Grief, Mourning, Recovery (Whatever, You Like Football More Anyway)

Sigh.  So I assume we all had that old familiar feeling this morning, the one that comes along with watching our team almost but not quite win.  Yup.  The Phils had a lovely run of things, but couldn't quite topple the Evil Empire from New York.  I feel your pain, and not just because I live and work in New York surrounded by Yankee fans (which, as you might imagine, is especially unpleasant today). 

Still, if there's anything we've grown accustomed to confronting as Eagles fans, it's painful disappointment.  Our little sports feelings have been bruised enough to make us certified experts in anger and remorse.  And it would be a dereliction of our duties were we not to at least attempt to help you through your day and the end of the Phillies' season. 

Grieve with me, and fear not: it really isn't that bad after all.  Here's why:

Now you really have a reason to hate the Yankees and their fans.  While we've taken to disliking Yankee fans on general principle (smugness, the part where their team spends the most money every year, the part where it's like rooting for gravity), now Philadelphians have a legitimate reason to loathe Yankee fans with all of our rotten souls.  (Losing the World Series to the Yanks in 1950 didn't really count.)  This is great news!  If there's anything we're awesome at, it's hating other teams and their fans.  Embrace it, everyone -- you're completely justified in your disdain for the Yanks.

The opportunity to passive-aggressively be a sore loser.  When you face down the inevitable confrontation with a gloating Yankee fan, be sure to bring up the bit about A-Rod getting drilled no fewer than four times in the World Series.  "Don't you think it's weird that they hit him four (4) times with no retribution?  No, I mean, I'm just saying.  He's a marquee player, and they're going to let the Phils get away with that?  Four times?  Oh, the Victorino thing.  Oh.  Well, I thought it was pretty obvious that was retribution for Teixeira, no?  So yeah, A-Rod.  Guess the rest of the guys don't really like him so much?  You think?"  The best part about this line of questioning is that the Yankee fan will actually end up agreeing with you.  Relish it!  

Your liver and upper digestive system needed a break anyway.  This is the sound of me saying Uncle after a month and change of drinking and eating bar food 4-5 nights per week.  Yikes.  My belly didn't do well with this World Series run, not that I didn't enjoy every last morsel/ drop of deliciousness that I forced down my pie hole.  But I could probably use "fewer beers and/ or chicken wings on Tuesdays" as a general rule. 

Admit it, baseball isn't football.  I mean, it's exciting when it's your team in it at the end, and few things are more charming than drinking a beer in a ballpark on a summer evening, but I'm not going to pretend that I'm a great baseball fan and that I appreciate it in some sort of lyrical-old-guy-reflection-on-what-it-means-to-be-an-American way.  I prefer the pageantry and violence of pro football.  Full stop.  And -- and I know I'm getting in trouble with this next bit -- I'm not sure I appreciate the groundswell of popular support that the Phillies have enjoyed in Philly, if only because all the recent Phillies' fans seem so...nice?  Happy?  Is there a better word for "Not full of anger, bitterness and disappointment"?  Ultimately, I don't trust it.  And yes, I know that this makes me the bad guy.  (Or this is just what happens when the team wins, isn't it.)       

And in case you didn't notice, the Eagles humiliated the Giants on Sunday.  40-17!  Just pounded them!  And had the good guys held onto a couple more errant Eli passes, the score might have been worse.  I'm telling you -- go and watch all the post-game coverage on PE.com.  Revel in it.  It's not too late.  If this was any other week, we would have been giddy for days.  Well, now that baseball's over, you can enjoyed some delayed giddification.  Soak it up.  And now the Birds have the Cowboys coming in for a Sunday-Nighter?  Truly this is a great week to be an Eagles fan.

In conclusion, the Yankees are crap.  Go Birds.