Philadelphia

         I am a New York fan. My bias extends deeply through the core of New York sports. I love the NY sports teams. My slight diversion in major college sports goes to where I grew up--in close proximity to Rutgers University, the State University of New Jersey, which was small potatoes when I was young but which now has burgeoned into a nationally-known team by way of ESPN and its neophyte membership in the Big 10 Conference.

        Being so New York centric, every other market seemed to be minor or insignificant compared to the New York megalopolis. There were 3 baseball teams when I was a youth, then the present 2. There has been a various number of professional football teams, now again settled with 2 who share the region from a stadium in North Jersey. Two more NBA teams; 2 soccer teams; 3 NHL franchises now with a fourth defunct one in its history. Madison Square Garden was the indoor mecca for basketball-especially with the NYC powerhouse schools of St. John's Manhattan, Fordham and New York University along with the National Invitational Tournament, which still exists today but in its heyday was more prestigious than the NCAA hysteria known currently as "March Madness." MSG also hosted track meets, dog shows and NBA doubleheaders.  Yankee Stadium was where Ruth, Di Maggio, Mantle, Jackson and Jeter made history.

          New York was a city of 8 million and with millions more packed into growing suburbs in New Jersey, Westchester County, on Long Island and in outlying areas. There were television stations galore including the homes of NBC and CBS. So many daily papers including the erudite New York Times ("all the news that's fit to print"). The United Nations was located in Manhattan. Wall Street with the New York Stock Exchange, too.  The Empire State Building and the imposing skylines. Tunnels and bridges to enter Manhattan Island. The best eateries. The biggest park. The best zoo in the world. Everything was magnified. All things seemed to be the best. Nowhere else could compare.

          I disclose the NY state of mind because I have not forsaken my allegiance to my teams. Instead, I am entering the lair of people who actually root for another city's team. The teams from Philadelphia. That city located 90 miles from New York City, separated by New Jersey and accessible by bridges over the Delaware River. The one that New Yorkers visit on occasion for touristy things like the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, or the US Mint. The place where their go to food is a cheesesteak from rivals Geno's or Pat's, diagonally across from each other in an odd South Philly feud. A growing skyline shows the new Philadelphia; yet traveling in from any angle the old, row house neighborhoods still are prominent, a testimonial to the working class ethic which permeated Philadelphia long ago.

         Philadelphia is a big city in population--it is the fifth largest city in the US and the Delaware Valley is the fifth largest metropolitan area. its television market is fourth in the nation, after New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. It has all of the major amenities that a city should have in terms of a standout university (the University of Pennsylvania), great hospitals and dental schools; it is home to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. There are very well-known art museums. It has a great park too, and a river runs right through its midst. Thee is a very active Navy Yard, a small subway system and it was the hub of many railroads. It had a couple of newspapers too--the Inquirer is very well respected.

       Which is why there is a heated rivalry between fans from both cities. New York snobbery is considered boorish in Philly. Philadelphians are considered to be second class neanderthals by those same New Yorkers. Neither side is getting it right. And hasn't for years.

        My very first exposure to Philadelphia sports came with a trip to old Connie Mack Stadium in North Philadelphia for a July night game involving the Los Angeles Dodgers (2 years removed from being the Brooklyn Dodgers who, along with the New York Giants, abandoned New York for the untapped riches of California) and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. Although my loyalties were with the American League Yankees, I was a student of the game and I peppered my father about other teams--the Mets were still three years away from formation; having gone to dental school at Temple University in Philadelphia, he knew of the Phillies and that the stadium was not too far away from the campus. While the Phillies won the game on a Clay Dalrymple HR with Hall of Famer Robin Roberts pitching a gem for the home team, I recall the vitriol emanating from the competing Dodgers and Phillies fans. Boos and words an 8 year old had never heard in such an unending stream. Nonetheless, on my own, I started to follow the Philadelphia sports teams with some greater interest. Because they weren't that far away from my childhood home in Central New Jersey.

        Universally, the Phillies weren't very good. Compared to the Yankees, they hardly ever won. In 1950 the Phils did win, only to succumb to the Yankees in the World Series in four games.  Then in 1964, the Phillies could have actually won the National League except for an epic collapse at the end of the season. Not to say that they haven't had their moments. In 1964, Jim Bunning, later to be the Republican Senator form Kentucky, pitched a perfect game against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium on Father's Day. The Phillies, loaded with Hall of Famers and close to HOF players, excelled in the late 1970's culminating with their first World Series win in 1980.

         The Phillies fortunes took another steep decline until the 2000 decade when a new group of stars took them to the second championship in 2008. All totaled--11 NL East titles; 7 NL pennants; 2 World Series victories. Stark compared to New York standards. The Mets, in existence since 1962, have won 2 World Series.

        I have attended games at Connie Mack Stadium, renamed after the legendary owner of the Philadelphia Athletics (relocated to first Kansas City then Oakland), sterile Veterans Stadium, where the Phillies were a co-tenant with the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles, and now Citizen's Bank Park. Sure the fans were rabid. But they booed payers unmercifully. Michael Jack Schmidt (Mike), their best player ever and Richie (Dick) Allen, a prodigious slugger, felt the wrath; Allen had to leave town it was so bad. I never could quite grasp why the boos--for even the best players.

