Temple released its men’s and women’s basketball nonconference schedules on Wednesday.
The women’s team opens its 13-game slate at George Mason on Nov. 2, while the men will play 10 of their 14 nonconference games in Philadelphia. Both will host Villanova on Dec. 1.
Here’s a look at the rest of the games.
Women’s schedule
After it’s nonconference opener on Nov. 2, the women’s team returns to the Liacouras Center to host Navy on Nov. 7. George Mason is one of Temple’s three opponents that reached last season’s NCAA Tournament. Temple will also host Ball State on Nov. 24 and face Sweet 16 participant Ole Miss at the West Palm Beach Classic on Dec. 20.
Temple shares a Big 5 pod with La Salle and Villanova. The Owls visit the Explorers on Nov. 11 and host the Wildcats on Dec. 1. Those results will determine whether Temple plays for first, third or fifth place in the Dec. 6 tripleheader at the Palestra. The women’s Big 5 Classic will be held there for the first time during the arena’s 100th anniversary season.
Between its Big 5 games, Temple will visit George Washington on Nov. 17 and host Georgetown on Nov. 22 before facing Ball State two days later. The Georgetown and Ball State matchups give the Owls two home games in three days before they meet with Villanova.
After the Big 5 Classic, Temple hosts Binghamton on Dec. 8, visits St. John’s on Dec. 13 and welcomes Cheyney on Dec. 17. The Owls finish in West Palm Beach, Fla., facing Ole Miss on Dec. 20 and North Dakota State the following day.
Men’s schedule
Six of Temple’s games in Philadelphia are at the Liacouras Center, two are at the Palestra, one is at Xfinity Mobile Arena, and one is on the road at La Salle. Temple opens against Central Connecticut State on Nov. 2 before facing Richmond at the Palestra on Nov. 8 as part of the arena’s 100th anniversary season.
The Owls host Charleston on Nov. 11 and visit La Salle on Nov. 15 for their first Big 5 game. Their first trip outside Philadelphia comes five days later, when they open the three-game Paradise Jam against Middle Tennessee in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Temple will play either Indiana State or Stephen F. Austin next, with its final opponent determined by the tournament results.
Temple returns to the Liacouras Center to face Villanova on Dec. 1. It will be the Wildcats’ first visit to North Broad Street since the 2022-23 season, when the Owls beat Villanova, 68-64. On Dec. 5, Temple will face Drexel, Penn or St. Joe’s in the Big 5 Classic at Xfinity Mobile Arena, depending on the pod results.
The Owls host Cheyney on Dec. 9, bringing together two programs once led by the late John Chaney. He won the 1978 NCAA Division II championship at Cheyney before taking over Temple in 1982. Temple then faces former Atlantic 10 rival St. Bonaventure at the Palestra on Dec. 12, the programs’ first meeting since 2013.
The final home games are against Dartmouth on Dec. 16 and Wright State on Dec. 19. Dartmouth has not faced Temple since the Owls beat Big Green in the 1958 NCAA Tournament on their way to the Final Four. Wright State won the Horizon League regular-season and tournament titles last season. Temple closes its nonconference schedule at Princeton on Dec. 22.
Game times, along with the full American Conference schedules, have yet to be announced.
John Dougherty was for years an unparalleled kingmaker in Philadelphia’s Democratic Party — a charismatic labor leader and fundraiser who helped anoint a generation of future mayors, City Council members, state and federal legislators, judges, and governors.
Some of Dougherty’s key supporters in his clemency push, The Inquirer has learned, included two former Republican congressmen; Dougherty’s lawyer, who once ran as a Republican for mayor and, later, for U.S. Senate; and a onetime candidate for Philadelphia City Council with ties to organized labor, who said he was one of Trump’s earliest local backers.
All had relationships with Dougherty, owing to his years of political activism as head of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — even if his support mostly benefited fellow Democrats.
John Dougherty in 2015 with then-City Councilmember Jim Kenney. The two were childhood friends, and Dougherty helped support Kenney’s successful mayoral campaign.
The former Council candidate, Daniel Pellicciotti, said his efforts to help Dougherty included meeting with Trump at the White House and speaking with him over the phone. Pellicciotti said that he told Trump about the significant health challenges faced by Dougherty’s wife, Cecelia, and that Trump was sympathetic to Dougherty’s situation — and willing to send him home.
“He just said, ‘This is crazy.’ Exact words,” Pellicciotti said. “‘He needs to be home with his wife, taking care of her. Besides, it would be cheaper for the government.’”
Former U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, meanwhile, said he signed a letter to Trump last year and contacted anyone he could “just to try to get this on the president’s radar.”
He said that he had been following Cecelia Dougherty’s health situation closely and that advocating for her husband “became a personal thing for me.” Earlier this year, he attended a court hearing in Reading at which Dougherty begged a judge to be released.
