Philadelphia Sports

The Phillies are playing the Cubs right now, which made me think of how the “Cubbies” are regarded as “lovable losers”. The “tortured fan” torch has been passed to our city, now that Boston is winning everything imaginable, including Soccer! We get criticized for being critical of our teams and their players, and we take it personally. Do we have the right to be angry? Does a twenty year drought entitle us to complain about every little thing? Some of our fans think we should just be happy we have Donovan, Howard, and the other great players that have played in this town (Iverson, Cunningham, Lindros, Thome, Owens…) and are willing to forget and forget because there is always next year.

The national media only pays attention when someone gets booed (like on draft day), or maybe has snowballs thrown at them (sorry, Santa). Our reputation in other cities is that we are cruel, unforgiving, and relentless towards our players. Often I have wondered if some players (ehem, Pat Burrell) can’t handle the pressure and maybe that’s they leave (Scott Rolen).

A few players are remembered in a positive light be everyone, even though they were never on a championship team. Reggie White comes to mind immediately. He is worshipped here, and most of us became Packers fans for the few years he gave to Green Bay.

I think we so love our teams and our city that we agonize over every loss as if a member of our family has passed away. Sometimes it feels like we got asked to the prom by the hottest girl in school, only to be stood up and have punch thrown in our face (Tampa Bay, 2003).

Right now the Phillies are winning 5-0 in the bottom of the 7th. Ryan Howard finally hit HR #3 on the season to give us a decent lead. The Sixers are down by 12 to the Wizrards, but no one cares because we are finally in the playoff when no one expected anything this year. Yesterday, they lost along with the Flyers in their first playoff game with the Capitals in demoralizing fashion. Why do we keep watching?

To keep hope alive.