http://delcotimes.com/articles/2013/05/20/sports/doc51998f0cd9e88309640900.txt

http://delcotimes.com/articles/2013/05/18/sports/doc5196eafd7cf93299838914.txt

Roy Halladay had athroscopic surgery done on his pitching shoulder Wednesday in Los Angeles.

This, from the Phillies: “Roy had successful shoulder surgery yesterday. He had an arthroscopic evaluation and underwent debridement of his labrum and rotator cuff as well as removal of an inflamed bursa. He'll begin a progressive rehabilitation program and if all goes well, he may possibly begin a throwing program in 6-8 weeks.”

http://delcotimes.com/articles/2013/05/12/sports/doc518f0a83ed5ee872254130.txt

Wayne Hardin always was a Hall of Fame-level football coach.

Now, it is official.

Hardin, who coach Temple to a 14-game winning streak, to a bowl appearance and to 80 wins in 12 years, was elected Tuesday to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Hardin will be officially inducted Dec. 10, in New York.

“He was such an innovator,” said Steve Joachim, the All-Delco quarterback from Haverford High, who won the Maxwell under Hardin in 1974. “He was different than any coach I had ever seen. He really coached to his talent. He really didn't have just a system, where you had to fit in. He took the players he had and built the system around them.”

Hardin twice led Navy a Top 5 rating in the national polls and coached Heisman Trophy winners Roger Staubach and Joe Bellino. But as impressive as his 38-22-2 record was in six years at Annapolis, Hardin accepted and succeeded in a challenge to bring Temple into some measure of national prominence.

There, he went 80-50-3, including a 28-17 victory over California in the 1979 Garden State Bowl in the Meadowlands. The Owls were ranked No. 17 that season.

“Well, I truly look at it this way,” said Hardin, from his winter home in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “When you hear the guys that win the Heisman Trophy say it couldn't happen without their teammates, well this is something that everybody can share. Because getting this award, it wasn't just me doing it. It was the coaches and the athletic director and the doctors and the trainers and the players. They are in this just as well as I am."

Check out the complete coverage of a momentous day for Temple football, along with my column on Joachim's happy reaction, in the Daily Times Wednesday and, as always, on delcotimes.com

Ruben Amaro is joining the Phillies on a road trip to Arizona and San Francisco, something he was planning to do anyway, even before a 14-2 loss to the Miami Marlins Sunday.

What he sees in the next week could --- no, it should --- determine the short-term future of a roster that should not be 14-18, and which should have scored on more than one of their final 23 innings over the weekend against the Marlins.

“I mean, they need to swing the bats better,” Amaro said, after the Phillies fell behind. 9-0, after three innings and were unable to counterpunch. “That's not good enough. But when we are behind the eight ball that much, it is kind of tough to crawl back. But there is no question: We have to swing the bats better.”

They ... have to swing the bats better.

That, they do.

And if they don't, then there must be changes.

But Amaro said he still has confidence in his assembled players. And that could be at least a small hand-tip about his plans ... particularly considering that Charlie Manuel is without a contract past this season.

“I believe in these guys still,” the general manager said. "I think they are good hitters. They are just not hitting very well. They need to do better. For us to be contenders, they have to hit better.”

If not ...


Check out my column on the aging Phillies, their sputtering offense, and Amaro's diminishing patience in the Daily Times Monday and, as always, on delcotimes.com

http://delcotimes.com/articles/2013/05/04/sports/doc518479b681c28022572516.txt