An 83-year-old woman sitting on the steps in front of her house was wounded by stray gunfire from what police believe was a shootout early Wednesday evening in North Philadelphia, police said.
The woman was struck twice in the torso from two bullets around 5:15 p.m. on the 2300 block of North Gratz Street, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.
She was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.
Police found more than 40 spent shell casings at the scene fired from two different-caliber firearms, Small said.
Nearby on Gratz Street, police found an empty sedan crashed into a light pole with its engine still running and a handgun inside, Small said.
Video showed a blue Honda Accord heading east on Dauphin Street. It stops and someone gets out and starts shooting, Small said.
It was not clear whom that person was shooting at, Small said.
A shark was captured on video swimming in the flooded streets of Surf City in Ocean County while the region was battered by the nor’easter last weekend.
The video was recorded by Drew Procaccino, 66, an adjunct professor at Rider University, around noon on Saturday as the shark swam past his home, he said in a phone interview.
Procaccino said Surf City was “totally flooded” because of the powerful storm, and he lost internet service for around 48 hours, so he and his wife passed time watching debris float by until his wife noticed something that appeared to be a fish.
Then they realized it might be a shark, he said.
“First one we’ve ever seen in front of our house,” Procaccino said.
At first he shared the video with some news organizations, including ABC News, and then he licensed his video with Storyful, the social media news agency.
ABC News said a marine researcher reviewed the video and identified the animal as a smooth dogfish, which can be found along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Florida.
The smooth dogfish, also known as the dusky smooth-hound or dog shark, on average grow to about 48 inches in length, but have been known to measure up to 5 feet.
Unlike other sharks, the smooth dogfish has flat, blunt teeth for grinding crustaceans and other small prey, rather than sharp teeth for tearing apart animals.
“Hero! Bobby Capri takes off his shoes, jumps into the tidepool, catches a dogfish, and throws it back into the inlet — just in time from it becoming lunch for a very interested seagull,” the state park posted.
ATLANTA — While it may be overly reductive to call baseball the most individual of the team sports, it sure can be the most isolating. That’s true with regard to the physical proximity between teammates on the field of play, and also to the psycho-emotional weight a player must bear when things go awry. In baseball, it is almost always clear where the blame lies.
There was a time in Alec Bohm’s career when he carried more of this baggage than could fit in the overhead bin. Andrew Painter accumulated enough of it in such a short period of time that the Phillies shipped him to the minors without a return ticket. Bryce Harper? He beat a different path to Truist Field and this best-of-three wild-card series. But there he was on Wednesday afternoon, in the seventh inning of a game the Phillies needed to win, making the lonely walk back from the warning track with the slow, confused strides of a man whose misplayed fly ball had just allowed the go-ahead run to score.
It was playoff baseball at its finest, not to mention its most hazardous to a fan’s cardiac health.
It was a showcase: of the razor-thin margins that will determine which of these two teams advances, and of the strengths that once again have the Phillies on the verge of an NLDS berth.
Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper couldn’t catch a ball off the bat of the Braves’ Drake Baldwin in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Mostly, though, Game 2 was a story. First, of failure. Then, of overcoming it.
Whether the story endures is a question that will be decided on Thursday in a decisive Game 3. The winner will move on to face the Dodgers in a best-of-five series. The loser will move on to face the haunting what-ifs of an early offseason.
“I expect them to come out [Thursday] and it to be a similar game,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “Like I said [Tuesday], this is usually what it looks like when these two teams play. So yeah, that’s what’ll happen [Thursday]. We’ll come out and we’ll be ready.”
But if momentum is real, and if adversity is a buoy, the Phillies have to like their chances, whatever the odds say.
“It’s in our DNA,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber said. “We’re not going to quit.”
It was Schwarber who set the redemption arc in motion in the eighth. The Phillies were reeling from what had been a disaster of a seventh inning in the field. After leadoff hitter Sean Murphy drew a walk against a tiring Cristopher Sánchez, Bohm unwisely threw to second on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Ha-Seong Kim instead of taking the out at first.
Kyle Schwarber got the Phillies’ comeback started with a solo home run in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Then, two batters later, Harper misjudged a line drive off the bat of Drake Baldwin and could not secure the catch. The play plated Murphy with the go-ahead run and set up a sacrifice fly by Matt Olson that gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. The lead was brief.
Schwarber took care of the first run, belting a 3-2 pitch from Braves lefty Dylan Lee into the right-center field seats to cut the deficit to one run. That set the stage for Harper, who atoned for his fielding miscue by hitting a 1-1 slider from Lee over the wall in right-center. Bohm, too, would get his chance. First, he needed Painter to take advantage of his own.
