Philadelphia, PA: My 4-team city, in which I've shunned 3 of the 4.

The Game Room
1

42 y/o. male. Born and raised in Philly. (Philadelphia, PA; USA)

I need to get this out, because it’s apparently a big deal with people who know me, but it is true:

I really, really, really, really am happy not watching (or following) the Eagles, Flyers and Sixers! No, seriously: I don’t even worry about them! They don’t register on my care-o-meter. I lost interest years ago.

Note: I do watch the Phillies, because I respect the organization now, as they do what is required to make a run for the World Series. They are not perfect, and could spend a touch more, but they address things that need it, and I feel they make legit business decisions. They changed their whole approach a few years ago when the old (cheap) approach didn’t work. Kudos to them. Perfect? No. Worthy of my attention? Yes. They got nowhere via plan A, then came up with a new and improved plan – we’ll call it B.

I am a lifelong bleeder of Philly sports, especially hockey. Now? Now? ::shrug:: I have not watched a hockey game in over two years. Why? Because, they (Flyers organization) use the same approach year in and year out, but expect different results. They stay tied to guys to make decisions who were on the 1974 team. They don’t change their approach, and they expect different results. I am completely incapable of caring about them.

Eagles? They are the icons of no change. Again, they expect different results, and yet they do nothing to justify that expectation. You cannot repeat the same approach and philosophy in the organization and cross your fingers for better results.

Sixers? I don’t need to even elaborate.

So, news flash: None of my happiness is dependent on sports. If my team wins, well that is just fine and dandy, but I am very desensitized to the whole thing anymore. I cannot get excited about any of it. I am writing this just to make it formally known that I am happy today, and that’s because I don’t need the Eagles or any other team in Philly to do anything in hopes that it will make me happy. It’s a sucker’s move.

Maybe this is a little confusing to many here on the SDMB, but when you live in a major area like Philly, and the home football team loses to its declared enemy, the happiness is sucked right out of the people. Not me… but everyone I deal with is a mush face whiner today.

About a year ago I came up with this saying:

“I’d rather be doing something than watching something”

Sorry, guys. I’ll come over for wings, beer and laughs, but don’t expect my emotions to be wrapped up in some football game. I will probably get antsy and leave if we don’t actually do something.

2

I’m a baseball man myself, so I’m ignorant of the perils of the Eagles, Sixers, and Flyers, but if “worthy of your attention” is all you can muster for the 2008 World Goddamn Series Champions (who returned the next year), it kinda sounds like the problem lies with your fickleness rather than necessarily the teams.

-Troy McClure SF, whose Giants are worthy of attention even if they’re not a dynasty

3

I grew up in Philadelphia and followed all of the majors (as well as the Big 5) religiously from lower grade school up until graduating from high school. I went away for college and then moved to California after graduation. I still followed the teams, but not nearly as closely as I did when I lived there. I’d check the standings and maybe catch a game here or there. I took the effort to see the Phillies play in each CA stadium.

Recently I returned to Philadelphia for an extended stay. I find the proximity to the teams, the reporters, the sports radio and the fans to have put me back into religious form for the Phillies and Eagles, but I have not been following the Spectrum teams at all. One big reason is that it is almost impossible to watch their games on tv. My Mom has DirectTV. I guess all of the Sixers and Flyers games are on Comcast. Whatever the case, I never see the teams and see no need to seek them out.

It would never dawn on me to let the owners make me stop following a team. As a baseball man, like Troy, I went through the 80s and 90s following Bill Giles Norman Braman and Harold Katz’s attempts at being a successful owner with the greatest disdain. But, part of the fun of being a fan is complaining about these chuckleheaded ownership decisions.

Thinking about it I think you might have been spoiled by coming of age during the golden age of Philadelphia’s 4 majors. The late 70s early 80s featured the Phillies as a national league power house with a world series win, the Eagles with a trip to the Super Bowl, the Sixers a championship victory and a trip to the finals and the Flyers were just coming off a dominating black and blue couple of years as NHL powerhouses.

Being born 10 years later I was able to see those golden years as twinkling memories and have stronger memories of Rich Kotitie, Barkley’s daughter designing uniforms, Lance Parrish as the answer, and Eric Lindross suffering head trauma after head trauma. Maybe my expectations are just lower? I don’t mind the bad ownership and can really revel in the good years. (2008 was truly sweet. This year wasn’t bad, either. And, with Halliday on the mound I don’t mind the Phils chances next year. Then again, with Halliday AND Lee I would REALLY like their chances. Stupid cheap ass owners! (See! It’s fun to complain.))