        College football centered around the University of Pennsylvania. Once a power, they now are firmly settled in the Ivy League, with Temple University an up and coming power. Villanova University did have a bit of success but actually abandoned football before reinstating it at the then Division 1-AA level.  But the truth is that when mighty Penn State comes in, Lincoln Financial Stadium sell out. Sure Army and Navy used to draw 100,000 annually to their rivalry but dadly, that too is diminished and at times is not played in Philadelphia. Being fair, New York did have Fordham and New York University and Columbia playing big time football yet they receded into the background with the advent of pro football.

        Speaking of pro football, The New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles have played football seemingly forever. Both have very loyal fan bases. They are ties together on the mysterious fumble that Giants QB Joe Pisarcik inexplicably made at Giants Stadium on a hand off to Larry Csonka instead of running out the clock for a sure Giants victory, only to be scooped up by then Eagles DB Herm Edwards (who later coached the New York Jets and is an ESPN expert/talking head) whereupon he scampered 26 yards to an improbable Philadelphia victory. The similarities end there. Although the Giants went through an enormous drought before winning a Super Bowl, they have won a couple. Philadelphia can point to one appearance and no rings. Even my Jets, whose history of successes is meager, at least garnered one Super Bowl victory in their only appearance--albeit 47 years ago. What those two teams have in common is an abundance of green in their uniforms and that they play each other yearly in the preseason. I have always thought that Eagles fans were natoer and less law-abiding--which is why in Veterans Stadium the authorities had a holding cell area and a magistrate on hand for rowdy, unlawful conduct that seemingly always occurred.

         No less vocal fans were the loyal Flyers hockey fans. Philadelphia won the Stanley Cup with the Broad Street Bullies--a group who could score, play defense and backed down from no one--meaning they'd fight at any time, including warm ups. Management even invoked good luck charm Kate Smith to sing God Bless America in person or on tape. Meanwhile, there are 3 hockey teams in the New York area--the New Jersey Devils have won a couple of Cups, eliminating the Flyers in the process; the Islanders won a number of those Cups and they too eliminated the Flyers on their way to victory. Even the New York Rangers, the epitome of frustrating performances, have more recently won the Stanley Cup even with a 60 years plus span from the last Cup win.

        Basketball always played a pivotal role in both cities sports history. Professional basketball was huge in both locales. Yes, I did say was. The Philadelphia Warriors were my first memory of the NBA in Philly, New York had its Knicks. When the Warriors abandoned Philadelphia for the San Francisco area, the Syracuse Nationals moved into Philadelphia to fill the void. Both franchises had some modest degree of success. My only NBA championship game which I attended was at the Philadelphia Convention Center when the Warriors and 76'ers played. In my younger years, I used to go fairly regularly to the Spectrum to see NBA games, the now defunct home for the city's NBA and NHL teams. Lots of great players on both sides, but now not much to show at all. As bad as the Knicks are, the Sixers set yearly standards for how bad an NBA team can be.

        As I stated earlier, in its day, Madison Square Garden hosted so many collegiate doubleheaders involving the 6-8 local colleges playing amongst themselves and hosting national and regional powers.
Philadelphia countered with its own unique vision of college hoops:  the Big Five. The University of Pennsylvania hosted the games at their arena, the Palestra. Penn, La Salle, St. Joseph's, Temple and Villanova played in their cathedral in heated battles against each other and with teams invading their turf. Seemingly every game was on television. Now the conferences and larger arenas on campus at Temple and Villanova made the Big Five into a lesser light. The games had importance, but not like they used to.

        Which brings me to where we are today. On Monday night, the Villanova Wildcats defeated the University of North Carolina Tar Heels in an epic battle won on a heroic last second shot to capture the NCAA championship for the second time in school history. For all of the limited triumphs that the two cities have gained, this one made it sweeter for Philadelphia. For the few champions who have emerged from either city, this one seemingly out did all of the others in terms of sheer magnitude. A great game involving one of the legendary programs in all of intercollegiate sports, going down to the wire with the outcome determined by a single basket when overtime loomed so ominously.

         For the moment, the New York-Philadelphia rivalry has taken a backstage to a bunch of collegiate basketball players from a tony Catholic school on the suburban Main Line outside of Center City. Millions watched in awe as the final shot swished through the net in a filled football stadium far away in Houston, Texas.  Sports heroes were etched into history on a national stage. More importantly, Philadelphians were given a chance to rejoice for their first time since the Phillies won in 2008 and even more so, for the first basketball title since another even more unlikely group of Villanova Wildcats upset the heavily favored Georgetown Hoyas in 1985.

        I am sure that the celebrations have extended beyond the downtown parade, the campus hysteria and the cancellation of classes on Tuesday, the likely result of one big collective hangover. Sure, the Sixers stink for another season, the Flyers may not make the NHL playoffs again, the Phillies are very young and non-contenders and the Eagles are in coaching turmoil once more. Most Philadelphians will agree that this is true. Nonetheless, the center of the sports world in this country is squarely back in Philadelphia. There is plenty of Brotherly Love to go around. For awhile after this season, too.

       While I rooted for Carolina, I am happy for you, Philadelphia.  It was luck but in the end, as a really good squad won a championship. Your squad. What sayeth you, New York? How about those Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Giants, Jets, Yankees and particularly the Mets with the high hopes fans have after making it to last year's World Series? Outshined by a college team in the city that you detest?

        Sounds like the rivalry continues. Who is going rise up to win next?