High Hopes

In Philly, loyalty is everything.  We don't have bandwagon fans.  We take every game way too seriously.  In the city of brotherly love, a city that has seen so many disappointing seasons and faced a nearly two decade William Penn curse, being loyal to our teams and our city is everything.  I didn't have to leave Philly to understand just how much I loved Philadelphia sports, but I did have to leave to understand how much I hate teams with too much money and cities with too many fair-weather fans.

How many people in New York City are actually from New York?  I'm going with about 1% of current city residents (this is a wild exaggeration, I'm sure.  Let me be).  Whatever the number, Yankees fans are rarely New Yorkers (sorry, Jersey and CT - you don't count.  Get your own city) or are only fans when the team does well.  Granted, the Yankees do well a lot, but so would all the other teams in the MLB if they had the same kind of money.

Let's face it, you don't become the most hated team in baseball by being a team of players that a city can be really proud of.  You become the most hated team by being a team of steroid users, Hollywood wannabes and players without any true loyalty.

Honestly, all this Yankees whining isn't about the team.  All MLB players are paid way too much, too many players use steroids to get ahead, and I think it's safe to say most of them would want to date Kate Hudson.  It's really about said team's fans.  The fans who taunt me on the streets of NYC for wearing a Phillies hat.  The fans who go beyond trash talking my team and begin to trash talk the place I call home and the "morons who chose to live in that hellhole, second rate city."  You know what?  I don't like you, your city or your team either... but come to my city and you won't hear that from me.

And New Yorkers wonder why they have a bad reputation?

As I watch this stressful and miserable game 6 of the World Series, I'm more concerned about the news reports and more-than-normally obnoxious New Yorkers than the Phillies not winning.  Going to the World Series is amazing, and I'm proud of my team for doing that two years in a row (making it only the 3rd appearance in my lifetime).  No one can take that away from the Phillies and their fans.  Would I love a championship repeat?  Of course.  Would I love to watch New Yorkers weep like little girls?  Absolutely.

But if we don't get another ring, losing isn't what I'll be most upset about.  I'm going to be upset that karma doesn't really exist (because if it did, a shady team wouldn't win).  I'm going to be upset that all those one-night-stand fans are going to be wearing the championship gear like they've been fans through tough times (and as a Phillies fan, I know tough times).  I'm going to want to strangle all of those Jersey and CT people who call my city a second rate city when they don't even live in a state with its own DMA.

Most of all, I'm going to be upset that I'm not home to celebrate the great season the Phillies did have - regardless of how this ends.  (Sidenote: SI jinx, anyone?  I've seen it happen countless times before.  Couldn't they have just put a picture of a baseball on the cover?)

I don't like NYC and never really have.  I made the sacrifice to say I lived somewhere great and to get that degree I know I'll be thankful for later in my career.  I know this NYU degree is unlike anything any other school in the country offers, and that makes this worth it.  But I'm already looking forward to my next trip home, my next break from school, my next graduation.

The game is about to move into the bottom of the 8th, and it doesn't look good.  I had high hopes this season, and they'll continue again in the spring like they do every spring.

Go Phillies and, more importantly, go Philly.

(RIP HK - This season goes to you for always having the highest hopes of any Phillies fan.)