Entering the series, interim manager Don Mattingly was murky about his plans for Painter, the one-time top prospect whose first stint in the majors lasted just 14 starts, 11 of them Phillies losses. The rookie had rebounded nicely from his midseason demotion, rediscovering his fastball and his confidence while posting a 3.65 ERA and averaging more than a strikeout per inning in 11 starts down the stretch. But Mattingly entered the postseason planning on using Painter out of the bullpen, something the righty had never previously done. When Schwarber and Harper tied the game at 3 in the top of the eighth, the kid’s time had come.
Six pitches into Painter’s outing, there was a runner on first and he had not thrown a strike. Things changed drastically after a meeting on the mound and a brief pep talk from catcher J.T. Realmuto. Michael Harris II took a called strike and then hit Painter’s 2-1 pitch directly to Bohm, who started and finished a 3-6-3 double play. Murphy then popped up the first pitch to Bohm to end the inning. From six pitches, no strikes, to three pitches, three outs.
After a scoreless ninth from Painter, Bohm gave him the only run he’d need to close out the game. With two out in the top of the 10th, the Phillies corner infielder and soon-to-be-free agent took a ball and then a strike and then drilled a 99 mph fastball from Didier Fuentes over the right-field wall.
“Everybody is fighting for every out, every at-bat,” Mattingly said. “It’s not going to stop.”
Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto celebrates with Andrew Painter after their 4-3 victory in 10 innings over the Braves in Game 2 on Wednesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
This was one of those wins that meant more than the final score, more even than a season prolonged for another day. It was a revelation. The Phillies entered this postseason riding a string of three straight playoffs series defined by failure. Nick Castellanos being thrown out on a sacrifice bunt. Orion Kerkering short-circuiting. The no-show against the Mets. Two straight home losses needing a win to reach the World Series. Once upon a time, this Phillies team had a mojo that forced you to believe, regardless of circumstance, that they would overcome.
In Game 2, they overcame, three individual triumphs stitched together into a collective in that peculiar baseball way. The old saw that says baseball is a game of failure is not entirely correct. It is a game of bouncing back from failure. More often than not, the last team standing is the team that bounces back the best.
Vic Fangio didn’t want to point a finger at any one player for the third-quarter Chicago Bears touchdown Monday night that put the Eagles in a two-score hole during their eventual 27-7 defeat, but he did take the blame for the overall effort.
“I thought our guys were ready to play mentally and physically,” Fangio said Wednesday. “Our details were off a little bit, especially when they were throwing it quick, so that’s on me. Didn’t have them ready to execute better.”
The Eagles weren’t beat up on the ground the way they were vs. Chicago in Week 13 last season, but they didn’t have enough answers to limit 38-year-old third-string quarterback Case Keenum from causing damage in the passing game. The Bears dialed up quick throws and used play action to their advantage, as Keenum threw for 247 yards and two touchdowns while running in for another.
Keenum’s 41-yard touchdown throw to Kalif Raymond was a backbreaker. Raymond was open in the middle of the field with no Eagles defender within 10 yards of him. Cooper DeJean followed Luther Burden III, who motioned to Raymond’s side of the field where Riq Woolen was also lined up. DeJean stayed with Burden and Woolen did not cover Raymond.
“It was between Cooper and Riq, had a miscommunication on that,” Fangio said.
Chicago Bears wide receiver Kalif Raymond’s 41-yard touchdown Monday as a backbreaker.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The coordinator said the fix is correcting it and to “make sure they understand it, which we thought they did,” he said. “That wasn’t an uncommon motion from that team.” Asked what was supposed to happen on the play, Fangio said: “Well, those two guys have to sort it out. I’m not going to point blame.”
DeJean and Zack Baun both mentioned communication being an issue in the locker room after Monday’s game. Asked if there were overarching issues there, Fangio said he thought the players were just talking about that specific play.
But shortly after Fangio spoke in the auditorium at the Jefferson Health Training Complex, DeJean talked to reporters at his locker stall and elaborated a bit.
“I would say our biggest thing right now is there’s not enough talking on the field — between everybody, myself included,” DeJean said. “To the corners, to the safeties, linebackers, everybody just needs to communicate a little bit more so we’re all on the same page. We made too many mistakes that were unforced that shouldn’t happen, that are easy things that we’ve repped many times.
“In this defense, communication is key. There’s a lot of moving parts.”
The Eagles will continue the rotation they used at safety on Monday night, Fangio said Wednesday.
Marcus Epps started the game at safety in the non-base packages next to Andrew Mukuba, but he appeared to be benched after the first Chicago drive for Michael Carter II. Fangio said the plan was to rotate the players, which they did in practice last week.
“Those two guys are still going to man it,” Fangio said.
Is there any rhyme or reason to who is out there and when?
“We’re just kind of rotating them,” Fangio said. “It’s not so much situationally as it is rotating them.”
