This is a (mostly) non-political diary. It's about a game that, for the next 10 days, is more than a game. Some would say it's about revenge. Others might think it is more about redemption.
Musings follow the flip...
When is a World Series about more than just a championship ball game? How about when it’s Philadelphia vs New York?
This is the World Series I was hoping for - and not because I think the Yankees would have been the easier American League team for the Phillies to beat in the fall classic. Actually, quite the opposite. I wanted the Phils to play the Yankees for many reasons. To be the best, to be a team for the ages, you have to beat the team of the ages - and those guys wear Yankee pinstripes. That's the Phillie's challenge over the next 10 days.
Don't get me wrong. Last year's title for the Phils was wonderful, and wonderfully unexpected. But it was against the Tampa Bay Rays, fer chrissakes. Unsurprisingly, that series received the lowest World Series TV ratings in history. The Yanks - Phils matchup starting on Wednesday evening in the Bronx will be anything but low rated, and anything but boring.
The subplots alone will keep the pundits and sportswriters busy until the first pitch on Wednesday evening. Projected starters CC Sabathia and former Cleveland teammate Cliff Lee are pitching against each other in the first game. The power hitting of Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Howard will make every turnover of the lineups exciting. Jimmy Rollin's mouth will provide plenty of bulletin board material for the Yanks, and certainly Johnny Damon will reciprocate for the Phillies. But most of all, it's New York vs its poor sister to the south, Philadelphia.
Yes, those of us from the Philadelphia sports market have always had a chip on our collective shoulders when it comes to New York teams. The sport doesn't matter - football, hockey, basketball, baseball, or inter-mural badminton for that matter - New York teams have, for the most part, owned Philly teams for so long that the entire city is drooling at the prospect of beating one of them for a world title. Any of them.
It's more than just sports, though. Philadelphians have long held a bitterly painful civic inferiority complex to the Big Apple. Part of that is sports related; most of it is simply a cultural thing. New York is Wall Street money. Philly is a metaphor for blue collar life struggles. Mayor Bloomberg or Mayor Nutter? Come on, it isn't even close. Hell, even our organized crime rings and local mafia thugs were second rate back in the day. Joey Merlino or the Dapper Don? You make the call.
So this is finally Philly's shot at civic redemption. Cliff, Cole, Ryan, Chooch - you guys have so much more riding on your shoulders than you can possibly imagine. For the average resident of Philadelphia, this is about so much more than baseball. But win this series, guys, and I guarantee you that none of the players on the 2009 Phillies roster, their wives, kids, grandchildren or great-grandchildren will ever have to buy a cheesesteak or Yards IPA again in this town. Ever.
It ain't life or death, and it ain't HCR, but yeah, it's that important.
Play ball!