“I’m very thankful that the president had the compassion to put politics aside and do the right thing,” said Barletta, who met Dougherty in the early 2000s as mayor of Hazleton.
President Donald Trump with then-Rep. Lou Barletta in 2018.Keith Srakocic
And Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator who competed against Trump for the GOP’s presidential nomination in 2016, said he “did what he could to be helpful” in supporting Dougherty’s efforts.
“Those two years Dougherty spent in jail away from his wife were probably 20 years because I know how much he loves her and how much he was really hurting,” Santorum said. “So to me, this was the humanitarian thing to do, and I supported it.”
The backing from GOP pols may help explain how Trump — a famously partisan president — ended up granting clemency to a longtime Democrat in one of America’s bluest cities. Trump was soundly defeated in Philadelphia in each of his three elections, and some of Dougherty’s longtime Democratic allies were among his fiercest critics.
The Republican lobbying might also add context to Dougherty’s decision to change his voter registration and join the GOP. Dougherty — long known as Johnny Doc — switched parties not long after being released this month from a federal penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa.
Dougherty has not spoken publicly since his release, and his lawyer, George Bochetto, said Dougherty was focused on caring for his wife.
Bochetto, who ran for Philadelphia mayor in 1999 and U.S. Senate in 2022 — both times as a Republican — generally declined to discuss details about the lobbying effort. He did say he had been in regular communication with White House aides about Cecelia Dougherty’s health challenges, and he called Trump’s decision “a magnificent gesture of compassion.”
The White House press office did not respond to questions about who was involved in advocating for Dougherty. A spokesperson said only that the commutation was granted to let him “care for [his] terminally ill wife.”
Multiple attempts at release
Dougherty and Bochetto had taken several paths to try to secure an early release from his six-year sentence, which began in 2024 after Dougherty was convicted in separate bribery and embezzlement trials.
A few months after Dougherty reported to prison, Bochetto filed emergency motions asking U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl to allow Dougherty to serve the remainder of his term on house arrest so he could be his wife’s primary caretaker.
Schmehl denied those requests twice — including after a hearing in May at which Dougherty testified about how he was the only person who could provide the type of round-the-clock assistance his wife needs. She has long been paralyzed and largely nonverbal after suffering a debilitating brain injury.
John Dougherty in 2024.Steven M. Falk / Staff Photographer
After failing to persuade the judge, Dougherty turned to others in his orbit as the request pivoted toward the White House — where Trump, as president, has wide latitude to commute sentences and grant pardons in federal cases.
But his allies, including Pellicciotti, persisted. A former business agent for the laborers union, he said he was friends with Cecelia Dougherty before he knew her husband, and he has known both for decades.
A former Democrat and nephew of the late Councilmember Francis Rafferty, Pellicciotti ran unsuccessfully for Council in 2003 with backing from Dougherty’s electricians union. He said he switched his registration to Republican when Trump ran for president and backed his 2016 campaign.
“Nobody in Philly was really backing him. I have a lot of respect for him. He don’t forget his friends,” Pellicciotti said.
In addition to their politics, Pellicciotti, 64, of Roxborough, shared something else with Trump: a felony conviction. Pellicciotti pleaded guilty in 2005 to bribing a Philadelphia public official with cash in exchange for obtaining a designation for his demolition company as a woman-owned business.
When Pellicciotti was sentenced to probation and a fine the following year, Dougherty and other union members were in the courtroom to pat him on the back.
That experience with the criminal justice system did not come up in Pellicciotti’s conversations with Trump, however. “I really think it had strictly to do with him doing the right thing for John and Celi,” he said.
Help among friends
Barletta and Santorum declined to provide many details about the depths of their advocacy but agreed that their central motivation was support for Dougherty and his wife.
In addition to Dougherty’s long friendship with Barletta, his ties to Santorum date to 2006, when his former union, Local 98, backed Santorum’s unsuccessful reelection campaign against Democratic challenger Bob Casey.
Santorum said Dougherty was always uncharacteristically gracious about acts that benefited his members — despite the senator’s political affiliation.
“Johnny cared enough that he said, ‘Well, look, this guy has done more for my workers and those families than anybody, and we’re going to support him,’” Santorum said.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum announcing his candidacy for the 2016 presidential race.KEITH SRAKOCIC / Associated Press
Other local figures with ties to Trump who were rumored to have helped Dougherty’s lobbying — such as Philadelphia lawyers Michael van der Veen and William J. Brennan, who represented Trump during his second impeachment trial — declined to say if they were involved.
In any case, Trump made Dougherty’s release official earlier this month. In addition to cutting his prison term short, the commutation erased Dougherty’s obligation to pay about $1.6 million in restitution.
Pellicciotti, for his part, was glad that Trump bestowed mercy on his longtime associate.
“All credit goes to God,” he said. “We did a lot of praying about it.”
Staff writers Gillian McGoldrick and Anna Orso contributed to this article.