Eagles safety Marcus Epps has struggled with tackling in the past few games.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The goal, Fangio said, would be for one player to emerge as the obvious starter.
There’s a new body in the defensive backfield in Kenny Moore II, who was signed to the active roster from the practice squad on Tuesday. Moore has primarily been a nickel corner throughout his long NFL career, but the Eagles could try him at safety.
“He’s a down the line possibility maybe,” Fangio said. “He’s really never played safety in his career so that’ll be some heavy lifting for him.”
Fangio did reiterate that there’s no current plan to move DeJean to safety full time.
The first injury report of the week had a bit of news Wednesday night.
The Eagles held a walkthrough on Wednesday that was not open to media. Had they held a regular practice, Baun would have missed it because he is in the concussion protocol. Baun was not on the field for the final Bears drive, but spoke in the locker room after the game.
The full injury report from Wednesday is below:
Did not participate
LB Zack Baun (concussion)
WR Hollywood Brown (ankle)
TE Dallas Goedert (knee)
T Fred Johnson (knee)
RB Will Shipley (foot)
WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring)
Limited participant
LB Jihaad Campbell (knee)
DT Jordan Davis (calf)
DT Moro Ojomo (calf/elbow)
Full participant
RB Tank Bigsby (abdomen)
DT Jalen Carter (wrist)
WR Darius Cooper (knee)
OLB Jonathan Greenard (pectoral)
DT Byron Young (toe)
Jalen Carter’s injury is a hairline fracture
Carter’s wrist injury is a hairline fracture, sources told The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane. Carter has been able to play through the injury with a cast on his right hand, but the injury and having to wear the cast may be limiting his effectiveness.
“Well, it’s a negative,” Fangio said. “There’s no way it can’t be, but to be honest with you, he’s done better than I thought he would with it.”
Jalen Carter has been playing with a hairline fracture in his wrist, sources tell Jeff McLane.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
ATLANTA — Bryce Harper crouched in right field, alone, his glove and hat resting on the grass and who knows what running through his brain.
Come to think of it, what was going on up there?
“I’ll tell you what,” Harper said later Wednesday, “I was thinking about Krew, my son — and what I would say to him in that situation.”
The situation: The go-ahead hit clanged off the top of Harper’s outstretched glove after he misjudged a fly ball in the seventh inning of an elimination game. And now here was Harper — Sports Illustrated cover boy at age 16, face of baseball at 19, perhaps bound to be the Phillies’ G.O.A.T. before he retires, left to process possibly being a goat.
“You make a play like that, and I’m hearing it out there, obviously,” Harper said. “But how quickly can I turn the page and just get past that moment, knowing that I’m still coming up to the plate to hit?”
Indeed, if we’ve learned anything across these last five postseasons, it’s that anything can happen as long as Harper has one more at-bat. And so, three pitches after Kyle Schwarber homered to draw the Phillies to within a run in the eighth inning, Harper blasted a slider into the right-field seats to tie the game.
They won, 4-3 over the rival Braves in Game 2 of the best-of-three wild-card series, and lived to see another day because Alec Bohm banged a 10th-inning homer and rookie Andrew Painter came out of the bullpen for three scoreless innings in his postseason debut.
But Harper was at the center of it all, as he always is, as he has been since he was a 10-year-old hired gun on the travel-ball circuit.
Bryce Harper tied Game 2 of the Phillies’ wildcard series with a solo homer in the eighth inning Wednesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
So, back to that scene in right field, two batters after Harper’s mistake, as the Phillies made the dreaded move of turning to their combusti-bullpen.
Harper thought about Cristopher Sánchez, whom he correctly said “was throwing the crap out of it” for 6⅔ innings. He thought about the 89-mph ball hit by the Braves’ Drake Baldwin — “I thought it was going to be a pop fly, just right at me,” he said — and the potential consequences of a 3-1 deficit against a tough Braves bullpen.
And then, after rookie Alex McFarlane recorded the last out of the inning, Harper made the long jog off the field. Interim manager Don Mattingly, who knows something about big-city baseball stardom, didn’t feel the need to check in with him.
“I never worry about Bryce,” Mattingly said. “He’s been through so much in his life, in his career. I never worry about him handling anything.”
That didn’t stop Sánchez, who slammed his glove in the dugout after coming out of the game but calmed down by the time Harper trudged off the field. The big lefty approached for an impromptu pep talk.
“I don’t really know [why]; it just came out,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “I waited for him on the bench, and I told him he was bound to have a great moment. And he had it.”
The Braves brought in lefty reliever Dylan Lee to face Schwarber and Harper. He didn’t allow a homer to a lefty all season. He faced Schwarber and Harper in the eighth inning of Game 1 and got both of them out.
Schwarber worked the count full before hitting a knee-high slider. Harper jumped on a low-and-in slider that wasn’t low enough.
