The World Series

As my friend the Lord of Truth recently pointed out, the last substantive post on this blog occurred nearly one year ago, and celebrated the Phillies' 2008 World Series title. So perhaps it's appropriate that the blog begins anew with a consideration of this year's World Series, opening tonight against the minions of Satan, the New York Yankees.

Let's start by citing my favorite moment from last year's Championship parade...



[Note to my my daughter and any other kids I have in the future: if you are reading this blog before you turn 18, please do not emulate Mr. Utley's use of swear words, at least not in the house. You'll still be grounded].

Back to the present...

In case you haven't noticed, I love sports. Most Philadelphians do -- perhaps it's a weather thing in general. I think that sports passion runs deeper in areas of the country where, God bless us, the weather isn't quite beautiful all 365 days a year. Fans in cities like Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo -- I think these are the places where sports passion runs deepest. And when teams from two of these cities play each other for a title, it's a little more special.

Now, I included New York on that list above, but let's face facts: New York is a special case. This stems from (a) New York's special importance as our nation's largest city and the world capital of high finance/culture/fashion/mafia/rudeness/whatever, and (b) New Yorkers' self-possessed superiority about it all. This quote from a Yankee fan may sum up what I said in (b) best...

"I don't have hate for Philly exactly -- they are like our redheaded stepchild," he said.

"It's like a nothing city. It's just insignificant in comparison to New York."

That line, in a nutshell, is what annoys the hell out of most of America about New York. That's not just the way they look at Philly -- they look at most of the rest of the country in similar terms. And yes, it's a little harder being the closest major city to New York -- it's an inferiority complex that gets reinforced (as someone once said, even paranoids have enemies).

When it comes to sports, particularly baseball, New Yorkers tend to think they invented the sport. And in the case of baseball, they did, which makes it even more annoying.

[One quick aside here -- does the location where a sport was invented make a team from that area more likely to win multiple titles? This seems to be the case for baseball (Yankees/Giants/Dodgers/Mets) and basketball (Celtics). Based on where football's founder hails from, someone should start a pro team in Connecticut... then again, I hate Connecticut.]

The Yankees are baseball's premiere franchise, and New York is home to more World Series titles than any other city (hell, between 1949 and 1956, the furthest the World Series trophy traveled from Yankee Stadium was Brooklyn). But while there's something to be said for history, most baseball fans who don't root for the pinstripes are sick of hearing about 26 world championships from people who weren't alive for 20 of them. And if we want to discuss the Yankees' titles, I'll happily point out that they haven't won a single one in this millennium.

But all that having been said, it's hard to spend too much energy on trashtalk. Yes, I'll happily note that the manhug between Texiera, Rodriguez and Jeter was the most scripted uncomfortable male bonding moment since Rocky and Apollo hugged in the surf [still waiting for Bill Simmons to point this out]. And I'll pray that the Phillies have all gotten swine flu and rabies vaccinations before visiting New York City. But trust me, that's mild compared to the stuff I have written about New York in the past.

As for me, and I believe the same is true for most Phillies fans, I’m feeling a serene confidence in this Phillies team. The fans have probably loved other recent Philly sports teams with nearly the same level of passion—the ‘93 Phils, the ‘00-01 Sixers, Jameer Nelson’s St. Joe’s team, the four guard Villanova group from 05-06, etc. But this time, that adoration is accompanied by a sense of true confidence that we have the best team, no matter who’s on the other side of the diamond. I remember feeling like the '82-83 Sixers were unbeatable, but it was tempered by all the recent big losses the franchise had suffered, such that we weren't certain it had happened until it did happen.

[As an aside, that team is the most underrated NBA champion ever. They were unstoppable, but forgotten because they won only once and the Celtics-Lakers rivalry became chic. Even in Philly, they were only remembered for being the team that won the last title before the long drought.]

I’m just a little too young to remember anything about the Broad Street Bullies of 1974 and 1975, but that might be the last time people in Philly felt this way about a team. And that was the last Philly team to repeat.

Based on input from most analysts, the Yankees may be a better team. But the same could have been said about the Dodgers, or even Tampa last year. A seven-game series doesn't always produce a victory by the better team, and the World Series doesn't always seem to go to the team with the best regular season record (in fact, that event seems to be the exception rather than the rule).

But I wouldn't concede the Yankees are the better team. C.C. Sabathia is a hell of a pitcher, but so is Cliff Lee. The Yankees lineup is stacked, but so is the Phillies lineup, and the Phillies may be the only NL team that actually can employ a quality DH. No, I'm not all that confident about Cole Hamels, but A. J. Burnett is just as hittable. Yes, Mariano Rivera is the greatest post-season closer of all-time... but as nervous as Brad Lidge has made us all season, he's closer to being the guy he was last year now than he has been all year, and that guy was perfect.