The new property will give Hanwha additional locations to make good on its 2025 pledge to invest $5 billion in new docks, cranes, and shipbuilding facilities and hire thousands more workers. That’s all intended to help Hanwha build more ships to turn the money-losing yard profitable.
“It’s about throughput, getting more ships out the door per year, and having the capacity to expand to meet our customer’s future demand,” a Hanwha spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
The 47-year-and-8 month lease, with the option of renewal or purchase at its end, was approved by the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID) at its meeting Tuesday. PAID is managed by the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., a partnership of the city and the regional chamber of commerce.
Hanwha employs close to 2,000 full-time workers at the yard and “intends to grow its Philadelphia workforce, adding up to 5,000 full-time employees” with its new investment, according to a PAID resolution authorizing the lease.
“PIDC has been working closely with Hanwha to support its historic investment in Philadelphia, and this lease represents the next formal step,” PIDC spokesperson Kevin Lessard said in a statement. “It puts nearly 50 acres of Navy Yard land to work for shipbuilding and quality jobs, while we continue investing in the infrastructure that helps every company at the Navy Yard grow.”
Philadelphia maritime manufacturers including Hanwha expect to need thousands more workers as the U.S. expands Navy shipbuilding contracts and subsidizes private shipbuilding in competition with China’s navy and world-leading commercial shipyards. The companies have turned to community colleges, metal-trades union apprenticeship programs, and nonprofits to help train these recruits.
A map shared by PIDC shows Hanwha Philly Shipyard’s expansion plans in the Navy Yard as the company leases another 47 acres of land.Courtesy of PIDC
The Navy Yard properties Hanwha is adding to its footprint include open ground or World War II-era structures that could be demolished and replaced with construction structures, improved piers, parking, and other facilities. Hanwha also plans to move its offices east to the former FS Investments building in the office section of the former naval base.
The new lease includes:
The 28-acre former Navy storage and disposal property under the east bank of the Girard Point Bridge
The marine-railway property and Building 646 on 5.5 acres connecting Hanwha’s main shipyard area to the waterfront
The 5.4-acre field between the southwest tip of Hanwha’s current shipyard and the 28th Street bridge
The 2-acre property including the former Navy Yard steam plant, Building 23, east of Hanwha’s current shipyard offices
A 5.2-acre property including Building 120, formerly a Navy archive, and Building 613, a battery facility, on Langley Avenue north of the Reserve Basin
The 1.5-acre water-tower property at 2001 Constitution Ave. near the current Hanwha shipyard gate.
Rent will be calculated from an initial $4,500 per acre per month, or around $214,000 a month total, rising 2.5% per year, plus taxes and Navy Yard district maintenance expenses. The rent won’t be charged for the first 2½ years.
Hanwha’s properties are interspersed with lots occupied by Rhoads Industries, whose several hundred workers repair ships and build modules for General Dynamics’ Navy nuclear submarines, and which plans to double employment over the next several years. Also occupying parts of the area is the Navy itself, still the neighborhood’s largest employer with over 4,000 civilian and military staff in its offices, propeller foundry, and testing facilities.
Hanwha is currently building the last of five training vessels for the U.S. Maritime Administration and has advanced work on the first of three Aloha-class container ships for the Matson cargo lines that will travel between U.S. Pacific ports and China.
Hanwha has agreed to construct two additional radar-tracking ships for the U.S. government. And the company is pursuing other contracts that could double the yard’s workforce of around 2,500, according to Hanwha officials.
Hanwha has also said it will be ready to build civilian commercial ships in Philadelphia as it seeks to make the yard profitable. The company says it can increase its construction rate to more than 10 ships a year, as it currently builds no more than two per year.
Opera Philadelphia has taken on a new creative partner for its upcoming production of the Gershwin brothers’ rarely performed Let ‘Em Eat Cake. After aJanuaryrun at the Academy of Music, the musical will be presented by New York City Center as part of its “Encores!” series with 15 performances in March, both companies announced Wednesday.
Let ‘Em Eat Cake is a natural fit for Encores!, which specializes in the revival of American musicals. For Opera Philadelphia, where musical theater is more of a novelty, the partnership could open up possibilities for casting, which isn’t yet set.
“I think that because City Center is such an established brand in this world, it could attract certain famous names and people that I don’t have connections to or that might not otherwise consider coming to what is an opera company,” said Opera Philadelphia general director and president Anthony Roth Costanzo.
In this first-ever collaboration between the two arts organizations, the production could be the same in both places, or not — it is yet to be fleshed out — but there will be at least some differences. The orchestra and chorus in Philadelphia will be larger, and the conductor will be different in each city (Corrado Rovaris in Philadelphia, Rob Berman in New York).
Still, for both, director Zack Winokur “will develop the whole concept and idea for the production,” said Costanzo.
Partnering with City Center will yield a “financial benefit” for Opera Philadelphia, he said. “We share costs. We bring in partnership revenue and that helps to cover the costs of what we’re trying to do.”