“I wasn’t not trying to hit a homer,” Harper said. “I can tell you that.”
Bryce Harper misjudged a fly ball that went for a go-ahead double in the seventh inning of Game 2 of the Phillies’ wild-card series Wednesday in Atlanta.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
The Phillies leaped out of the dugout. Sánchez, who was in the trainer’s room, said he “just slammed everything I had close to me.”
Harper’s reaction: Relief? Redemption?
“I think it’s a learning situation, not just for myself but for everybody else as well,” said Harper, 2-for-9 with two RBIs in the two games against the Braves. “Everybody is going to make mistakes at some point, but it’s how you come through in the next situation. It’s not that serious, to tell you the truth. I think people take it very seriously. And don’t get me wrong: I take it serious.
“But I think there’s a mindset, especially for kids nowadays, parents and coaches put so much on kids to have to come through and be great. But for me, it’s how can you learn from each situation that you’re in to come out great in the next one.”
The playoffs tend to bring out Harper’s reflective side. And there is surely a moral to the story of Harper’s Game 2 that goes beyond merely whether the Phillies kept alive their season.
But there are also stakes for Harper in the postseason. He’s nearing the end of his eighth season as the $330 million star of Phillies stars. He has five years left on his contract. He turns 34 in a little more than two weeks.
A work stoppage is looming in two months and may not end for a while. The biological baseball clocks of Harper, Schwarber, Trea Turner, J.T. Realmuto, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and the rest of the core of a $320 million roster is tick, tick, ticking.
And with each postseason that ends short of a parade down Broad Street, their legacies remain incomplete.
In addition to his game-tying home run in the eighth inning, Bryce Harper also hit an RBI single in the first.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
“That’s the one thing on my mantle that’s not there,” Harper said the other day. “Right?”
Right. So, maybe that was going through his mind, too, as he pondered what would’ve been an unimaginable way for the season to end.
Instead, Harper recovered in the only way he knows. And now, the Phillies will have Nola on regular rest and Wheeler on three days’ rest for the decisive Game 3.
“Just a pick-me-up game for me, obviously,” Harper said. “My teammates picking me up in that situation, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Netflix’sA Different World, a reboot of the 1987 NBC original, is what I thought Bel-Air would be. It remains true to the original show’s characters: Whitley (Jasmine Guy) is still an entitled snob, Dwayne (Kadeem Hardison) remains as thoughtful as he is brilliant.
And Dwayne and Whitley’s daughter, Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon), is a delightful blend of her mom’s sense of bougieness and her dad’s altruism. It’s a stone-cold gas that her favorite accessory are flip glasses just like Dwayne Wayne. (It made me want to dig mine out.)
The obvious Philly connection is North Philly’s own Bill Cosby, who created the show in 1987 as spinoff to the immensely popular The Cosby Show. Cosby starred as Huxtable patriarch Cliff Huxtable and father to Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet). In the original A Different World, Denise attended her parents’ alma mater, the storied fictional Virginia-based historically Black school Hillman College.
Alijah Kai Haggins as Rashida Duvall in “A Different World.”Netflix
But there is another more subtle Philly association in Netflix’s version in actress Alijah Kai Haggins, who plays Rashida Duvall, Deborah’s roommate. Rashida’s mother (on the show and in real life) is Tichina Arnold (Martin and The Neighborhood) and, though Haggins grew up in Los Angeles, her dad is Carvin Haggins, the Grammy-award-winning Philly-area producer who has worked with Jill Scott, Jazmine Sullivan, Chris Brown, and Justin Timberlake. Haggins also happens to be Scott’s cousin.
See? Without Philadelphia, we wouldn’t have A Different World — the original or its highly anticipated reboot.
I blew through all 10 episodes of the Different World reboot this weekend and cheered at the return of familiar faces: Whitley, Dwayne, Freddie Brooks (Cree Summer), Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis), Ron (Darryl M. Bell), and Col. Taylor (Glynn Turman).
I swooned at a few new characters, like Coach Bryce Coles (Cliff “Method Man” Smith), a total shout-out to Gen Xers who came of age with the show. It cracks me up to think that during the original show’s run, Smith was in the New York City streets rapping about how dope it was to be M-E-T-H-O-D Man as a star member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
(From left) Dawnn Lewis as Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor, Glynn Turman as Col. Bradford Taylor, Kadeem Hardison as Dwayne in “A Different World.”Netflix
For a few hours, I was back in my New York bedroom as a teenager inspired by my television role models to go to college.
Where did all the time go?
Much like the original A Different World, produced by Debbie Allen— who reprises her role as the school psychologist and like her character of yesteryear, urges students to “relax, relate, and release” — Netflix’s version deals with timely issues.
