Sometimes it's fun to watch a World Series when you have no real emotional attachment to either team...
You get to adopt a team for a week or so and cheer them on without the pesky "loyalty" and "invested emotion."
So the staff at Sully Baseball have given this year's eagerly anticipated ratings bonanza of Tampa Bay and Philadelphia some thought.
It would make sense for me to root for the Rays.
1. They Beat The Red Sox
If the Red Sox lost to the team that beat them, then that means they lost to the World Champion. No shame in that.
2. It's really one of the most remarkable stories in baseball history
Really! A team that has never won 71 games in its first 10 years suddenly becomes the World Champions?
That's insane!
The 1969 Mets were amazing, but they didn't have to deal with free agency!
3. They have the lowest payroll in the AL
Conventional wisdom says a team with a low payroll has no chance to have a winning record, let alone win the division over the big bad Red Sox and Yankees.
But as I said before, conventional wisdom is sometimes dead wrong. And a Rays title might shut up a lot of Salary Cap proponents.
But in the end, I've decided to root against the Rays and for the Phillies,
My reasons for Rooting for the Phillies
1. I don't like the Rays.
Not just because they beat my team. The Indians beat my team and the White Sox beat my team in the post season... and then I went on to root for them.
No, I sense a real rivalry is brewing here... and you don't cheer for rivals.
2. Phillies fans need a hug
Yeah they are mean.
Yeah they are ornery.
But they also booed Sarah Palin, so how bad can they be?
3. Philadelphia Fans need a great player to be a champ...
At least one NOT played by Sylvester Stallone.
A lot of great players have come and gone through Philadelphia since the 1983 76ers won the NBA Title.
Charles Barkley
Allen Iverson
Randall Cunningham
Reggie White
Curt Schilling
Eric Lindros
Ron Hextall
Terrell Owens
And that's just off the top of my head.
They all represented Philadelphia and none of them won a title in Philly.
Looks like Donovan McNabb will be the next one.
I don't want to see Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and Chase Utley on that list.
4. There's already been enough winning in Tampa Bay
The Buccaneers won the Superbowl in 2003.
The Lightning won the Stanley Cup the next year.
Meanwhile Philadelphia is a quarter century without any title.
I wonder how cities like Cleveland and Seattle think about the fact that while their teams have gone longer than Philly without a title that Tampa will be piling them up!
5. Can baseball survive another Florida World Series title?
The Marlins won two World Series titles... and still don't have a fan base.
It's going to be different in Tampa Bay because.....?
6. I know a lot of Phillies fans
My friend, the great comic Tami Vernekoff?
She's a Philly girl who worked behind the scenes for Phillies broadcasts.
Several of my cousins including Bill Sullivan, loyal Phillies fans.
Mark Mayer, one of the executive producers at the company I work for? A dedicated Phillies fan.
A bunch of comics, filmmakers, TV producers and crew members I've met over the years have been from Philadelphia.
I like my friends to be happy.
When was the last time you met a transplanted Rays fan?
7. LESS COWBELL!
The Cowbell ringing is the most contrived and forced attempt to create atmosphere at a game since the Rally Monkey.
I am all for a sincere fan tradition.
(Few fan traditions are cooler to watch than the Yankee Stadium Bleacher Roll Call)
But ringing cowbells and having to instruct the fans when to ring them smacks of desperation.
Phillies fans have a tradition that came naturally.
It's called bile.
8. The Matt Stairs Factor
There's not a lot of star veterans without a World Series ring to root for, a la Paul Molitor in 1993.
But it is impossible not to root for Matt Stairs to get his World Series ring.
9. Charlie Manuel is a baseball lifer
Look at this guy!
That's what a manager is supposed to look like!
Out of shape, countrified, and who has been in the game forever.
Unlike Joe Maddon, who won a ring as a coach with the 2002 Angels... Manuel is ringless despite being in the game since the late 1960s.
Plus his mother just passed away.
I guess that is irrelevant in terms of baseball... but it made me sympathetic.
10. FINALLY... I was a Phillie!
Look at that windup by Right Handed Starting Pitcher Paul Sullivan...
The pride of the Weston Massachusetts Little League Phillies.
Look at second baseman R.K. Russell waiting in attention behind me.
So as a former Phillie, I must stay loyal to my old team and yell
LET'S GO PHILLIES!!!!!
Win the World Series and do the 4th place (out of 5) Weston Phillies proud!
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