P Funk

I came very close to calling this post “27 and Cry” but decided that, even though
most of the plays on words here are made primarily for my own amusement, referencing an obscure Bowie song from a less-celebrated album was just too far out. Also, there is, famously, a distinct lack of crying in baseball. For a picosecond or so, it was titled “No Joy in Philville” in homage to the well-worn line in “Casey at the Bat”.

Except that there has been joy in Philville, despite the Phillies’ World Series loss
to the New York Yankees this night. The Phils have won the National League East title for three years running, the NL Championship pennant two years in a row, and one set of World Series rings in that span. After such an impressive streak, with a core that includes multiple All-Stars, MVPs, and Gold Glovers, nobody can write the Phils’ success off as merely good luck or the results of homer-friendly fences at the new ballpark.

And while my feelings for the Yankees are conflicted, mostly due to the team’s extravagant spending and George Steinbrenner’s long-held sense of entitlement, it’s hard to begrudge a storied franchise and decent, talented group of ballplayers their accomplishment. They say that the enemy of one’s enemy is one’s friend, although it’s rarely that simple: Philadelphia’s rivalry with the New York Mets has really heated up over the past few seasons, to a point where I’d root for the Yanks in a Subway Series instead of going for the Mets just because they’re the National League team, but the Yankees’ bitterest enemies within the American League are the Boston Red Sox, my own AL favorite. I loved seeing Boston win its first World Series trophy in almost a century.

The Phillies get razzed on occasion for their redundant name, by the way, if not as
hard as the so-called Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim do for their market-driven moniker. So why haven’t the Yankees been taken to task over claiming a word that in various contexts has been applied to New England, the whole of the northern United States, and to Americans in general?

Enjoy your victory parade, New York. You’ve earned it. Let’s do this again next year.


Phillies and Yankees icons are trademarks of Major League Baseball or the respective teams.

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