Allen and showrunner Felicia Pride (Bel-Air and Gray’s Anatomy) deftly handle the current presidential administration’s attack on Black history, rampant mismanagement of funding by university administrators, and what it’s like for this generation of college students to engage with professors and each other after almost two years of COVID-19 lockdown.
This image released by Netflix shows Debbie Allen in a scene from “A Different World.” Uncredited
The three male leads — Cornel Young IV (Shaquille Johnson), Amir Rodale (Jordan Aaron Hall), and Chibuikem Uche (Kojo Achebe) — are much more open about their emotions and sexuality than my peers ever were.
Men who were young in the ’90s — now in their late 40s and 50s — might learn a thing or two from them. For example, Amir is a gay man who is open and honest about his sexuality. If we had such nuanced queer characters in the ’90s, perhaps men wouldn’t have felt the need to hide their sexuality and be on the “down low” and risk their partner’s lives by exposing them to HIV.
Today’s A Different World even addresses Gen Z church girls who are firm in their faith without judging friends who may have different relationships with God. Hazel Henry (Kennedi Reece) is as empathetic as she is passionate about religion.
This image released by Netflix shows Chibuikem Uche, from left, Cornell Young IV, and Jordan Aaron Hall in a scene from “A Different World.” Quantrell Colbert
It’s a great reboot. Despite the rude internet chitchat on how Guy and Summer look older — Duh, they are nearly 60 now — the Philly associations stand out the most to me.
Among others:
Hillman is based off an historically Black college of which Cheyney University is the first in the nation. Again, no Philly, no Hillman, no A Different World.
Jada Pinkett Smith, back in her breakthrough role as the rambunctious Lena James from Baltimore, is a much more sophisticated version of her militant younger self. (No spoilers here.) Smith starred in A Different World years before she made the ultimate West Philly partnership, her marriage to Will Smith.
Maleah Joi Moon as Deborah and Vincent Jamal Hooper as Ellington in “A Different World,” the Netflix reboot.Netflix
My greatest wish is that at some point in Season 2, Patti LaBelle returns as Adele Wayne, Dwayne Wayne’s mother and Deborah’s grandmother. I wonder if Deborah will have replaced Dwayne as her favorite little “chipmunk.”
In response to congressional concerns about a video of Phillies star Bryce Harper that a FanDuel VIP account manager sent to a bettor who had an addiction, a FanDuel executive recently disclosed in a letter to lawmakers that the company has sent approximately 30 similar personalized videos of athletes and entertainers to its customers during the last two years.
“On occasion, FanDuel has arranged a personalized video message, almost always through publicly available services, as a token of appreciation for a customer’s loyalty in choosing FanDuel over its competitors,” Cory Fox, a senior vice president for public policy and sustainability, wrote on Sept. 24.
The videos, Fox said, are not used to “induce customers to continue gambling.”
FanDuel did not name the 30 athletes and entertainers in its letter. The company declined on Wednesday to provide their identities to The Inquirer.
It was the second letter that FanDuel has sent about its business practices to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and U.S. Reps. Paul D. Tonko (D., N.Y.) and Valerie P. Foushee (D., N.C.) since mid-August. The lawmakers had demanded that the company end its VIP program after The Inquirer wrote in July that FanDuel had sent in 2024 a short video greeting from Harper to a bettor from the Philadelphia suburbs who had a gambling addiction.
Blumenthal, Tonko, and Foushee also called on Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association to prohibit players from doing promotional work for gambling entities. Such activity is permitted in the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, as long as players do not encourage betting on baseball.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is among the federal lawmakers who have criticized FanDuel over some of its business practices.Allison Robbert
In response, the players union said it would support banning players from participating in personalized marketing campaigns for VIP programs as part of its next contract.
The legislators pressed FanDuel for additional information about its VIP practices earlier this month, accusing the company of initially providing them with “misleading and incomplete” responses.
Fox said that FanDuel’s VIP program “serves only a small fraction of total FanDuel customers” and is meant to encourage customer loyalty. He noted that the company’s competitors — including federally regulated prediction markets — have similar loyalty programs.
The lawmakers previously alleged that VIP account managers foster “false friendships” with gamblers to entice them to continue betting, and asked whether FanDuel ensures they are not extending predatory offers to problem gamblers.
Fox denied those claims in his response.
He said VIP managers are trained to recognize and report signs of problem gambling — such as a bettor expressing concern about paying bills or making references to harming themselves — and must seek approval before offering customers certain levels of rewards.
The company separately reviews customers’ wagering, deposit, and withdrawal patterns and the amount of time spent on FanDuel’s platform for potential red flags.
“FanDuel’s VIP program is not designed to encourage destructive gambling,” Fox wrote.
A VIP manager obtained a video of Harper, a two-time National League Most Valuable Player, through the video service Cameo, and sent it in November 2024 to Terry Thompson, a Montgomery County resident who lost nearly $2 million on sports bets that he placed with FanDuel and DraftKings beginning in 2020.
