Why it's still a great morning...

I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope for a different outcome, but I have to say I'm not too broken up about the Phillies coming up short last night.

To have my favorite sports team win three divisional titles, two National League pennants, and a World Championship in the space of three years is just too much to cherish for me to feel down today.

Maybe that's ultimately the upside to pulling for a team with such a lousy history. The way I see it, the prevailing sentiment among (most) Yankee fans is that any year when they don't win the World Series is an outright calamity. That's a tough bar to clear year in and year out! This year it worked, thanks to the many mercenaries they've purchased over the last few years. But how will those same fans feel next year if #28 doesn't materialize?

I'm proud of my team, a crew of guys who've played together for years and will be together for years to come. Because of that, I can promise you I got more out of the the Phillies' 2008 championship than any Yankee fan got out of #27. Guaranteed.

Hell, I'm a Phillies fan at the absolute best time in history to be a Phillies fan. No Yankees fan can say that!

So the Bronx Bombers can celebrate, but when spring training rolls around in a few months, they'll have this very same Phillies team staring them in face, burning for Round Two.

Dash Treyhorn over at The Fightins put it very well:

At first, this recap felt like an obituary. Here lies the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies, it started out with. That theme continued for about 50 or so words, until I realized something: It’s wrong.

It’s wrong, and I’ll tell you why: 2009 wasn’t the death of something. These Phillies aren’t getting taken apart from a fire sale spurred on by cheap management. There are no pending free agents that anchor the team, and the owner doesn’t have a beef with the skipper.

For the most part, this team is going to be back in 2010.

So that’s where we are. A team that lost the World Series to continue an improbable, glorious run that dates back to April of 2008. A team that fought through adversity and tragedy and triumph and sorrow and glee and more. A team that won’t go away quietly. A team that won’t die.

I'll take that team and that experience over a patchwork crew of hessians any day.

Not that I'm bitter! ;-)
- posted by Brian @ 8:54 AM