Let ‘Em Eat Cake, written by George and Ira Gershwin with a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind, premiered on Broadway in 1933 and, despite a memorably melodic score and sharp social and political commentary, hasn’t been heard much since. The story — about a U.S. president who doesn’t accept the election results, establishes a dictatorship, and renovates the White House — was meant at the time as satire.
Opera Philadelphia has never before produced a Broadway show, though it has a strong track record with works that don’t fall into neat categories.
“Somebody said to me the other day, ’Is this an opera or is it a musical?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m not really here to gatekeep opera,’” said Costanzo. “I think it’s storytelling through music, and that’s what opera fundamentally is.”
“Let ‘Em Eat Cake” runs Jan. 29, 30, and 31 at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Sts., operaphila.org; and at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., March 17-28, nycitycenter.org.
Highmark reached an agreement to keep Rothman Orthopaedics in network for Pennsylvania customers of Highmark Blue Shield plans and federal employee health programs after Oct. 1, the two companies said Wednesday.
The Pittsburgh-based insurer had issued a termination notice over the summer, alleging that about a half-dozen Rothman surgeons were abusing a federal process designed to protect patients from unforeseen out-of-network bills.
The dispute centered on the use of out-of-network physician assistants by Rothman surgeons who do not have residents or fellows working for them and need help treating patients.
Highmark said that the practice violated a contract that took effect at the beginning of last year and that the use of arbitration under the federal No Surprises Act generated extraordinarily large payments for the physician assistants.
The physician assistants worked for separate company that Rothman, a practice, had no control over, a Rothman official said earlier this month.
They say bad luck runs in threes. If you’re superstitious, maybe you think Philadelphia is finished with its streak of misfortune.
Strike One: On Sept. 11, the Phillies announced that All-Star lefty Jesús Luzardo had a sore shoulder. He landed on the injured list four days later.
Strike Two: On Sept. 14, the Eagles placed three-time Pro Bowl left guard Landon Dickerson on injured reserve with a bone bruise to his twice-repaired right knee.
Strike Three: In a preseason game Tuesday night, Dan Vladař, the Flyers’ goalie and linchpin, left after absorbing a glancing blow from Bruins forward Tanner Jeannot.
Vladař appeared to take a skate to the back of his right arm, which he also appeared to injure last spring. He was uninterested in retrieving his stick and the Bruins scored. After that, Vladař got his stick back, but he could not manipulate it. Before play resumed, he skated off the ice, bent over in pain.
Did the Flyers’ hopes of relevance skate off with him?
The Flyers have offered no update. Maybe they were shell-shocked. They have every right to be shell-shocked.
After the last 11 days, so do Philly sports fans.
Repercussions
You could argue that losing Vladař is not catastrophic, especially if his absence is brief. The season doesn’t start for a week. The Flyers upgraded their goalie stable in June when they shed Sam Ersson and traded for Joseph Woll, and the rest of the team is pretty good.
If Dan Vladař’s injury is serious, the Flyers will turn to new backup Joseph Woll.David Zalubowski
This is short-sighted.
Vladař was the team MVP last year. At the age of 28, and in his first chance as a full-time starter after four full seasons in the NHL, Vladař, despite being a goalie, was the de facto captain of the team last year. He was its spirit and its soul. He led a team with no power play and a bunch of skittish kids through a wild stretch run, into an unlikely playoff berth, and past the rival Penguins in the franchise’s first series win since 2020.
He might not have been the best Flyer — that was probably defenseman Travis Sanheim if it wasn’t leading scorer Travis Konecny — but he certainly was the most valuable.
Vladař’s absence will be felt more than Dickerson’s, or even Luzardo’s.
After he dealt his first complete-game shutout Sept. 7, “Zeus” had, against all odds, earned the undisputed right to be the Game 1 pitcher in the Phillies’ expected postseason run. This, in a year in which Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez both should get Cy Young Award votes (as should Luzardo).
The ability to sandwich Wheeler — perhaps the best pitcher in Phillies history, when you include playoff effectiveness — between two elite left-handers is the sort of advantage managers dream of. What’s more, the Braves’ trio of Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, and Ozzie Albies are a combined 15-for-73 against Luzardo all time, with 19 strikeouts and only six walks.
The Phillies would have strongly considered starting Jesús Luzardo in Game 1 of the NLDS. Now, they must wait to see if he’s even available.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Luzardo is able to come off the IL on Saturday, and he threw on flat ground for the first time Monday and Tuesday with no immediate ill effects. But a gentle game of catch is wildly different from throwing an adrenalized 97 mph 70 times, off a mound, in a playoff game. If the Phillies use Luzardo at all, it probably won’t be until the end of the NLDS, if they get that far.
Going left-right-left with their starters was the Phillies’ only real hope to beat the likes of the Dodgers, Brewers, or Braves, the latter their most likely opponent as things stand. And while Aaron Nola’s last 10 starts have been encouraging, Acuña (1.037 OPS) and Olson (1.075 OPS) own him.
