Craving Creativity in Chants and Cheers

Last night I revelled in the revelry that was reveling on the streets of Philadelphia as the Phightin' Phils wrapped up the National League Championship Series by humiliating the Los Angeles Dodgers in stunned Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine. It's great to see Philly fans having a good time celebrating the win and I'm glad that there were no reports of people getting hurt, doing stupid stuff, or generally misbehaving. It was a memorable night for Philly.

But I couldn't help but notice how weak we are when it comes to chanting for the team we embrace so strongly. The best that fans can come up with, be it at a game or at the intersection of Frankford and Cottman, is "Let's Go Phillies" (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap). Or "Beat L.A." And of course the ever-popular derrogatory yell of "(Fill in an opposing player's or team's name) sucks!" That's basically it. Where's the creativity?

In soccer- (football-) loving nations the world over, each team has its own distinct chants that are belted out, songs that are sung, or rhythms that are pounded out. But for some reason in Philly, like every other American city I suppose, the best we can do is three words at a time and a couple of claps on occasion.

At least in football (American football), the Eagles have a fight song, though that has gotten played out more than any MC Hammer hit ever was, likewise to the "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!" chant.

Yes Phillies fans and Philly fans in general are passionate about their teams, but I find it hard to believe that we can't raise the bar in terms of creative chant choreographing. And come to think of it, ever since our teams left the Spectrum and Veterans Stadium, the signs have become a lot lamer and less frequent too.

My message in all this to fellow Philly fans is... keep up the intense passion for your teams, but how 'bout we scream out something new for a change?

Lee Elia's Back on the Scene

Lee Elia, the native Philadelphian who managed the Phillies from 1987 to 1988 and compiled a 111-142 record during that time, has been hired as, and I quote: "an on-field consultant" for the Seattle Mariners.

If this doesn't sound like a cushy job, then I don't know what does. The job description, according to SI.com:

"He (will)work with the team for approximately half of spring training. Periodically throughout the season, he will assist manager John McLaren and the coaching staff while in uniform."

I guess when you're 70 years old and have 50 years of baseball experience, you can pull off jobs like that. Congrats Lee and good luck with the Mariners.

For those of you wondering, here's a summary of Elia's stats as an infielder for his Major League years of 1966 and 1968:

.203 batting average
3 home runs
25 RBIs
17 runs scored

And now for the best entertainment of the day!... Lee Elia's expletive-filled rampage in 1983 when he was managing the lowly Cubs... click here and be sure to scroll to the bottom and listen to the WAV file. AMAZING. That's true Philly 'tood right there folks.

Booing is Universal, Not Just a Philly Thing

To the next yokel who automatically declares Philadelphia boorish for booing, as announcers always love to point out, I suggest we all keep in mind that Philly isn't the only boo haven.

As reported by The Sporting News in a recent soccer match between the U.S. and Switzerland, in which the U.S. won 1-0, the fans booed the Swiss team off of the field.

And this was in Switzerland.

SWITZERLAND!

The "neutral" capital of the world!

If they can boo in Switzerland, then, like it or not, I think the rest of the world should get a free pass for booing at sporting events. How can the notoriously neutral natives of Switzerland get to reign down their disgust and not the rest of us sporting hooligans (booligans, perhaps?)? It's only fair.

If you'd like to see for yourself, simply fast forward to the end of this clip...

Phillies Quote of the Day

The quote of the day comes from an excellent article in the Philly Inquirer about the extraordinary feat of the Phillies' upcoming 10,000th loss. Summarizing the Phils' futility, here's the sad status of the team over the past 124 years:

In fact, the franchise's win-loss mark (8,805-9,995) has slipped so far below the break-even point that in order to get back to .500, the Phils would need to win 1,190 games in a row, a winning streak of seven-plus seasons.

If that doesn't sum up this team, I don't know what does. I highly encourage you to read the entire article for an enlightening history of our beloved, beleaguered Phightins'.

On a side note, Steve Jeltz and Sil Campusano were chosen as the team's Runner Up Worst Shortsop and Centerfielder, respectively. Ouch.

A Question for the Powers that Be in the MLB

Pardon me as I take a sidestep from the world of dissecting the peculiarities that define Philly sports. Instead, I'd like to raise an issue that I have with Major League Baseball's officials.

