By By Ed Morrone
Sports fans: think about your favorite professional team’s most agonizing loss for a moment. Although you’ve probably tried your best to lock these feelings away forever, think about how it felt one more time. Yankees fans might remember Luis Gonzalez’s game winning hit in the 2001 World Series or Johnny Damon’s grand slam in Game 7 of last year’s American League Championship Series (ALCS). Aaron “bleeping” Boone’s walk off shot in the 2004 ALCS will come to the minds of many Red Sox fans. For Jets fans, maybe it’s Doug Brien’s infamous right leg that makes you want to rip your hair out.
Depressed, heartbroken, dejected; these words are mere understatements of how we feel as sports fans in times like these.
To all fans of these aforementioned teams and to others across professional sports, I have this to say to you: You don’t know what heartbreak feels like unless you’re from Philadelphia.
No city in the world has more tortured sports fans than that of the City of Brotherly Love. We have four major professional franchises-Eagles (football), Phillies (baseball), Flyers (hockey) and 76ers (basketball)-none of which have won a championship since 1983, when the Sixers swept the Lakers in the NBA Finals. All four of these teams have come close in various seasons, but to no avail.
Since I was born in 1986 in Philadelphia and am an avid sports fan, you can imagine my predicament. So many times have these teams gotten close and every single time they have tore my heart out.
It all started in 1993. I was a precocious and extremely cute 7-year old without a care in the world-that is, until the Phillies came along. Their improbable run to the World Series captured my young attention span and immediately converted me into a Philly fan for life. But then, something happened. Something I’ve become unwillingly accustomed to over the years. They blew it.
Their opposition, the Toronto Blue Jays, held a 3-2 series lead heading back to Canada. But the Phils held a 6-5 lead in Game 6 heading into the bottom of the ninth, poised to re-capture momentum and force a deciding Game 7. Then, Joe Carter took Mitch Williams over the left field wall and it all started.
Don’t think that’s so bad? Well, I’ve got more stories.
The Eagles, after years of futility, were on the Super Bowl’s doorstep from 2002-04 before losing three consecutive NFC Championship games. They finally bucked the trend last year and won the NFC title, only to lose a gut-wrencher to the Patriots that made Eagles fans feel like they had just taken a collective Muhammad Ali uppercut to the stomach.
Allen Iverson’s 76ers thrilled fans with Game 7 victories over the Raptors and Bucks and an unbelievable overtime win over the powerhouse Lakers in Game 1 of the 2001 Finals before promptly losing four straight.
Don’t forget the Flyers, who have also had their fun with fans in the past decade. Led by Eric Lindros in his prime, the 1997 Flyers looked like a reincarnation of the Broad Street Bullies of the 1970s and were sure to win it all once they advanced to the Stanley Cup. However, the Detroit Red Wings had other ideas, sweeping them in four games. The 2000 version of the team had the Devils pinned down 3-1 in the Conference Finals before dropping three straight. And how could I forget 2003’s team, which lost to the Lightning in Game 7 of the Eastern finals and ruined my senior prom.
Unfortunately, I have no more gloomy playoff stories involving the Phillies because they haven’t made the postseason since that ’93 season. They’ve come close in each of the last three years before flaming out in the final week of the season each time.
The future doesn’t look too much brighter for this sad group of die-hards. The Eagles and Flyers have talented teams this year, but with a hurt Donovan McNabb trying to carry the Birds and the Orange & Black’s history of choking in the playoffs, it’s hard to count on either of these teams. The Eastern Conference is far too stacked for the Sixers to ever think about winning a championship and the Phillies underachieve way too much for anyone to ever believe in them.
So I guess the big question is, why should anyone outside of Philadelphia even care about any of this? Well, you probably shouldn’t. In fact, I hope you don’t. But to those of you who hail from New York, Boston, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Detroit and every other major sports city in the country, keep this in mind: You all have recent championships to counter your defeats. Not me. Not us. Consider yourselves lucky.
Perhaps those of us who weren’t alive for Philadelphia’s last title will never see a championship parade ride down Broad Street. Maybe we’ll continue to be punished like rabid dogs, foaming at the mouth for something we can’t have.
ESPN.com writer and fervent Red Sox fan Bill Simmons recently published a book entitled “Now I Can Die in Peace” in reference to the 2004 World Champs that ended the Curse of the Bambino. Good for you, Bill, you can die in peace.
If only I could be so lucky.