SoxandPhils TV

There were a couple of SoxandPhils nuggets pertaining to mindless TV in today's papers.

Someone tipped off Paul Hagen that former Phillies third base coach Steve Smith is on The Amazing Race. We had heard about that a while ago.

I guess I knew that Clay Buchholz was engaged to a starlet, but I didn't know she was one of the briefcase holders on Deal or No Deal. Is that show even on anymore?

Young Clay married the game show model, Lindsay Clubine, in November. Congrats to the couple. Just learn a lesson from the Hamels: no births during the playoffs.

Speaking of Cole Hamels and Heidi Strobel (Survivor), what's the deal with SoxandPhils pitchers marrying TV chickies? There's also Kyle Kendrick, who is engaged to Survivor's Stephanie LaGrossa.

By the way, given my affinity for '80s cheese, I should point out that all Survivor references are to the TV show, not the band.

[Photo credit: sonsofsamhorn.net]

They're golden

And the awards are starting to roll in for the World Champions.

A day after he was named the best-fielding shortstop in baseball by a stats group led by Bill James (Derek Jeter was named the worst), Jimmy Rollins today won his second consecutive Gold Glove award. Shane Victorino was awarded his first Gold Glove. Congratulations to them.

But guess who didn't win an award this year? Why, that would be Aaron Rowand! Man, sucks to be him. Leave a team, and then they win the World Series and retain the award you won last year. I'm glad that players such as J-Roll and Victorino stepped up this year to end all of that nonsensical chatter about the Phillies not having the same fire and drive without Rowand. I think they managed just fine without him.

Personnel move: The Phillies fired third base coach Steve Smith. I agree with this article that Smith's bad base-running decisions fell off the radar as the Phillies started to win and the pennant race heated up. But he definitely made some boneheaded moves, and he wasn't well-liked by the fans. Turns out that Charlie Manuel didn't like him too much either. It was Manuel's decision to fire him.

[Photo credit: Reuters]