The city of Philadelphia has been in baseball hysteria this past month, and especially this past week. As of this past Sunday, national and local stations alike have replayed again and again Brett Myers striking out Washington's Wily Mo Pena to clinch the Phillies first division title and playoff berth since 1993. Our city is so used to losing in every sport-- or actually anything for that matter -- that this miraculous sports comeback is worth savoring. ESPN's Jayson Stark captures the spirit of this pennant run quite well with this article. As a long-time Philly sports fan, this whole Phillies hysteria has swept me off my feet too. No matter what, you can NEVER take away the tremendous work this club has accomplished in coming from 7 games behind with 17 games remaining to steal the NL East crown from the Mets.
But what does a division title really mean, in the whole scheme of things? As the Colorado Rockies are starting to prove (as of these last 2 days), pretty much nothing. This club has won 16 of their last 17 games and have absolutely bulldozed the Phillies over in the first round of the playoffs. After the Phillies' incredible 162-game juggernaut of an emotional, roller-coaster season, we're about to watch our World Series hopes-- and possibly fond memories of this team-- slip away faster than we can say "Matt Holliday." Starting this Saturday we face a humiliating, swift playoff elimination and this entire city--myself included--is bracing itself for the worst.
Ah, Winning..... true glory seems so elusive. Whether it's the fact that one true champion of 30 overall teams will be left standing in a Major League Baseball season is one example. Or how the overwhelming majority of start-up businesses fail within months of inception. Or how finding a great future soulmate of a girl is such a seemingly impossible task for many guys. Winning--in sport, in business, in life-- is an art of human life that few can ever master. I often refer to Vince Lombardi's #1 Speech on my office wall and wonder how he really did it, how he really got things done while doing it all better than anyone else.
Along with the rest of diehard Philadelphians, it looks like I'll find myself wondering this weekend how this city has been not much more than a bunch of losers since, well, 1776 when we signed the Declaration here and kicked British ass (the 1980 Phillies are exempt as well). But the fact that our Phillies franchise has lost over 10,000+ games (which tops the losses of ANY sports franchise probably around the globe) is just at the essence of the perennial loser-status that this city somehow maintains. Maybe I'm just overly frustrated right now and need to wait until this series finally ends, the disappointment subsides and I think rationally again in a few weeks.
As Lombardi says, winning is not a sometime thing, but an all-the-time-thing. In Philadelphia, unfortunately, it seems we're always striving for even just a taste of that "sometime-thing."
"Some time" I really hope this changes.
Don't forget, while everyone harps on the 10,000 loss, we are the one team out there that has stayed in one city the longest. O'Doyle rules!
Blahhhhhhhhh
Posted by: B Diddy | October 12, 2007 at 02:22 PM