Earlier this year, having gambled away the last of his money, Thompson indicated to his therapist that he was planning to die by suicide. He entered a psychiatric facility to be treated for gambling addiction.
When Harper recorded the greeting, he was not aware that Thompson had an addiction, or that FanDuel intended to use the video for business purposes, Harper wrote on Instagram in July.
Fox said if customers indicate that they want to cut back on gambling or shutter their account, the company provides assistance, and does not offer perks to encourage them to reconsider.
“Where the right outcome is closing the account entirely,” Fox wrote, “FanDuel’s VIP Account Managers take that action.”
The Inquirer will continue to report on issues related to the growth of gambling addiction — among teens and adults — across Pennsylvania. If you, or someone you know, would like to speak with a reporter, please contact David Gambacorta or William Bender at dgambacorta@inquirer.com and wbender@inquirer.com
The 76ers’ practice court was empty as the team began to cycle through interviews following their second day of training camp Wednesday afternoon.
Then, a shirtless Jaylen Brown emerged for an individual workout with new assistant coach Phil Handy, plus a player development coach bumping Brown as the All-NBA wing executed post-up moves.
Teammate Tyrese Maxey still used the term “foreign” to describe how it must feel for Brown to be inside the Sixers’ facility.
After spending his first 10 NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics, where he developed into a five-time All-Star and Finals MVP, Brown in July was shockingly traded to the Sixers team he was “trained to hate, probably,” Maxey said. The timing was particularly “crazy,” Maxey said, after the Sixers’ dramatic seven-game, first-round playoff upset of the Celtics less than five months ago.
“I feel like I’ve played against Jaylen so many times,” said Maxey, an All-NBA point guard who is entering his seventh season with the Sixers. “But when you’re with somebody every single day, it’s different.”
Brown is coming off his best individual season, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists while star teammate Jayson Tatum recovered from Achilles surgery. Maxey said he has immediately been impressed with Brown’s communication and willingness to guard the ballhandler. Maxey also called Brown an “awesome cutter,” a valuable skill on a team with several top-notch ballhandlers and shot creators.
And, physically, Maxey called Brown a “freak of nature.”
“He’s just stronger than you,” Maxey said. “He jumps higher than you. He’s faster than you, and he’s very talented. Those are the things that you see every single day.”
Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe will play a key part in his team’s ability to get out in transition. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Asked to clarify if that meant Brown is faster than Maxey — who is regarded as perhaps the NBA’s speediest player — he quipped, “Nah, no chance.”
“I wasn’t talking about me,” Maxey said.
Sixers ready to run
Media attending the Sixers’ first two practices did not get an in-person glimpse of all-time great LeBron James partaking in any team or individual on-court work. But the Sixers’ social media team posted a video clip from Tuesday’s session of a fastbreak that began with the ball in Maxey’s hands, before he kicked it to James, who then found VJ Edgecombe for an alley-oop dunk.
“I was on their team [with the starters], it was so fun to play,” new forward Dean Wade said. “I played against them when they were in that flow, and there was nothing you [could] do. It’s unbelievable.”
The immediate success with — and emphasis on — the transition game is no surprise. Last season, the 41-year-old James led the NBA in fastbreak points (5.7 per game), while Maxey was third (5.5 per game). Brown ranked 14th, at 3.6 per game. And Edgecombe is regarded as one of the league’s more electric athletes.
So coach Nick Nurse already has been sending a consistent message of “pitch it ahead,” Maxey said.
“I dribbled a little bit more [last season] than I probably will this year,” Maxey added. “So I’m just trying to get it ahead, no matter what, or I’m trying to run ahead or I’m trying to figure it out.”
Last season, the Sixers ranked ninth in fastbreak points, at 16.9 per game. Getting into the open court is a way for the team to capitalize on forced turnovers, one of Nurse’s prime defensive philosophies. It also is a way to get easy buckets even while figuring out offensive schemes and roles, now with a loaded roster featuring four players who have been All-Stars and offensive focal points in their careers.
Those open-court opportunities still come with nuance. Maxey said he has spent these early days learning where new teammates want the ball in such scenarios, or who might pull up for a three-pointer.
“And then, at the end of the day, we also have No. 21 [Joel Embiid] trailing in,” Maxey said. “So that’s a pretty good option, too.”
Embiid ‘looks amazing’
The Sixers’ biggest positional question mark entering 2026-27 has been shorthanded at the start of training camp.
Adem Bona, the Sixers’ backup center for most of last season, has been nursing a sprained foot sustained while playing for the Turkish national team during the summer. The 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall, who is on an Exhibit 10 contract and a contender for the team’s final two-way deal, had a hip issue that took him out about midway through Wednesday’s practice, Nurse said.