The Phillies’ bullpen lacks a dependable piece outside of closer Jhoan Duran. The lineup is maddeningly inconsistent, and one-third of it is utterly undependable: the No. 2 spot, with Trea Turner; No. 7, with Brandon Marsh; and No. 8, with J.T. Realmuto.
In 2024, when Saquon Barkley won Offensive Player of the Year with 2,005 rushing yards, more than half of his runs went to the left side, where he averaged 4.0 yards before first contact from a defender. Not coincidentally, Dickerson enjoyed his best season in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus, which, nonetheless, criminally under-graded him, but that’s a different discussion.
The discussion here is: If Dickerson isn’t healthy, then the Eagles’ run game simply won’t work. Not like it did in 2024, when the run game was the chief factor on their path to winning Super Bowl LIX.
Eagles guard Landon Dickerson has suffered a litany of injuries in both college and the pros. His loss is a major hit to the team’s run game.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
It’s only been two games but the Birds are having lots of trouble running the ball. If you subtract Jalen Hurts’ rushing totals, most of which have come on scrambles, they’re averaging 81.5 rushing yards per game. In 2024 they averaged 179.3 rushing yards. In 2025, their rushing average fell by 62.4 yards.
Why? Partly because of injuries all along the line, including the seven-game absence of right tackle Lane Johnson. That was not the entire reason.
In 2025, Dickerson fought through pain in his surgically repaired knees and ankles that was so bad he got stem-cell injections in all four joints in March. He played so badly that sources say he contemplated retirement (which he now denies).
This season, after Dickerson limped through Game 1 with the bone bruise, Cam Jurgens replaced Dickerson at guard in Game 2. Jurgens was, somehow, even worse in Week 2 than Dickerson was in Week 1. To be fair, Jurgens is a former Pro Bowl center with some experience at guard — but at right guard. Jurgens moved from center to guard last game. Fifth-round pick Drew Kendall, in his second year, started at center. It was a mess.
An underlying effect here concerns the play of left tackle Jordan Mailata. He was the best offensive lineman in football in 2024, when, perhaps not coincidentally, Dickerson had his best season playing next to him. Mailata was still very good, though appreciably worse in 2025. So far, he’s playing even worse in 2026.
Does this mean Dickerson made Maliata? Or vice versa? No: It means that the pair of them together is far greater than the sum of the parts.
That pair doesn’t seem likely to reunite any time soon.
Watching Vladař leave Tuesday’s game, he seems like a long-term loss, too.
At least the luxury of time provides hope in both of those situations.
For the Phillies and Zeus, time just might run out.
In his four seasons as an advisor in the Brewers’ front office, Milwaukee has won four consecutive National League Central crowns. This year, the Brew Crew has the best record in baseball and is closing in on the top seed in the NL playoffs.
As the Brewers came to town this week, Klentak, 46, joined Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast, to discuss his time with the Phillies and the Brewers’ success.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the Phillies Extra podcaston Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Q: The Brewers were probably the runner-up in the Tarik Skubal derby at the trade deadline. Can you describe the actuarial exercise of determining the level of risk that you might have been willing to take on for a great pitcher while also being wary of giving up too much?
A: I think just about every general manager, front office person would tell you that in just about every decision you’re making, there is some degree of balancing the present and the future. And how you balance that may differ based on a variety of factors. … For the nature of our market and the way we build our rosters, we typically put a lot of focus on the future because we know that for this franchise to be successful in the way that we have been, the way that we want to be in the future, we need to continue to have that pipeline of young players come into the big leagues year after year. So we know that.
Having said that, we very much recognized that this was somewhat of a unique year for us, given where we were in the standings, given the construction of our roster, given the strength of the farm system, and given how hard it is to reach the World Series and win the World Series. We did recognize that … and that’s frankly the reason that we went right down to the wire in the trade discussions for Tarik Skubal.
Why the Tigers opted to go with a different package of players vs. ours vs. any other teams, we may never know the answer to that. Was it frustrating in the moment? Sure. The thing was, in looking back on it, it was actually helpful for us was that trade took place several days before the actual [Aug. 3] deadline, so we had time to recover and pivot, and we ended up making the trade with the Cardinals [for starter Dustin May], making a trade with the Rockies [for reliever Antonio Senzatela]. We did a few things afterwards, not to add Tarik Skubal but to bolster our pitching in other ways. … But I think there are some years where it calls for a little bit more aggression and maybe a little bit more focus on the present. And there are other times when it probably is not as prudent to sink a lot of resources into the present and make sure you’re protecting your future a little bit, and that’s going to change from year to year.
Matt Klentak spent five years as Phillies general manager.
Q: As the Phillies close in on a fifth year in a row in the playoffs, I wonder how you feel about the success that they have, and whether you feel at all a part of that?