So far this year, weather has wreaked havoc on trying to get some baseball games in. Snow-outs in Cleveland. Thirty degree temps in Flushing Meadows. Generally cold, nasty stuff to contend with in many cities east of the Mississippi. This type of weather is not conducive to baseball.

So why, then, are any games even scheduled to be played in cold weather cities in the first couple of weeks in April? There are quite a few warm weather cities (Miami, Tampa, Phoenix, LA, etc.) and domed stadiums (Toronto, Minneapolis, etc) where games could easily and sensibly be scheduled to start the season until weather hopefully clears up in the middle of the month.

On a related note, the Phils are playing the Astros this weekend in Philly. It's the middle of April and ordinarily the weather is warming up by now, but by freak of nature (no pun intended), we're going to get hit by a nasty Nor'easter storm with buckets of rain, howling wind, and possibly even snow tomorrow. So it looks like there's a 99% chance Sunday's game will be cancelled-- and if not, it will be a soggy mess with minimial attendance and probably multiple delays. Yet today was a gorgeous day-- 55 degrees or so, mostly sunny. Why not hedge your bets and play a double header today, instead of cancelling tomorrow's game and trying to squeeze it in at the end of the season? It may be short notice for fans, but offer rainchecks to those who can't make it, cut prices to encourage people to come out to the park, and voila!-- you've got yourself a game completed, some happy fans, and potential scheduling nightmares to avoid.

I'd say that argument holds water, wouldn't you?

Phun with Numbers: Looking at the Phillies' Attendance Figures

A few curious fun baseball stats to point out to my fellow dedicated and tortured Phillies fans out there...

-In 1980, when the Phillies last sipped from the Stanley Cup (err, raised the Lombardi Trophy, err, sorry, it's been so long I forget what happens when a team wins the World Series), the team averaged 32,736 fans per game in the cavernous Vet Stadium which held over 60k. The team that year also had some of the most talented players this city's ever seen: Rose, Schmidt, Carlton, among others.
-In 1994, AFTER the Phils lost the World Series, the team averaged 38,183 fans per game to watch a comparatively wearier squad whose season got cut short by the infamous strike before the end of the year.

-Apparently Philadelphia is not very nostalgic about its ballparks. In 2003, the Phils attracted only 27,901 per game during the last ever season at the Vet, less than half the capacity. Ditto for the last season at Connie Mack Stadium when the attendance averaged 8,853 compared to a capacity of about 20,000. However in each of the following years, the attendance jumped about 50% and 120% respectively. Out with the old, in with the new!

-The Phils' first year of averaging over 10,000 people per game came in 1946, after WWII, when about 13,401 people came per game. Prior to that, the team's highest average attendance came in 1916 with 6,524 folks per game.

-Lastly, the Phils have had two years of 3,000,000 fans: 1993 and 2004. The Yankees, for comparison, have had 8 years in a row up through last season of 3,000,000+ fans. But I guess it helps being located in a city that has 6 times as many people in it than Philly has. But sheesh, every Yankees game should be sold out with 8 million people hanging around the city every day!

Philly Sports Quest Profile: Ron Anderson

Ok, you just read the name "Ron Anderson" and I can GUARANTEE I already know what you're thinking.

Answer: Baseline jumper!

Ronald Gene Anderson was a Sixer from 1989 to 1993 and I think somewhere around 92.6% of his points came from hitting that baseline jumper from 10-15 feet out. Am I right?

In thinking about all of the players that I've ever seen play, I can't think of another player who made his living from that baseline jumper shot like Anderson did. Some players make their living in 3-point territory, some from planting themselves in the post, others from a jumper from the elbow, or something of that ilk. But Ron found that hole on the baseline and exploited it. And I'll tell you what, for a guy that put up 18 points per game over his career, he did pretty well for himself there. Shoot, the Sixers today I'm sure would love to have a guy like Anderson... a guy who can shoot reliably well (47% from the field during his career), hit his free throws (81%), get about 3-4 boards a game, not turn the ball over, and generally just fill in where needed. Nice kind of role player to have around.