Not on the injury report? Embiid, a noteworthy tidbit given the former MVP’s injury struggles in recent seasons.
Sixers center Joel Embiid has received credit for coming to training camp in great shape. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Embiid arrived at Monday’s media day noticeably slimmer and said that he was finally able to work on his game during the offseason. Maxey added Wednesday that Embiid, his longest-tenured teammate and close friend, has looked “amazing” — and happy — during initial practices.
“When you’re healthy and you’re happy and you’re at peace with your life and basketball,” Maxey said, “that’s when you’re at your best. He’s been great. He’s Joel.”
There’s a reason they’re called the Fightin’ Phillies.
It took extra baseball to figure out Game 2 of the NL Wild Card series, but the Phillies took it in dramatic fashion with a 4-3, 10-inning win.
Tuesday’s broadcast crew reprised their roles, with the Phillies’ John Krukand Braves’ C.J. Nitkowski as the analysts, Matt Vasgersian back on play-by-play, Joey Votto as the “inside the pitch” analyst, and field reporter Ashley ShahAhmadi.
If the nerves made it hard to watch or you turned it off after the Braves took the lead in the seventh, here’s what you missed on the Phillies broadcast:
Everybody makes mistakes
Things were shaky to start in the booth.
When Alec Bohm came up to bat cleanup for the Phillies in the top of the first, Vasgersian said it was Bryson Stott who was batting fourth.
The original lineup had Stott listed in the fourth spot, but before noon, the lineup was fixed and the pair was flipped. The lineup was shared on social media, but it appears the booth never received the update.
Later, in the top of the thirdVasgersian misspoke again when the Phillies had 5-foot-11, 229-pound slugger Kyle Schwarber at the plate for his second at-bat of the game. Vasgersian, however, said Ha-Seong Kim, a 5-10, 200-pound shortstop for the Braves, was up.
Take a look at Kim and Schwarber side-by-side to get the full effect of that blunder.
Kim was up to start the bottom of the third for the Braves, which makes Vasgersian’s mix-up more understandable, however.
Philadelphia Phillies Trea Turner doubles against the Atlanta Braves in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Trea Turner celebrates in the dugout after scoring in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper hits a RBI single in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez throws in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez throws in the first inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerAtlanta Braves pitcher Tyler Mahle throws against the Philadelphia Phillies in game 2.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford singles in the fourth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies pitching coach Caleb Cotham (right) talks with Cristopher Sanchez with the bases loaded for the Atlanta Braves in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez reacts after getting out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (right) looks on as Atlanta Braves Sean Murphy was safe at second in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper couldn’t catch a ball off the bat of Atlanta Braves catcher Drake Baldwin in the seventh inning of game 2 of the National League Wild Card series in Atlanta, Ga. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez (right) prepares to exit the game after the Atlanta Braves scored two runs in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper pauses in right field during a pitching change in the seventh inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies designated hitter Kyle Schwarber hits a solo homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Bryce Harper hits a solo homer in the eighth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Edmundo Sosa leaves the game in the ninth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner drops his bat and helmet after popping up for the third out in the ninth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm celebrates his solo homer in the tenth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies Andrew Painter pitches against the Atlanta Braves in the tenth inning.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto celebrates their win.Yong Kim / Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm celebrates his solo homer in the tenth inning against the Atlanta Braves in game 2 of the National League Wild Card series in Atlanta, Ga. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Phillies win 4-3.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Another one
While he might have had some mix-ups to start the game, Vasgersian had no problem reminding viewers why he secured the national job, especially when it comes to home run calls.
First came Schwarber’s to make it a 3-2 game, giving us the first of Vasgersian’s back-to-back home run calls.
“Schwarber gets ahold of one,” Vasgersian said. “Acuña doesn’t even give it a look. To the top of the Chop, and Philly has a pulse.”
Then, Harper did the same to tie the game, and Vasgersian’s call matched the previous.
When Bohm followed, Vasgersian got a little too excited for what was a shallow fly ball to the outfield, but he was redeemed in the top of the 10th when Bohm actually hit one out to give the Phillies the go-ahead run.
“Carrying and it’s gone,” Vasgersian said. “Alec Bohm oppo shot.”
The tension and nerves of an elimination game have no impact when you’re John Kruk.
The Phillies analyst had several typical Kruk lines on Wednesday, including when he speculated whether Edmundo Sosa actually knows his name, despite calling him “sir,” or when he said Brandon Marsh was walking “like he just got off a horse,” after he tweaked his hamstring and used a massage gun between innings.
But perhaps the most Kruk line was when the 65-year-old almost dropped some foul language when reminiscing on his own playing days visiting Atlanta.
“I used to love that when we played playoffs here, it was so f…dang loud,” Kruk said. “I almost said a bad word.”
