Eagles Bye week salute to our loyal fans and contest competitors

If you’re reading here you probably have been a welcome participant in EYE discussions and games for a long time. This is the 11th year of my personal involvement in this thing, but the real call of duty came when Dave Spadaro’s “On The Inside” column at PE.com blew up its original Comments plug-in in the spring of 2011. The Gatekeeper himself G.K. Brizer asked me to run the EYE as a substitute forum for Eagles fan talk until PE.com turned the lights back on with a new comments engine. Unfortunately that process took longer than expected, and when the new “On The Inside” was unveiled, many of its veteran posters found themselves “locked out” from their old identities.

So we hung around here at the EYE.

And life was good…audience ratings were growing worldwide, and even casual fans were tuning into the lively auto-refresh banter (thanks to Livefyre, R.I.P.) as Eagles fans everywhere were getting involved in the daily life adventures of our regular posters as much as they were following the daily struggles of the Philadelphia Eagles franchise.

Then the whip came down on the EYE last year as it was sold by the Bloguin network to the New England Sports Network. The switch was made from Livefyre to Facebook comments plug-in— and our community of regular posters took a major hit. As we have learned from football itself, continuity is a very big deal when running a team, and our continuity of fan involvement took a huge hit.

But we’re still here, and if you’re reading this, so are you, for which I am extremely grateful.

A lot of independent Eagles blogs have bitten the dust over the past few years. Corporate sponsors have been cutting back on their expense budgets, I reckon. But there’s still “Iggles Blitz”, “Bleeding Green Nation”, Jimmy Kempski at “Philly Voice”, “EagleManiacal”, the “Philly.com” guys….and the EYE.

EYE will keep slogging content until they pull the plug on my server…

Anyway, in the best interests of loyalty and continuity, here are your Fan Contest updates dating back to the earliest competitions  descended from PE.com days and continued at the EYE:

MACH 10 Draft Challenge

2007…M. Fanny Harris
2008…Leo Pizzini
2009…M. Fanny Harris
2010…GK Brizer
2011…JB99 “Sage Lion”
2012…~BROZ
2013…Don Pardo
2014…Kenny Kenemeka
2015…~BROZ
2016…Afra
2017…Stine

King of the Hill Survivor Pool

2011…ATV
2012…GK Brizer*
2013…Spiffo
2014…ATV
2015…GK Brizer
2016…Palm Feathers
2017…Dutch Rubb
[* = results protested by someone who will remain nameless]

Dark Horse Prediction Pool

2012…Don Pardo
2013…Dutch Rubb
2014…South Philly Ben
2015…BirdCrazy
2016…[results not yet verified—was it T-Bone from the PowerHouse Pardo Playoffs?]

Career Home Runs (The “First Post” Game)

835…Ryan “Lubricator” Lubrich
617…GK Brizer  [note- HR’s hit before 2007 do not appear in the record] 595…DDD
218…Beanstalk
183…ATV
175…JB99 “Sage Lion” [note-HR’s hit before 2007 do not apear in the record] 128…~BROZ
108…Dutch Rubb
103…Dr. Funt
102…Jerky
98…Kent Phil
93…French Lady Fan
89…T-Bone
89…PPW [includes HR’s hit as “Bri Ruggiero”] 75…Palm Feathers
59…BG93
57…Hoser
57…Somalia
52…Genetic Freak
51…BirdCrazy
51…Abe Linc
51…South Philly Ben
50…Blasphemer
48…Fields
45…Kenny Kenemeka
42…Eagle Nut
40…Hud Huston
36…Don Pardo
30…Harry Organs
30…JHOP
28…Cunningham
26…Hedge
26…Lupes [all HR’s hit at “On The Inside” park only] 22…J.C.C.
21…Spiffo
20…Leo Pizzini
19…Sunbutts
19…Green Bleedin’ Florida
18…Poet
18…Rumplestiltskin (Funt?)
16…ASG15
15…SBA610
15…Senhor Cook
12…J. Wood
12…Go Green
10..Joe Mas
9…J. Trent
9…M.J. Kline
9…M. Fanny Harris
9…Hudson Hawk
8…Icontutu
8…Igglesdb (Ignots)
8…MateEagle2
8…It’s a Young Earth
6…Stine [note-HR’s hit before 2007 do not appear in the record] 6…SDSU06
5…Padre Brio
5…Afra
5…Don Corleone

There are a hundred other contestants with 4 HR’s or less for their careers. I salute them here, among them Kent Dave (Phil’s twin in Cleveland), and Old Bill, Nick 0213, FTW, Shackleford, Luke from upstate New York, Down With Dallas, Big5BDawk, EaglesFan 112, Spagio, GreenLup, USMC Batsy, Mr. Kraxx, MWH, B. Quick and many many more. I hope you had as much fun hitting them as I did counting them. I am scheduled for “OCD” treatment and therapy sessions soon.