A: With each passing year, there are fewer and fewer players on the roster that I overlapped with. … I was in Pittsburgh for our clincher and ended up running into [reliever] JoJo Romero and spending a bunch of time with JoJo Romero, who was drafted when I was with the Phillies and came up. So, there are still quite a few players throughout the league from my Phillies time.
But yeah, there’s only whatever a small handful that are still on the club. Mostly, I’m happy for that group, that specific group of players you’re talking about, but also for the organization. Because that was always the goal was to build something that would … be good and that would stay good for a long time. And I happened to be a part of the first part of that, helping to build the roster and I’m not there now as the sustained winning has taken place over the last few years. But I’m just happy that has worked out as well as it has for the players, some of whom have really seen their careers advance to another level, which has been great. But also for ownership and fans and all the people in the front office that I worked with that are still there. It’s a hell of a lot more fun to win than to go through the rebuild like we did for a few years, and I’m glad for the organization that everybody’s getting to enjoy these winning seasons like this.
One of Matt Klentak’s best moves with the Phillies was trading for an unheralded pitching prospect named Cristopher Sánchez.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Q: Is the Zack Wheeler signing and the Cristopher Sánchez trade the two moves that you are most proud of from your time with the Phillies?
A: I appreciate you calling out the good ones and casually omitting some of the ones that didn’t work out. Any time whether you’re sitting in the GM chair in Philly or more of an advisory chair like I am in Milwaukee, but any time that we make decisions, you’re trying to use the information you have to make the best decision you can in the moment based on the information and the resources that you have. So, in virtually all instances, whether the transaction works out really well or OK or not well at all, in the moment, you probably felt good about making the decision. And I would say that about those two transactions you brought up. … They themselves were very different transactions. Wheeler was [$118 million] free-agent signing, which was not one of the bigger free-agent signings in that offseason. There were some bigger ones for sure, but nonetheless, $100 million for a pitcher is still a big investment.
Whereas Sánchez was a pretty unrecognizable name outside of the scouting community. He was not on top 100 lists, and neither was Curtis Mead, who we traded for Sánchez. So they were very different in terms of profile. These were two very different types of transactions.
Video: Matt Klentak breaks down how the Phillies acquired Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez
… Wheeler had been in the big leagues for six years. A few of those were injury years, but he had been in the big leagues. He had more of a track record, but the prevailing thought was that there was more in that tank. We hadn’t quite seen him peak yet, and maybe because he had missed the amount of time that he had with injury, that maybe there are fewer innings on his ledger, and there might be more upside there in the future.
And with Sánchez, it was more of taking a chance on a gangly young lefty that doesn’t always know how all the parts are going to fit together. But if you squint, you can see that coming together. And in both cases, give a ton of credit first to the players for their work habits — they’re the ones throwing the pitches. So you always have to start with that. But behind the scenes … I think you have to give a lot of credit to the pitching coaches and analysts and those that are helping these players through, in Zack’s case, coming off of a … very significant surgery, and in Sanchez’s case, going from a true unknown to one of the best pitchers in the league. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way in both of those journeys, and the support those guys have received from various members of the organization should be recognized as well.
The Lower Merion school board on Tuesday selected a Tredyffrin/Easttown teacher and former Narberth Borough Council member to fill a seat left vacant by a school board member who was arrested.
The board picked Muna Elshakhs from a group of 17 applicants, after interviewing her and fellow applicant Andrea Gosfield during a special meeting Tuesday. The board had selected four candidates to be interviewed Tuesday, but two withdrew their names from consideration before the meeting.
The board did not release their names, or the names of the other candidates who had applied to fill the seat. The position became vacant after Jen Rivera resigned after she was arrested last month on charges of stealing more than $50,000 from her employer.
Some community members accused the board of a lack of transparency in appointing a new member to the term, which runs until December 2027.
“Table this appointment, give the full list of applicants, and enter them into the public record,” Matthew Posey, who is among a group of parents challenging the district over its use of technology, said during public comment Tuesday, as he accused the board of “backroom deliberations.”
District spokesperson Amy Buckman said before Tuesday’s meeting that the eight board members had “individually notified the board secretary of their top choices from among the applicants to be publicly interviewed.” The secretary tallied the selections, and “the applicants with the most selections” were scheduled to be interviewed, Buckman said.
Those who were not selected included at least two people who ran for the Democratic-led board unsuccessfully in 2025: Rich Lester, who ran as a Democrat but was not endorsed by the local Democratic Party, and Deena Pack, who ran as a Republican.
In an interview Tuesday, Lester said he was unsure how board members had made their selections for filling the vacant seat. He said he was told there was no scoring rubric used.
“To have no sort of what we’re looking for is disappointing,” said Lester, who had proposed more accountability and financial analysis from the board.
Pack, who addressed the school board during public comment Tuesday, said she was the only applicant who had received more than 7,000 votes, and had already been scrutinized by community members during the campaign process.
