Trends Reviews and Recaps

Listening to the Phillies on the radio in this city is cause for mental conflict.

The games, you see, are carried on WPHT, 1210 AM, a CBS station that calls itself "The Big Talker."

And though the game-time coverage is well done, with excellent commentary, and while I like their in-house promo ads, those with the woman with the cool voice who chimes in, "W-P-H-T -- Phil . . . A . . . Del . . . Phia," listening in is a pact with the devil.

In exchange for all this, you see, one must endure incessant hype touting the station's daytime gasbags, Michael Smerconish, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc., ad nauseum.

It's almost too much to bear, especially when the team isn't performing up to its collective ability -- as they aren't tonight, so far anyway, even though slacker Pat Burrell is sitting, deservedly, on the bench.