January 19, 2004
Philly's Hopes
With the Eagles loss, hopes are now riding on the Phillies:
In the somber silence of the Eagles' green-carpeted locker room, most of the players remained either in the trainer's room or in the shower. But as a few spoke in whispers, a longtime Philadelphian shook his head.
"The Phillies ought to be good," he said.
"But will they be good enough to win it all?" he was asked.
"In this town," he said, "no team ever is."
Seems there's not that much hope.
That's really quite how I feel. The last team to win a championship was the Sixers in 1983. Sure, we've had some teams flirt with our hopes - the Flyers made the cup finals a few years back, and of course the Phils in '93. But they're never quite good enough.
I was born in 1978. I wasn't old enough to experience the 1981 Phillies title. I vaguely remember a few highlights of 1983 (including a bizarre admiration I had for Pete Rose - glad I got over that). 1993 hurt pretty badly - when a team has everything go right until the last two games of the year.
So, now the inevitable turning of the sports season. Eagles couldn't get it done, so it's time to check in on Allen Iverson and John LeClair. Ultimately, I'll lose interest there as they fizzle out at the end of the season, and come back to pinning my hopes on the Phillies.
Oh, this year they're for real. I feel like my father and I have the same conversation every Christmas: "Yeah, last year we got our hopes up, but with the addition of X, Y and Z they're the real deal this year." But are they? Time will tell, but my inclination is that they're not. Oh, they might win the east. They might even make it to the World Series. But there's an awful lot of ifs surrounding this season: if Burrell remembers how to hit. If Milton's knee holds up. If Bell can hit well enough to be worth putting at third for his defense. If the players manage to perform despite Larry Bowa.
If, if, if.
So how do the Eagles look for next season?
Yet, if one just cares to look all just a bit further west they see... those great great championship towns of Cleveland and Buffalo. Nothing like having no champions since 1964.
It's like the weather. Every single network spoke AT LENGTH last week about this record-breaking cold. Um, yeah. Maybe to you spoiled east coasters who have no concept of this great big world out there. Me? I was mildly surprised at how WARM the past week was. Still haven't broken freezing in about 16 days - won't for at least another week either - but hey, the pipes aren't frozen like LAST YEAR.
Guess I'm just saying to not look for any sympathy from us people up here in NW Pennsylvania. :-)
John,
Not to nitpick, but the last Phillies' title was in 1980, not 1981. 1981 was Dodgers over Yankees in a strike year.
Way to mix Buffalo in this mess that is Philadelphia's sportsfans problem. At least we were able to win 4 straight conference title games.