Pep Rally

A Phillies pep rally is underway at Dilworth Plaza at City Hall. The event goes till 1 p.m.   Mayor Nutter is attending the event along with former Phillies catcher Darren Daulton, the Phillie Phanatic, the Phillies Ballgirls, public address announcer Dan Baker, public affairs director Scott Palmer and Citizens Bank officials.  

Comcast-Spectacor will host a playoff pep rally for fans of the Flyers and 76ers outside the Wells Fargo Center today, from noon to 2 p.m. Fans are invited to celebrate the teams competing in the postseason with $1 hot dogs and sodas, live music, interactive games and special appearances from former Flyers and Sixers players, 76ers mascot Hip Hop and members of the Sixers Dance Team. Fans will have an opportunity to purchase official playoff merchandise for both the Flyers and 76ers inside the Fan Gear store at the Center.

The Flyers will host a pep rally outside the Broad Street entrance of the Wachovia Center today from noon to 2 p.m. Fans can pose for pictures with the Prince of Wales Trophy, meet Flyers alumni, get free hotdogs and purchase official merchandise. Official Flyers viewing parties again will be held at area locations of P.J. Whelihan's and Chickie's and Pete's for games this weekend.

Doris Simpson boarded a bus in Camden yesterday and traveled to the urban mayors' "State of the Cities" rally to let Gov. Kean know that all is not rosy in the Garden State. In fact, said the Camden resident and county employee, if she and seven colleagues are laid off as planned, Camden will go to the rats. "Rats would take over the city and county," said Simpson, a health aide with Camden County Vector Control. Funds for the pest-control agency have been eliminated from the state budget, which means eight people will lose their jobs with a program that handles calls about crib-bound babies bitten by rats and educates children in day-care schools about the dangers of rodents.

As the Stanley Cup finals move to Philadelphia for tomorrow's Game 3, the Flyers and the city will host a pep rally at 1:30 p.m. today at Dilworth Plaza at City Hall. Mayor Nutter, former Flyers Keith Primeau and Bob Kelly, Flyers in-arena host Sean Murphy, "Dancing Guy" Shawny Hill, and members of the Flyers Fun Patrol will attend. Fans can write good luck messages on a giant inflatable jersey and pick up free T-shirts and cheer cards. The team also will recognize Officer Ray Blohm, of Upper Darby, who was recently shot in the line of duty, as a Flyers Hometown Hero.

Springfield (Delco) junior star running back Marty Brown rushed for 138 yards and one touchdown to lead the unbeaten Cougars to a 17-6 victory over Central League rival Ridley before 5,000 fans at Springfield High yesterday. Afterward, Brown disclosed that he had received inspiration from the oddest of places: the other team's pep rally. It turns out that the brother of Brown's girlfriend attends Ridley High and was at the school's pep rally, at which Ridley students had a dummy of Brown hanging in effigy.

About 200 pilots and other employees of Eastern Airlines and their spouses shouted and applauded as they watched a boisterous pep rally on closed-circuit television last night at the Adam's Mark Hotel. The group was among an estimated 20,000 Eastern employees who gathered at locations around the country to view the rally, which originated in Miami and Atlanta. The Air Line Pilots Association staged it to provide encouragement to Eastern pilots who have not crossed picket lines in a strike against the airline by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Brian Garber has a checklist a mile long. Balloons are ready to drop, confetti cannons are poised to fire, and a handful of teenage dancers are all choreographed and ready to stand and shake their stuff in one of Radnor High School's most anticipated events of the year. If all that weren't complex enough, a contract dispute between the school's teachers and its board has left Garber and a group of students all by their lonesome Friday for this year's annual pep rally for Saturday's big football game against archrival Lower Merion.

A few days after the fourth funeral, Mike Gately heard about a contest. His neighbor told him that Under Armour, the Baltimore-based athletic apparel company, was starting a promotion to engage high school sports programs around the country. It was called "Finding Undeniable," a challenge to students and coaches and administrators to display school spirit through group cheers, band performances, mascot routines, and other shows of student-body enthusiasm. It was so now for today's teenagers - all tied into Facebook and other social media, all related to generating online votes, uploading videos, and eliciting "shout-outs" from celebrities on Twitter.

This year, like every year, Tim Luko, 58, a member of the Satin Slippers Fancy Brigade, paid a visit to the preserved body of St. John Neumann, the patron saint of Mummers, which is enshrined on the ground floor of St. Peter's Church at Fifth and Girard. "It's overwhelming," he said moments after standing before the revered saint's 5-foot-2 body, encased in a glass casket. And never more so than Sunday, at the 29th annual Mummers Mass, during which his son, also named Tim, just back from Afghanistan, led a procession in which his son Tim, 5, gently placed a pair of golden slippers - a pair of spray-painted kids' Velcro sneakers, to be exact - on the gleaming marble altar.

TO LOOK at Sean Burke yesterday, you would have thought it was summertime in Appalachia, not Dec. 1 in suburban Philly. OK, so he wasn't sweating profusely, but his arms were bare throughout La Salle High's football practice in ch-chilly weather at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High. "I'm always this way. No sleeves," said the 6-foot, 215-pound Burke, a senior and 2-year starter at middle linebacker. "While everyone else is in sweatpants and sweatshirts. "Actually, there are three of us. Linebackers Mike Eife and Dillon Smith do this, too, but I'm the ringleader because me and Connor Daly did it last year.

There is no way to discuss this Miami Heat thing rationally. There's the group that was appalled by LeBron James' televised ego-drama and that whole flashpots-and-smoke travesty of a pep rally, and there are those who ignore all that and simply enjoy watching James play basketball. We are not interested in finding common ground between these two warring camps. Nor are we interested in committing another chunk of newsprint and Internet space to mocking The Decision or mocking the mockers of The Decision.

Comcast-Spectacor will host a playoff pep rally for fans of the Flyers and 76ers outside the Wells Fargo Center today, from noon to 2 p.m. Fans are invited to celebrate the teams competing in the postseason with $1 hot dogs and sodas, live music, interactive games and special appearances from former Flyers and Sixers players, 76ers mascot Hip Hop and members of the Sixers Dance Team. Fans will have an opportunity to purchase official playoff merchandise for both the Flyers and 76ers inside the Fan Gear store at the Center.

HERSHEY - Way before he used his right arm and both feet to help West Catholic High win a state football championship, Anthony Reid proved to be a masterful gum-flapper. Back in the summer, we're talking, after Reid had already enrolled at West in the aftermath of North Catholic's shuttering, but had yet to convince any fellow Falcons to join him. "I kept telling them, 'Follow me. I'm gonna take you somewhere,' " Reid said. By them , the 6-1, 185-pound senior quarterback was referring to senior defensive back David Sherman, junior guard Mike Makor and sophomore tailback David Williams.

Brian Garber has a checklist a mile long. Balloons are ready to drop, confetti cannons are poised to fire, and a handful of teenage dancers are all choreographed and ready to stand and shake their stuff in one of Radnor High School's most anticipated events of the year. If all that weren't complex enough, a contract dispute between the school's teachers and its board has left Garber and a group of students all by their lonesome Friday for this year's annual pep rally for Saturday's big football game against archrival Lower Merion.

With the enthusiasm of a pep rally, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Sen. Bob Casey, U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, and other officials on Monday urged students at Furness High School in South Philadelphia to help spread the word about Pennsylvania's Children's Health Insurance Program. "I am asking you to be the messengers," Sebelius told about 400 students in the auditorium. As of last month, 28,261 children in Philadelphia were enrolled in CHIP, which provides health coverage to children and teenagers not eligible for government medical assistance.