C21AGVoices

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I admitted earlier that I had totally jumped on the Phillies Bandwagon during the playoff season of Major League Baseball.
You may remember that when I was 14 years old, the 1964 Phillies had thrown away a 6 1/2 game lead in the race for the pennant by losing 10 games in a row, destroying their chances to get to the World Series, and making me a Sixers fan instead of a baseball fan.
In 1980, I just wasn’t over it, and while I was glad that the Phillies had won a World Series, I just wasn’t a fan. This year was different for me.

Maybe it was because my son is a real baseball fan.

Maybe it was because I saw the Phillies play in Dodger Stadium, and come back from near defeat to an outstanding win.

Maybe it was because I went to game 5 of this World Series, and experience the anticipation of the fans and felt the disappointment when the game was called due to weather, and the thrill when the game resumed.

I’m just not sure. I’ve been to the NBA finals with the Sixers when they played the Lakers in 2001. That was incredibly exciting. I went to the Super Bowl in Jacksonville when the Philadelphia Eagles played the New England Patriots, and that was very exciting. And I went to the World Series where the Phillies broke a 25 year losing streak for the city of Philadelphia, and won a world championship. It was like the other experiences except that the let down at the end when we weren’t the winners was missing this time. This time strangers hugeed and gave each other “high fives” and the crowd was wonderful. Happy and wanting the world to share their happiness. But I don;t think that’s why I changed my mind about becoming a fan again.

I think it was the team. There was no showboating, there was only talk about the fans, and the city, and the team, Young men who knew that they had brought a cool drink of water to a city parched by disappontment. It was the patience and perseverance I saw when they played a game with grace under pressure after what I consider an inappropriate decision by the Commissioner of Major League Baseball.

Don’t think that I don’t know that there are more disappointments ahead – after all this is Philadelphia – but I think these players, with their love of the game, the city and their team have finally brought me back – I’m  a Phillies fan once again. And it sort of feels good to be back.