Phillies fans Nate Smith (left) and his wife, Karen Smith, of Cochranville, Pa., celebrate when the Phillies defeated the Braves. The couple, along with hundreds of others, were at Stateside Live! celebrating Flyers opening night on Wednesday in Philadelphia.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Thinking inside the box
Votto served as the Inside the Pitch analyst for both games so far but seemed to be used more frequently in Game 2.
The pitching duel between the Cristopher Sánchez and Tyler Mahle lent itself to more insight from Votto about how batters see the ball and the decision-making that goes on at the plate.
He even gave insight into how shadows late in the game can affect the way batters see the ball, and, as a result, how aggressive or slow they are to respond at the plate.
The broadcast also showed multiple replays from the umpire camera, including Schwarber’s home run, giving viewers a different perspective of the at-bats with how they look from inside the batter’s box.
The series will be decided in Game 3 on Thursday, with the same crew on the broadcast.
Jason and his brother, Travis, recapped Week 3 of the NFL on their New Heights podcast. Jason shared why he’s not too concerned by the Eagles’ loss, before the brothers finished Wednesday’s episode by interviewing actor Jamie Foxx.
Jason said it was a frustrating game to watch for Eagles fans, especially with how Vic Fangio’s defense played, but he’s not too worried. The former Eagles center pointed to outlier games like this in the past, including against the Bears on Black Friday last season and against the Buccaneers two seasons ago.
“I have confidence that they’ll get this rectified,” Jason said. “They have one of the best [defensive] coordinators and defensive minds in football over the last 30, 40 years, however long Vic Fangio has been coaching. But it was a bad performance on Monday night against a really, really good Chicago Bears offense.”
With what Jason called “one of the best offensive lines in football,” featuring Jonah Jackson and Darnell Wright, and confidence from his head coach Ben Johnson, Jason said Keenum could execute the scheme “flawlessly.”
“The scheme is something that, when you’re 38 years old, you’re in the league for a long time,” Jason said. “A lot of the reasons you’re still there is because you know that stuff in and out mentally. So there’s no question that he’s going to be able to execute what Ben Johnson’s going to ask him to do.”
Along with defending the Eagles defense, Jason also defended his outfit choice after wearing a jeff cap for his Monday Night Countdown appearance as a studio analyst.
Despite the comparison to Peaky Blinders characters online and from his brother, Jason stood by the choice.
“Anytime you wear a jeff cap, now you’re impersonating a 1910s person,” Jason said. “People still wear jeff caps. Like, people are aware of this, right? Still a piece of attire.”
Vintage Travis Kelce
The Chiefs improved to 3-0 with a 24-10 win over the Dolphins in Miami on Sunday. And outside of the Florida heat and the struggle to put away the Dolphins in the second half, there wasn’t much else to discuss.
Instead, Jason took the opportunity to acknowledge Travis’ start to the season. Jason said many are wondering if it’s “one of the best starts” of his younger brother’s 14-year career. He included a statistic from Patrick Brennan that said Travis was off to the best start by any receiver his age in NFL history.
He’s also recorded 55 or more receiving yards in each of his first three games of the season for the first time since 2021.
“I’m the best geezer to ever play the game,” Travis said jokingly.
In a brand-new segment called “Heights & Order,” San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk made an appearance on the show to discuss his $14,926 fine for “engaging in offensive demonstrations,” during a celebration.
Juszczyk, who was accused of imitating chugging a beer, has gone by the nickname “juice” for years and has a juice box on his thigh pad, said he was imitating drinking juice.
Jason defended Juszczyk, even if it was a beer celebration, because of the league’s promotion of beer in commercials and partnerships. And while Juszczyk has a hearing scheduled to appeal the fine, it seems the repercussions, including a new nickname to replace “juice,” are going to stick around no matter the outcome.
“It’s been incredible,” Juszczyk said. “I’ve got the chefs in the cafeteria calling me ‘Beer.’ The janitors are, ‘Hey, Beer.’ … They love it. ‘Juice’ is out the window.”
The rest of the Kelces’ conversations with Juszczyk revolved around the fullback position in the NFL, but even after he left, the topic of the rules kept coming up.
When discussing the Eagles game, Jason brought up the unnecessary roughness call on D’Marco Jackson against Jalen Hurts that sent Hurts into the tent for concussion protocol testing. During that time, backup QB Andy Dalton threw an interception in the end zone.
The unnecessary roughness call was offset by a holding penalty by Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson. And Jason had thoughts.
“The fact that a holding call is offsetting with what happened to Jalen on the sideline is pretty crazy to me. Those two shouldn’t be offsetting,” Jason said. “That’s like the equivalent of like, ‘Hey, you got a jaywalking ticket and you’re being charged with aggravated assault. Those offset each other.’”
