5/22/07

Root for the home team?

Something kind of scary hit me the other day. I'm raising two new Phillies fans. Okay - so Peter's a little young to realize, but Vincent knows of the existence of the Fightins and knows Daddy prefers them over other teams (especially the Devil Mets). Why should I care about this? Because my beloved Phils are the losingest (Is that a word? It's used often enough in sports. I kind of hate it.) franchise in the history of professional sports.

Over the course of their 124 year history, they are 8786-9978 and have only won one World Series. That ain't good. I'm actively involving my children in a losing enterprise. What kind of father am I? Just because we live in the same relative geographic location to 25 men playing baseball means I have to subject them to the same torture I've been through (along with my father and my father's father....)?

Yep. I mean - I can't raise Mets fans because the Mets are Satan's Descendents. Nationals? Orioles? What a bore.
And that's it. Rooting for the Phillies isn't boring. You've either got blinding hope that the rare winning streaks will continue, or something kind of fun to complain about with other like-minded masochists. Hopefully the boys will thank me some day for this. I mean - I could be raising them in Pittsburgh.
By the way - they lost 5-3 tonight to the Marlins, a team with no fans whatsoever. What's the fun in rooting for them?
(photo caption: Me and the boys with our Phillies fan faces.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Sox went about 86 years between championships...but there were kids born in 2005 whose first baseball experience was a BASTIN world series.

And wasn't Vinny's first superbowl between a New England team and a certain bird of flight?

Keep at it Philly!

Anonymous said...

That's cool and all, but whaddya say about introducing these boys to the world's oldest sport, America's beloved pasttime, pro wrasslin'?

Anonymous said...

i think you should get them matching carlos ruiz jerseys.

unh.