I think these teams are evenly matched -- the Yankees are slightly better hitters overall, but the Phils are better fielders. The starting rotations are a wash, even if Sabathia goes three times, because I don't think Pettitte goes on short rest, which means Gaudin gets a start. The bullpens tilt toward the Yankees, but I don't think that tilt is as significant as people think. And the Phillies have the managerial advantage in the dugout. That's not as big a deal as people think, but it is big enough that Girardi's tendency toward over-managing can negate his bullpen advantage. And thanks to last season's title, the Phillies are not the dewy-eyed inexperienced kids battling the hardened playoff veterans of the Yankees. It may be Jeter's seventh World Series, but it's A-Rod's first.

Bottom line, I see no reason not to feel confident about my team, and that's before I consider the special nature of this ballclub. There's talk floating around about whether this is the best sports team in Philadelphia history. Any conclusion on that point is premature, but they have forced their way into the discussion. In Philly, teams don't repeat as champions often, and they rarely even make it back to the title game after winning it.

[Silly historical point: in the last 100 years, when a Philly team had a chance to repeat and made the Finals in their sport (the '76 and '75 Flyers, the '49 Eagles, the '48 Warriors, the '31 and '30 A's, the 1914 A's, and the 1911 A's) they won 4 times and lost 4. None of this means anything, but I spent two minutes looking it up, so I felt the need to share.]

This team exudes championship confidence. There's a million examples of it (many of them involving Jimmy Rollins' mouth), but perhaps the best involve last year's Game 5 with Tampa. The Phils had their ace on the mound, had the lead, and then saw it disappear in a deluge as the Rays tied the game before MLB suspended it. They had to wait 48 hours to continue, and then win, or head back to Tampa, and face the likelihood that the ace who had carried the team would not pitch again in the Series. Then, even when they got the lead, the nearly unhittable set-up man gave up a line-drive homer that tied it.

At about 1 million times during that game alone, I felt what Philly sports fans had felt for the preceding quarter-century: "Again? We're gonna get hosed by a bad call/lucky shot/bloop hit/foggy weather/wacky injury/bad bounce! Why does this always happen to us, and only us???"

Meanwhile, the team never blinked. They stared right back at all the bad breaks, took advantage of the good ones, and never let despair take over. They did what winning teams do, because they believed they were one of them. And now, they've made their fans feel that way --we expect to win, no matter what happened earlier in this game or in the last game or in the last season or in the last century. That's why this team is special.

It took a D.C. columnist to sum this up best. Tom Boswell hit the nail on the head in the Washington Post:

Go to Philadelphia this month and you'll see stories about how the Phillies have reversed the town's ancient inferiority complex about its pro sports teams. You are no longer a sucker if you dare to believe in a Philly team's chance for a positively ridiculous comeback win. It's now the Phillies' trademark, especially in the playoffs. Ask the Rockies and Dodgers. Both are still numb.

Gratitude for the Phillies' reversing of this generations-long hex is so intense that affection drenches Citizens Bank Park, where fans wave their white rally towels over their heads for what seems like hours at a time. Boos? They don't exist. Heroes? By the boatload. Under pressure, they now expect expensive baseball teams from New York to roll over and gag. Don't the Mets do it every year?

The Phillies won a pennant last week, and afterward, there wasn't even a riot outside the park. A year ago, I walked out of Citizens Bank, questioned my sanity, and to escape the madness, blocked the path of the only taxi I saw. Within a block, fans kicked out the cab's headlight. Why? Why not. Last week I exited the same park, found an orderly line of cabs and a driver who said, "The fans expect to win now. So it's not too dangerous."

Maybe it comes down to Tug McGraw. Yes, a New York team (the Mets) owns the trademark to Tugger's most famous quote -- "Ya Gotta Believe!" But Tug's best quote may be from the 1980 World Championship parade:

"All throughout baseball history, Philadelphia has had to take a back seat to New York City. Well, New York can take this championship...and stick it! 'CAUSE WE'RE NUMBER ONE!"

I'm hoping someone replays that quote a week from now, during another parade. At this point, I’ll take the WFC’s mix of talent, desire, and confidence against anybody. I was going to say Phillies in six, but J-Roll says five, and who am I to disagree? Game 1, in the Bronx, tonight.

WHY CAN'T US?