The Phillies... and the Eagles

Nobody on the road,
nobody on the beach.
I feel it in the air,
the summers out of reach

Empty lake, empty streets,
the sun goes down alone.
I'm driving by your house
though i know that you not home...

And i can see you
you brown skin shining in the sun
you got your hair combed back
sunglasses on baby

and i can tell you
my love for you will still be strong
after the boy of summer have gone.

out on the road today
i saw a dead head sticker on a cadillac
a voice inside my head said don't look back
you can never look back

i thought i knew what love was
what did i know
those days are gone for ever
i should just let them go and...

i can see you
your brown skin shining in the sun
you know your walking real slow
smiling at everyone

i can tell you
my love for you will still be strong
after the boys of summer have gone.

Don Henley - Boys of Summer

So the Phillies improbably won the national league east after the Mets epic collapse. It's hard to explain what this means to the Phillies fan-base. While Philly is unequivocally a football town, this is mostly due to the zealot Eagles fans. Phillies fans seem to be more widespread across the city, which makes perfect sense. It's a lot more affordable to go to a baseball game than to a football game. Not to mention the fact that there are only 8 home football games per year as opposed to 80 something home baseball game. There is also the history of the Phillies. The damn team is 125 years old (give or take a few years, I don't know the exact number and I'm too lazy at the moment to look it up). In these one-hundred plus years we've won one, yes one, world series. How unbelievable is that? This year we became the first major sports franchise to lose 10,000 games. Hell, the last time we even made the playoffs was in 1993. I was fucking ten then! A history of he Phillies cannot be written without the word 'futility' being used over and over again. The Phillies have been on the cusp of the playoffs the last few years, and this was a team with a lot of exciting, likable players. Philly fans have embraced Rollins (he totally should be MVP), Utley (the best second baseman in the game), Ryan Howard and the uber hard-nosed Aaron Rowand (please, please re-sign him!). For a team that has seen so many hard times and so many overrated, overpaid, or otherwise shitty players, it was good to finally have a team we could get behind. This team has already made Philly smile simply by making the playoffs. Maybe that wouldn't be enough for a team like the Red Sox or the Yankees, but dude, we're the Phillies! We'll take what we can get. If this team manages to even get to the World Series, I promise you, Philly will be chaotic. We have very low expectations for our baseball team. But this team right now, their comeback to win the east, and the way they play the game... they're a true Philly team. Honestly, I don't really remember watching the '93 Phillies, so for me this is basically the first time I have ever seen my baseball team in the playoffs. I am giddy, as I am sure the rest of Philly is. If the Eagles win, there could be riots. If the Phillies win, the city might just turn into a week-long group hug. God I'm excited for the playoffs. Go Phils!

Aaaaand that brings me to the Eagles. After another disappointing loss, I don't know what to say. We played like complete shit. Our O-line was about as strong as a tissue. The Giants had 12 fucking sacks on us!! 6 by one guy! Which begs to ask the question, while Winston Justice (the Eagles lineman, in only his second season, that got utterly destroyed by Umenyiora) was continually being beaten, why wasn't he given extra help? Andy, you're killing me here. Between all the questionable play calls and now this, you have to ask: what's with him. Is he distracted by his kids off-season problems? Is he just losing the team? I mean, this shit is costing us games. The Eagles have their bye week this weekend; they better take it to focus and regroup. We need people to get healthy and the entire team needs to come out re-energized. This is McNabb and Reid's team, and they need to show that they still have it. Losing to divisional opponents is NOT something that we can tolerate. My faith in the birds is beginning to waver. At least I have the Phillies (God, who'd think that I would ever be saying those words??)