I was born in Philly...As a tot; I moved to South Florida but returned every summer to rugged North Philly. I played lil' league baseball in Florida on pristine, manicured fields of Bermuda grass. In North Philly, we played on a patchy dusty field with half a fence, desperately trying to avoid landing in dog crap.
"Dog Crap"! Now that can describe baseball in Philadelphia over the last 126 years. The Philadelphia A's won 5 World Series championships before leaving the city and eventually ending up in Oakland, But nobody cares about that now. Especially since that last championship was won in 1930 during the great depression (how fitting). Who could think about baseball during a time like that, specifically in an industrial, working class city like Philly? And as far as us Philadelphians are concerned when the A's left, they took their championships with them. Hell, I wasn't born yet anyway...
It would take another 50 years before Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose and Lefty Carlton would bring a measure of respectability back to the city. In 1980 the Phillies won their 1st and only world series after only playing for 99 years!!!
I remember it like it was yesterday! I had followed the team all summer and my grandfather had signed me up for a pee-wee league for 8-12 year olds(I was 7 and the smallest kid in the league). In the fall before the Phillies won their only World Series, I returned to Ft Lauderdale to start 1st grade. I still followed my Phils through the playoffs, but cried when I couldn't return to Philly for the victory parade. My cousin Derrick and I would cry again in 1983 as we watched Cal Ripken and the Baltimore Orioles defeat the Phillies 4-2 to win the Fall Classic. That's when I decided to guard my heart, like a scorned girlfriend/boyfriend...Never quite fully trusting again. I followed in 1993 when they made the Series again but never quite believed. I was assimilated into the psyche of all Philly fans. I could feel the collective "I told you so".
It’s been 126 years and only 1 World Series and in the process the Phillies became the most losing sports franchise in the history of sports on the planet earth...maybe even the universe! They lost more Games than the Washington Generals and Rocky King, the guy from pro-wrestling who seemed to always be pitted against Rick Flair, Dusty Rhodes or the Macho Man only to be dismantled in 23 seconds. This Season the Phillies lost their 10,000th game, a dubious distinction not common to any other sports franchise ever!! I remember the day...and that day it really sucked being from Philly.
But then came yesterday. Before yesterday, the Phillies were the benchmark for collapses. In 1964 they lost their last 10 in a row to squander a 6 1/2 game lead and lose the division.
But then came yesterday. For the first time in a long time the baseball gods smiled on Philly.
The Mets historic collapse helped cleanse a multitude of iniquity from our baseball souls. No longer are we the biggest chokers in baseball history. The tale of two games on the same day in different cities has totally put us on the other side of history. Now, as irony has it, our team has just accomplished the biggest comeback in Baseball history and we are the 2007 champions of the NL East.
Funny ain’t it?
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