Tennessee. With two teenagers from her previous marriage and a 7-year-old to raise, it was an extremely challenging time.

    But the widow saw it through. She immersed herself in motherhood and work, moving to Kentucky to lead the Louisville Sports Commission before returning to Philadelphia in 2009.

    Now, McGraw plans on enjoying the soccer tournament she almost brought here all those years ago. She isn’t on the host committee, but has found a way to take part in the festivities.

    The organizer will be holding a watch party in South Philly on June 12 to stream the U.S. vs. Paraguay match. All proceeds will go toward the World Peace Project (an initiative McGraw started last year) to fund a youth sports summit in a few months.

    It’s McGraw’s way of giving back. Her life has taken some difficult, unexpected turns, but she is grateful for the journey and will continue to savor it — four-leaf clovers and all.

    “I want to thank Pelé,” McGraw said with a laugh. “Even though it all came [true] 30 years later.”