'Tis the season for Philly fans

By Greg Wiley

Things are about to change in Philadelphia and it has nothing to do with the Feds' investigation into City Hall's pay-to-play contract scandal. Rather, the last week in the Philly sports scene has produced a great deal of excitement and the end result could bring something special.

After a horrid November that saw every in-season Philadelphia team post a losing record, December has started on a positive note, with the teams appearing to be the holiday spirit and giving back to the fans.

The Eagles have put themselves into the playoff race with a pair of wins in the last week, despite missing MVP candidate Donovan McNabb. The Phillies made themselves a serious player in the NL East by acquiring pitcher Freddy Garcia, a move that could lead to more acquisitions by the club that will result in bullpen help and/or protection in the lineup for MVP Ryan Howard.

The Sixers front office received great news when Allen Iverson demanded to be traded and made the correct decision in trying to accommodate the temperamental guard.

And finally, the Flyers...well, forget the Flyers.

The biggest news of last week was Iverson's demand of a trade. Now, if I were Sixers general manager Billy King, the first team I would call is the New York Knicks. The reason, Knicks president/head coach Isiah Thomas is possibly the worst decision-maker in the league. King, who is probably No. 2, might be able to pull off the trade of a decade with Thomas.

The only problem, the Knicks have nothing the Sixers want. A deal with New York would be trading one headache for another. The second team King should call is Boston. For the same reason to make a call to Thomas, Boston's Danny Ainge is another sub-par general manager and he might just give up the ranch for Iverson.

Although, if King is smart (let's pretend he is) he should first call Michael Jordan, a co-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. Jordan's team has a wealth of young talent and getting a player like Emeka Okafor to play power forward and a guard with the skill of Raymond Felton along with whatever it takes to make the money work, just might make sense.

Now, neither of those players are difference makers, but if the Sixers get the first draft pick, put them on the same team with 7-foot-plus center Greg Oden of Ohio State and that's a nice place to start when looking to build a champion.

Let's shift our attention to the Phillies. General manager Pat Gillick stole Garcia from the White Sox during the Winter Meetings in exchange for pitcher Gavin Floyd and pitching prospect Gio Gonzalez. Garcia is a bona fide top-of-the-rotation pitcher and automatically puts the Phillies with the New York Mets as the best teams in the division. For a team that barely missed the playoffs the last two years, the Phillies vaulted into the thick of the pre-season favorites.

Gillick's next call should go to the Padres to inquire about reliever Scott Linebrink or he should continue to pound on Milwaukee's door asking for outfielder Kevin Mench and reliever Derrick Turnbow. Regardless, fans of the Phillies were big winners this past week.

On the gridiron, another Garcia, Jeff, has helped rejuvenate a team that fell on hard times when McNabb went out. Last Monday, he helped rally the team from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Carolina Panthers, 27-24. Then, on Sunday he threw a pair of touchdown passes in the Eagles' 21-19 win over division rival Washington.

At 7-6, the Eagles are on the verge of something unthinkable even just three weeks ago -- the playoffs. Philadelphia sits in the final wild card spot and plays in New Jersey against the Giants next Sunday. A win would do more than move the Eagles ahead of the G-men in the playoff race, it would also give the fans even more faith that the playoffs are for real.

It's too early to tell right now, we are just 11 days into the final month of the year, but all signs so far are positive. If the Eagles keep winning, Gillick gets another bat and arm, and the Sixers ship out Iverson, this could be the first Christmas worth remembering as a whole since Santa Claus got bombarded with snowballs.