Negadelphia  

From the collapse of the 1964 Phillies, to the Eagles of 1980, to the 76ers of the A.I. years, and even last year with the Eagles being only yards short of getting to the Super Bowl, Philadelphia sports teams have a way of coming up just short of the goal. Around here it has a name, Negadelphia. That feeling inside that says no matter how good we are doing, it is only going to end in heartache.

Then something happened. The Phladelpha Phillies.

4 years and 3 years ago they lost out on a chance to get to the play-offs on the last day of the season. 2 years ago, the Rockies swept them from the wild card spot in the first round. Same old thing.

Then last year. As infectious as the belief in the team was, we knew that somewhere the Phillies would break our hearts again. But they didn't. The beat the Tampa Bay Rays and won the World Series. Something that only happened once before. Instead of looking at a game we were leading and wondering how we were going to lose, we looked at a team that was behind in the 9th inning and wondering how they would win.

Anywhere among the 8 regulars, a rally could start. Top of the order with Rollins and Victorino, The meat of the order with Chase, and Ryan, and the other All Star outfielders, Werth and Ibanez. Even Feliz or Ruiz could get a rally started. And occassionally lightening would strike and the pitcher would get the hit to start or continue the onslaught.

The series with the Dodgers has shown it. Ryan Howard has just tied Legend, Lou Gehrig with RBIs in 8 straight Play-off Games. Carlos Ruiz, a .250 hitter is coming up gold and scored one of the runs in the 9th to win yesterday. And Jimmy Rollins, who has been having an off year, and unit the last 2 days hasn't hit at all, knocks in the runs to give us a 3 to 1 lead in the Championship series.

Negadelphia has turned around at Citizen's Bank Park and with the Phllies and instead of asking how are we going to lose, it's I wonder how we are going to win today.



GO Phillies.

Let's get back to the World Series and Bring on the Yankees.