“Should the board change its mind, I’m ready,” she said.
When it was time for the board to nominate candidates, board president Kerry Sautner nominated Pack. But she did not vote for her.
Sautner voted for Elshakhs, as did board vice president Todd Ridky and members Shayna Kalish and Sarah Thomas. Board members Anna Shurak, Juanita Rivera, and Jason Herman voted for Gosfield.
Board member Abby Rubin, who has clashed with board leaders, including around the district’s technology policy, nominated and voted for Lester.
That gave Elshakhs four votes, but five were needed for a majority. The board voted again with the same result.
Elshakhs then withdrew her application, though some board members told her she did not have to do so, and solicitor Kenneth Roos told board members they could still vote for her.
“There’s nothing wrong” with the board’s split, Sautner said, calling the debate “healthy tension.”
“This is a good problem to have,” Ridky said, later adding, “I wish we had more seats to offer tonight.”
Shurak said that Gosfield, a lawyer, had been involved in the district’s equity policy and had children in district schools that were not currently represented by other board members.
Thomas credited Elshakhs’ perspective as a current teacher, though some board members questioned her ability to attend daytime committee meetings given her job. Sautner said the board could be flexible with scheduling.
Shurak ultimately switched her vote to Elshakhs, saying she wanted to respect the majority of the board. Kalish accused Lerner of obstructing the process by continuing to vote for Lester; Lerner said she had a different opinion.
After Elshakhs files a financial statement of interest, she will be sworn in and officially join the board, Roos said.
Nearly a decade ago, seniors asked the pastor of their West Philadelphia church for help.
They were getting older and so weretheir houses, and they needed safe, affordable homes that weren’t such a burden to keep up with. They wanted to stay in their community, too.
In the beginning of this year, on the site of what was once a dilapidated house and vacant lots filled with trash and rodents, the Church of Christian Compassion opened Compassion Senior Living, a new 38-unit subsidized apartment building in Cobbs Creek.
W. Lonnie Herndon, the church’s senior pastor, said the congregation “believe[s] ministry must extend beyond the walls of the church.”
“We’re called not only to preach about love and compassion but to demonstrate it in practical ways that strengthen people’s lives,” he said Tuesday during an event celebrating the building filling with residents.
People gather Tuesday for a grand opening ceremony at the Compassion Senior Living apartment building in Cobbs Creek.Michaelle Bond / Staff
Philadelphia’s 65-and-olderpopulation is growing, and more than a third live below or near the poverty line, according to a 2025 Pew Charitable Trusts report. As housing costs rise, finding an affordable apartment as a senior can be difficult.
Since 2001, the Church of Christian Compassion has owned a 10-unit, market-rate apartment building across from the new development. But the new apartments fill a specific need.
Compassion Senior Living accepts people 62 and older who make between 20% and 60% of the area median income. That’s roughly $17,200 to $51,540 for a single-person household, which most of the building’s residents are. Four apartments are reserved for people who were formerly homeless.
Rents for the complex’s one-bedroom apartments are based on tenants’ income and range from $900 to $1,300.
This is the kitchen in a model unit in the Compassion Senior Living apartment building.Michaelle Bond / Staff
Evelyn Norris, who declined to give her age but said she is older than she looks, moved into her apartment in early August from another West Philadelphia building. She is a member of the Church of Christian Compassion and called the pastor “a jewel” who “looks out for everybody.”
Norris is thrilled to live in a newly constructed buildingwhere residents have formed a tight-knit community. She said everyone’s friendly and keeps an eye on each other.
“This place is wonderful,” she said. “God is all in this.”
More than three in five tenants were already residents of West or Southwest Philadelphia.
That includes Angela Cook-Boyd, also a member of the Church of Christian Compassion, who turns 70 on Sunday. She was tired of climbing the steps at the West Philadelphia house she had been renting and said her legs told her it was time to move to a building for seniors.
She had told the church she was interested in living at the property about five years ago when it was still in the works.
“It was truly worth waiting for,” she said. “It just has been a blessing.”
This is the bathroom in a model unit in the Compassion Senior Living apartment building.Michaelle Bond / Staff
The independent living community cost about $20 million, with millions coming from city, state, and federal funding.
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose 3rd District includes the apartment building, said one of her first meetings after she was elected in 2020 was with the church’s pastors and now-Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia). They talked about the importance of finding funding for the project.
“It is no secret that Cobbs Creek, like many of our neighborhoods, is being gentrified, and our wisest neighbors are the ones being hit the hardest,” Gauthier said. “Our seniors deserve to stay in the communities they’ve called home for decades, the communities that they’ve built into the desirable places that they are today.”
Compassion Senior Living offers on-site social services and plans to partner with a healthcare provider in the future. The building includes a laundromat, a library, a multipurpose room, and a community center. It has a green roof, low-flow faucets, and energy-efficient heating, cooling, and ventilation systems.
