Thursday, September 21, 2006

The Time Is Now

It’s time for the majority of Philadelphia’s sporting public to wake up and recognize the most exciting team in town and the one which most deserves their support currently plies its trade across the street from the Linc, not inside it.

Instead of obsessing ad nauseum about knees and dropped passes and every body part and decision in between, these fans should direct their energies towards the Phillies, who have risen from the nearly dead and put on a late season rush worthy of their hometown’s support if not affection. All of this endless hand-wringing and compulsive analysis of the Eagles every week has grown completely out of proportion. The only thing that seems to stop the unending post-mortems following each Sunday’s game is the realization by, say, Tuesday, that it’s time to start obsessing about next week’s opponent.

Don’t give me the same old tired excuse that the Phils have let you down too many times in the past. Every team in town has contributed to your misery including the Eagles on more than one occasion. I don’t want to hear the rationalization for your absence that only the NL’s mediocrity has permitted a team barely over .500 to contend at this late date. The Florida Marlins went from Wild Card to World Series champs a few years ago. Think of the Phillies as peaking at just the right moment.

Ask yourselves this: when was the last time the entire nation, from sea to shining sea, was talking about a Phillies player? Mike Schmidt never drew such attention. Silent Lefty certainly didn’t. Pete Rose was past his prime when he landed in town. Ryan Howard, on the other hand, has captured the entire sporting world’s attention and he’s all ours to enjoy and cheer on. No one wants to be standing in front of the refrigerator when Howard comes to bat.

So reprogram that remote control this weekend or, better yet, take yourself out to the ballpark and try cheering for the other team in town. As Erik Grissom of Philliesflow so aptly headlined his post the other day, P-H-I-L-L-I-E-S.

3 comments:

dane said...

great post. i also find it disheartening that the eagles get almost all the publicity when the phils are fighting for a wild card berth across the street and may be involved in october baseball for the first time in over a decade

Anonymous said...

Testify brother! Amen!

GM-Carson said...

I actually get really mad about the Eagles getting all the pub. I could understand if the Phils sucked, but they're in this thing. The Philly media should be promoting the Phils right now, but instead all the attention is on the Eagles, even though they're merely 1-1.