A Phillies World Series win would have upended the city. Imagine the red, white, and blue confetti raining down Broad Street, the people miraculously climbing greased poles, and the crowds swarming city hall. Instead, we were treated with a devastating loss and victory just out of our grasp. I think Phillies fans deserved the win.
I’m not much of a baseball fan, but I’ve developed a love for Philly sports through my brothers. They talk about the Sixers and Eagles and Phillies constantly, discussing stats at the dinner table and listening to analysis anytime we’re in the car. This summer was all about the Phillies, which meant watching every game, playing baseball in the backyard, and jabbering about the line-ups. Watching their passion for the Phillies and all the other Philadelphia teams almost forced me to create my own special connection with the city’s teams.
Looking at the pictures from the Houston Astros’ parade solidified my thinking that Houston did not deserve the win. There were no outrageous costumes or all-night celebrations. Yes, about a million people showed up, but when the Eagles won the Superbowl in 2018, more than 2 million people showed up to the Art Museum area.
I remember my brothers screaming in my ear, and the noise on the street, and the fireworks going off. That was a real celebration. Philly has, again and again, shown their pride for their teams. From creating an actual earthquake during game five of the World Series to immediately putting murals up of Bryce Harper after his home runs, the enthusiasm and passion alone should have clinched a win.
The 2018 Super Bowl consisted of fans wearing bulldog masks because we were marked as the “underdogs” – we weren’t expected to go to the Superbowl, and when we were there we weren’t expected to win. We saw the same thing in this World Series; we started out as a wild card, only in the championship because we won a few more games at the end of the season, and we were expected to lose horrendously to Houston.
In the first game of the World Series, the hosts went around predicting who was going to win and every single one said the Houston Astros were going to beat the Philadelphia Phillies. Contrary to what everyone on that broadcast thought, the Phillies pulled through, beating Houston 6-5 in the tenth inning.
Philadelphia has consistently been underestimated, and the fans deserved to prove to the world once more that we shouldn’t be.
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