Pastor Terrilynn Donnell, who is also the executive director of the church’s community development corporation, the Community of Compassion CDC, called the completion of the senior apartments “a relief” after so many years. She said the church wants to build more homes.
Kendra Brooks, a progressive who made history as the first third-party candidate to win a seat on Philadelphia City Council in 100 years, is considering challenging Mayor Cherelle L. Parker in the spring Democratic primary election, according to two sources familiar with her thinking.
The sources, who were not authorized to speak about the matter publicly and did so on the condition of anonymity, said Brooks is mulling a campaign but has not yet made a decision. She declined to comment Friday.
To run in the Democratic mayoral primary, Brooks would have to resign from her seat on Council. Under state law, she could remain a member of the Working Families Party or switch her party registration to Democrat..
A bid for the mayor’s office would pit Brooks, the de facto leader of the city’s Working Families Party and democratic socialist faction, against Parker, a centrist who has long been aligned with the city’s Democratic Party establishment.
“People want to see leaders fighting for something,” Brooks said at the time, “and right now we don’t see our city fighting for anything.”
Aren Platt, the executive director of the mayor’s political campaign arm, declined to comment.
City Councilmember Kendra Brooks joins Chester Mayor Stefan Roots (right) and protesters at a rally outside City Hall Sept. 17, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Brooks’ supporters see the mayor as potentially vulnerable as progressives have ascended nationally and notched wins over more traditional Democrats. That includes Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s victory last year in New York City and Abdul El-Sayed’s win in the Michigan Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.
Closer to home, the left is emboldened by State Rep. Chris Rabb, who was backed by Brooks’ coalition and in May won the Democratic primary for a seat in Congress representing about half of Philadelphia. He toppled two centrist Democrats who were each supported by party leaders, big donors, and politically powerful labor unions.
Despite the energy on the left, no progressive has officially launched a run for mayor ahead of the May primary election. Shania Bennett, the mayor’s former director of youth engagement, who has never run for office before, said this month that she will challenge Parker. Bennett said recently that she had not yet hired a campaign team or developed a policy platform.
Any challenger to Parker faces significant hurdles. No Philadelphia mayor has lost reelection in modern history, and Parker would be backed by the city’s Democratic Party, which can now spend unlimited amounts of money in coordination with its chosen candidates under a new board of ethics policy.
Parker will also be supported by the deep-pocketed building trades unions that boosted her in the crowded open mayoral primary in 2023.
“We’re going to put all the resources, both financial resources and people resources, to bear to make sure that Mayor Parker has a second term,” said Ryan Boyer, the head of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council. “I want to be clear and vociferous that the Philadelphia Building Trades … are fully and completely behind Cherelle Parker.”
In this March 2025 file photo, City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, left, listens to Mayor Cherelle L. Parker deliver her annual budget address.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
Parker is likely to see support from a super PAC bankrolled by city developers, and she also has her own massive war chest. Her campaign had $1.4 million in the bank as of May, according to the most recent campaign finance paperwork available. Brooks had $17,000 on hand as of her last report in January.
But Brooks, who has won citywide election twice to represent the city as an at-large member of Council, could be a formidable opponent. She is one of the most prominent left-wing politicians in the city, and she is well-known in national progressive circles.
The Working Families Party’s chapter in Pennsylvania recently commissioned a poll that showed Brooks as broadly popular with the city’s Democratic primary electorate but with much lower name recognition than Parker, according to polling documents obtained by The Inquirer.
According to the survey of 900 respondents, 35% said they had a favorable view of Brooks, with just 4% saying they had an unfavorable view. Nearly 40% of respondents said they did not know who Brooks was.
Nearly all of the respondents knew of Parker. Forty-eight percent said they had a favorable view of the mayor, and 40% said they had an unfavorable view. Those findings are similar to a June Suffolk University/Philadelphia Inquirer poll.
Nick Gavio, a spokesperson for the Working Families Party, said in a statement that the organization often conducts polling on public opinion in the city and that the survey was “one test among a battery of others that we conducted in Philadelphia ahead of the 2027 elections.”
“We are pleased that the Working Families Party and Minority Leader Brooks are so popular,” he said, “which we believe reflects our focus on the issues that matter to the working people of this city.”
City Councilmember Kendra Brooks talks with Dominique Howell (right) in chambers as City Council returns for its fall session Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Howell is a long-time constituent and was there with the non-profit Liberty Resources, part of the Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Several other leftist politicians in the city have been rumored to be considering running for mayor against Parker, but none have said publicly that they intend to launch a campaign.
One is District Attorney Larry Krasner, the third-term prosecutor who is one of the most prominent progressive district attorneys in the country. Krasner has been increasingly critical of Parker, and in June said that he would not rule out the possibility of running against her.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the steps Brooks would have to take to run in the Democratic mayoral primary. She could remain a registered member of the Working Families Party or switch her party registration.
