Fan Heartbreak

Growing up a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, Phillies, and 76ers, one thing I have learned to deal with is disappointing sports teams. It was so bad that the city thought its sports teams were all cursed. The Curse of William Penn is what they called it. You see after the 76ers won the title in 1983 the city of Philadelphia built its first Skyscraper that was taller than the statue of William Penn. The Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, and College Basketball teams had winning teams throughout the years but they never claimed a championship. It got so bad that people talked about the Curse causing Smarty Jones to lose the Triple Crown in horse racing.

In 1993 when the Phillies made it to the World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the city places a giant Phillies ball cap on William Penn’s statue, in an attempt to get him to end the curse on the town. It didn’t work; Joe Carter will forever be hated in the City of Brotherly Love. In 2001 Allen Iverson led the Sixers to the NBA Championship game against the Shaq and Kobe Lakers. Philadelphia wanted this championship bad; Kobe was one of their own, who now played for the much hated Lakers. Iverson led the team to a game once victory over a Lakers team that had not lost a playoff game yet. All of a sudden Sixers fans believed it was possible. Four games later, the Lakers had won the championship and the Sixers haven’t been close to the championship since. In 2004 the Eagles finally make it past the NFC Championship game and into the Super Bowl, only to lose to the New England Patriots by a field goal. At this point in my life I figured I’d die before my teams ever won a championship. I mean the only championships I’ve seen anyone win was from two of my favorite NASCAR drivers, Tony Stewart (2002 and 2005) and Terry Labonte (1996). I also got to see the University of Michigan win a share of the National Championship in football in 1997.


It wasn’t until the fall of 2009 when my beloved Phillies made it back to the World Series, 19 years since they had won there only World Series in 125 plus years, only after they became the first team to lose 20,000 games, and only after Comcast bought the tallest building in the city and put a miniature statue of William Penn on top of it did they finally win the World Series in one of the oddest World Series I can remember. Game 5 took three days to finish if that tells you anything. When they won I was in complete shock, I didn’t even know how to react, my heart was racing and when the last strike was called I just fell to the ground and stared at the TV in disbelief. My roommate at the time, a lifelong Cubs fan shook my hand and told me he hoped to feel what I was feeling one day. I remember everyone calling and texting me to congratulate me as though I played for the team. I didn’t play for them, but any real sports fan knows that you put a lot of yourself into your teams, when they lose it hurts and when they win on the grandest of stages you are overwhelmed with joy and excitement.

I tell you this to preface how I felt last night after watching my beloved Washington Capitals lose a game 7 in the first round of the playoffs. Ok I know your first question is how is the Baron a Caps fan if he is a fan of the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers? Why isn’t he a Flyers fan? The main reason is I didn’t follow hockey when I lived in New Jersey, just across the river from Philly. Sure I followed the Flyers a little when I moved because it reminded me of where I grew up, but I never had an attachment to them. When the league went on strike in 2005 I didn’t care, because I didn’t have an interest in the NHL. After the strike the local team had just drafted a player who only comes along every 20 years or so, Alexander Ovechkin. Ovie was just fun to watch play, and the more I watched the more I started checking up on the Capitals, at some point I dove in as a fan of the team. The funny part is Ovie isn’t even my favorite player on the team anymore, its Mike Green. Well last night the Caps, for the third straight year gave us hope and ripped our hearts out and let the Montreal Canadiens skate right over them. The Capitals had the highest scoring offense in the NHL this season, they had the best record in the NHL, they had one of the top scoring power play units (got one goal from them this series), and lost to the lowest seed in the Eastern Conference after take a 3-1 lead in the series. Sure two years ago they had the excuse of being young and the loss gave them great playoff experience, and last year it was they met a better team in Pittsburgh, but this year there were no excuses, they were just plain beat by an inferior team. After the game I was pissed, because I got way to into the game and let myself believe this was a road bump, but we would win game 7 and go on to win the Stanley Cup. The Caps are the team in DC that’s supposed to be good that lives up to their expectations. But just like all my teams from Philly and I think the DC sports fan would agree, we are all left disappointed after last night’s game. Bill Simmons from ESPN even tweeted last night that Washington had surpassed Seattle as the most depressing sports town. Seattle has a bad football team, a bad baseball team, and some rich guy from Oklahoma stole their basketball team that’s how bad it was there. Now people think DC has surpassed them. At this point the only thing I can say is “here’s to next year,” but Cubs fans have been saying that for 102 years.

The good news is tomorrow I am travelling to Richmond for a weekend of NASCAR with friends, that will most certainly put me in a better mood and after that there’s baseball season and my Phillies to get me through till September.