That’s 2008 World Fucking Champions if you ask Chase Utley.

4

I lived in Philly for 2 years, 00 and 01, and grew attached to the teams then. At that time, the Phillies were the joke outfit of the city whereas the others at least were play-off type calibre teams. So things change.

I can see what Philster means with the Flyers - if you’ve got the same management for years and years fucking things up at a sort of low-intensity level then there comes a time where you have to call it a day. It’s just not worth the emotional trauma. Is Bob Clarke still running the show there? He seemed to be in with the bricks of that organisation.

As far as the Eagles go then I don’t understand where the OP is coming from at all. I can’t be too critical as I don’t follow US sports that closely anymore - but it seems to me that the Eagles are well run and have fielded good, competitive teams for the best part of a decade. Given their rather modest history, what’s the problem here? It’s not like they were sweeping all before them when you were growing up, and Eagles fans now demand the success that is their birthright. There’s plenty of shite places to watch shite franchises play football in the US, Philly is not one of them.

5

I grew up in Reading (home of the Phillies farm team). I’ve never been able to get too worked up about the Eagles, Flyers or Sixers (I’ve always sort of vaguely followed the Steelers, and don’t watch hockey or basketball at all), but dissing the Phillies is fighting talk.

Plus I loves me some Phanatic.

6

That’s no less stupid when applied to sports than if applied to movies, television, books and music.

7

I don’t sit around watching movies much either.

Television? I put the Food Network on in the background, and the news, too. Reading is educational and I consider that doing something.

The Eagles would trigger my care-o-meter if they had Reid’s job on the line; instead, he has an extension given to him mid-season! Look, you wanna play with the big boys, you gotta do what the heavy hitters do: Put extreme amounts of pressure on people and have them put up or shut up. The Eagles need to have Reid scared, like Wade Phillips is scared down in Dallas, or any NY Yankee manager would be scared if they didn’t excel.

The Eagles field nice, winning teams. Real die-hards find this completely unacceptable.

8

Don’t bitch. I’m a Lions fan.

9

Shun them!

10

As someone who’s grown up within 100 miles of philly my entire life(28 years), I agree w/ the OP.

Late 90’s, the Flyers looked pretty good, and I was a rollerblading teenager who ate it up, somewhere about 2000 I lost interest in hockey as the Flyer’s skated back into obscruity.

I’ve never liked the Sixers, probably because I’m white, 5’7", and have sucked at basketball since age 12 when everyone started growing to be 5+ inches taller than me.

The Eagles, I dislike because I have to work way harder when the Eagles are doing good at the end of the season than if they have a 3-6 record around week 10. I work at a sports bar, so you can bet a good philly football team makes us work 3x harder every Sunday. I don’t have anything against the organization (and barely get to follow it anyways because I’m always working when they play), but I get way to much satisfaction when they’re losing than a Philly Fan should.

Even the Phillies, who I liked growing up, but abandoned during the 94(?) strike, didn’t appeal to me again until '07ish, when we started seeing Utley, Howard, Rollins starting to take up the team leads. I’ll watch the ComCast Philly station almost every morning after their games to catch up on the latest with them, I’m not bothering to waste my time on Comcast Sports unless it’s something Phillies related usually (or the “Best Damn Sports” countdowns, I’m a sucker for those)

11

As a New York sports fan, I’m thoroughly enjoying reading Philadelphia sports fans take pride in being bandwagon jumpers.

12

Sounds like you have everything figured out. Detaching yourself emotionally as soon as something gets tough is probably a wise choice. I imagine you’re not at all tempted to remind your friends about your choices or to disparage their preferences. And I bet your friends are certainly thrilled with your suggestions to “actually **do **something” during the fourth quarter. Kudos!

13

People in New York have absolutely no right to chime in on this subject – Period. You are a spoiled bunch, and never had to make tough decisions. Your city keeps you well fed with championships and/or goes full throttle to win them.

Try living in Loserville, PA, where the complacency of the fans is almost as repulsive as the ownership patting themselves on the back for being successful. I quote/paraphrase them, We are “The Gold Standard” in the NFL! LMAO!

14

I’ve been desensitized. Sorry, but unlike the rest of the blind-faith masses, I happen to know that you don’t get different results using the same tired approach.