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Charles Barkley appeared on NBC's Philly affiliate last night to talk with the sporting dudes and waxed Barkley-esque on the Sixers and Phils. He spent the first portion discussing the Sixers need to be frugal this off-season and then turned to talking about the treatment of Ryan Howard v. Chase Utley, to which he pointed out that "they always tougher on black guys here."



Barkley also went on talk about the Phillies' need to acquire a #1 "Josh Beckett" type of pitcher that would put them over the top. Aside from insulting Cole Hamels, who is a number one, I don't think Charles understands how this whole "acquiring-a-team" thing works. The Sox had to give up arguably one of the best players in baseball -- Hanley Ramirez -- in order to pull Beckett. These number one starters just don't fall out of trees (also see: Haren, Dan to the Diamondbacks).

Additionally, as one 700 level commenter pointed out, Pat Burrell has gotten far worse treatment than Howard and he's of the Caucasian persuasion, so maybe he's stretching a bit by calling the entire city of Philadelphia "biased". Or whatever he would inherently be saying with this quote.