World Series Fever Grips USA and Philadelphia

Phillies First Series in 15 Years

The Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays will open the World Series tonight in an annual tradition that means more to many Americans than the changing of the seasons or the fortunes of the stock market.

The magic of a moment in baseball. Chase Utley nails one down the first base line.

The 104^th championship series will undoubtedly be covered by many writers who are more qualified than I to record the contest, but as a native Philadelphian, there is a certain obligation to recognize the event that has area postal workers wearing Phillies caps and women wearing temporary tattoos on intriguing body parts. 

Rather than go into the strategies, statistics and prognostications about the series, I’ve chosen instead to feature the lesser-known aspects of the Phillies for the benefit of marginal baseball fans who may need talking points in the next week or so.  Being from Philadelphia, I’ve restricted the following discussion to the home team.  Trust me, you don’t want to live in Philadelphia and chat up the opponent.  It’s just not done. 

The Philadelphia Phillies were first organized in 1883 as the “Quakers,” in a reference to the religious group that is more properly known as the Friends who initially settled the Philadelphia area.  The team was later known as the “Philadelphias,” but the Quakers moniker stuck until the team officially became the “Phillies” in 1890.

League play as Americans now know it didn’t come into existence until 1901 and included only 16 teams.  The first championship series was played in 1904.  Thus, the Phillies had already played for 21 seasons before a championship could even be won, and that might explain why the team goes so long between playoff appearances.  When the Phillies won its first and only World Series in 1980, they became the last of the original 16 teams to win the championship.

The Phillies have the unfortunate distinction of losing the most games in baseball history.  This is partly because of the team’s longevity and partly because they lose a lot of games.  The Phillies fan is arguably the most loyal fan of any sports team based upon the team’s long stretches of losing games and failed seasons.  The team lost its 10,000^th game in 2007, a milestone most Philadelphia residents would rather the team could have forgone.

From 1918 to 1948, our beloved Phillies only had one winning season.  For a brief period from 1944 -1945, the team changed its name to the Blue Jays, which may have been an attempt to distance itself from the image of the previous owner, William B. Cox, who was banned from baseball for betting on games.  Pete Rose was not involved in that incident whatsoever.

The 1950 “Whiz Kids” certainly looked like they could drive the Phillies to greatness, and they are credited by some as being the team that drove the American League Philadelphia Athletics out of town to Kansas City and later Oakland.  After winning the pennant with a last day homerun from Dick Sisler, the Phillies were on their way to the World Series.  But alas, the team lost the championship to the New York Yankees.

Another 14 years passed without note until the now famous “Phold of ‘64.”  In the final days of the season, a 10-game losing streak beset our beloved Phillies to lose a six-and-a-half game lead in the standings that handed the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Fast forward another 16 years, and the Phillies finally come through after 97 disappointing seasons.  I personally attended two of the six-game World Series that finally set the Philadelphia Phillies on top of American baseball.  The emotion of that day and series is hard to forget.  We haven’t seen another like it since, but in this reporter’s estimation, we very well could in 2008.

With all the talk of losing above, it might be interpreted that I’m less than enthusiastic, but that’s the beauty of baseball and being a Phillies supporter.  It’s about hope, it’s about never giving up, and most of all, it’s about forgiving.  If there are three more important lessons in life, I don’t know what they are.

Besides, the Phillies have other baseball highlights too.  The Phillies are the longest same-named, same-city team in American professional sports. They were the first to wear the batting practice jerseys that are now common across the league.  The Phillies lay claim to the team with the most batters to hit four home runs in a single game - Ed Delahanty (1896), Chuck Klein (1936) and Mike Schmidt (1976).  Yeah, I noticed the forty-year spread too, don’t jinx us.

The Phillies home field of Citizen Bank Park set the record in professional sports for green energy when it bought 20 million kilowatt-hours of completely renewable power.  The team has also raised $10 million for research into a cure for ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

Phillies fans have been noted as some of the rowdiest in the country, and there is some justification for that.  They’re a long-suffering bunch who invest everything into their team, and that can never be denied.  I’m not saying it’s right, but I understand.  (My apologies to Chris Rock).

Whatever the outcome, the Phillies are our team, and we will love them anyway.  The only way to finish up this posting is the same way we finish every sentence here in Phillies country - Go Phillies!