But anyway, here are some little known facts that I just learned about our buddy (and that's what he seemed like... a buddy, average Joe kind of guy who just did his job with little fanfare)...
(Note, for some reason my prized bullet feature disappeared so I'm winging it with the bullets and also the hyperlinks)

-Ron went to Fresno State and joined the NBA in 1984 after just 2 years of college ball
-He played from '84 to '94 on 4 teams: Pacers, 76ers, Nets, Bullets, and scored over 7,000 points
-After the NBA he ventured off to play in France and later to Israel... nice gigs there for him I reckon
-He played on the '89/90 team with "Thump and Bump" (Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn... Man, that must have been a fun locker room!), and yes, Chris Welp
-If you go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyZilWOTi8U and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsrb-M3CJg

You can see a glimpse of Ron in action (#20)... Okay, so they were the best I could find. Sorry! (At least you got to see Manute Bol dunk-- twice!)

Well that about wraps it up for Ron Annnnnnndersonnnnnn, as he was affectionately called from the Sixers's PA announcer whenever he scored. Ahh, memories.

Till next time, keep the Philly Sports Quest alive!

A Harken Back to the NES Days

I just wanted to take a break for comedy in this post. If you have any recollection of playing any Nintendo sports game, you'll get a good laugh from this video...



That clip just takes off when it hits "Bittersweet Symphony"... and never looks back. C'mon, the high jump? Wow. That was SWEET.

Ok, we'll be back with Philly sports chatter next time!

De Ja Vu All Over Again?

Ok, take a gander at the following couple of paragraphs (and/or the entire article if you so desire) that I just saw on Philly.com's homepage:

A woeful season might be of comfort

By Frank Fitzpatrick

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

If this woeful season winds up as the Flyers' worst, it may be comforting for their fans, players and officials to look back at the team it will have supplanted in franchise infamy.

Though 1969-70 produced just 17 Philadelphia victories - in addition to 35 losses and an NHL-record 24 ties - it laid most of the groundwork for the remarkable hockey success that was just around the corner.

Now I'm no conspiracy theorist, nor am I one to toot my own proverbial horn, but now take a look at the opening of this post I wrote on January 12, 2007:

Even in Philly, Patience is a Virtue

Any Flyers fan will recognize these names:

Bobby Clark
Gary Dornhoefer
Bernie Parent

Indeed, they are three of the more recognizable names in Flyers' history, since they were great players.

That, and they helped bring the first Stanley Cup to Philadelphia in the 1973-74 season.

But what many people may not know (and I didn't know this until just now), is that these three players were on the second-to-worst team in the league just a few seasons before winning the Cup. In 1969-70, these players suffered through an ugly year as the team won just 17 out of 76 games, and tied with the now defunct, short-lived Oakland Seals in the NHL's Western Conference.

In 1973 they improved to the first place team, winning 50 out of 76 games.

Notice any similarities? What's up with that?

A Star Sneaks In

So this post isn't really about Philly sports, as per usual, though I thought it was worth chatting about. Take a look at this bit of news...

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=local&id=4994132

If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, here's the gist:

Stephon Marbury has a new line of sneaks called Starbury 1's. He's having them priced at $14.95 per pair. That's almost a 10th of the price of other brand name bball sneakers, a la Jordans. That's pretty cool in my book. To make matters even sharper, he is giving free sneakers to 1,600+ high school boys and girls who play on their high school basketball teams in Philly.

Hopefully this trend will continue and other prima donna athletes will follow his lead. I think back to when I tried out for basketball in middle school and kids asking me how much I paid for my shoes. Maybe now kids will high five each other for buying kicks from the bargain bin. And start focusing on playing "real" basketball instead...

Philly Sports Phun Phacts

For the 06-07 season, the Eagles have won 11 games (including a playoff
game), the Flyers have won 11 games, and the Sixers have won 11 games.
Combined together, that's
33 wins.  (I'm good at math.)

By the end of the year, the total number of games played between the
three teams (assuming the Sixers & Flyers miss the playoffs) will be 182
games played.  Combined, these teams could easily win fewer games than
the Phillies could win for the regular season.  I would have to think
this is pretty much unprecedented in Philly history.

Estimates:

11 wins for Birds.
22 wins for Sixers
22 wins for Flyers
=55 wins total in 184 games.... Yikes!

Maybe the Phils can even double that number.  Time will tell...

Even in Philly, Patience is a Virtue

Any Flyers fan will recognize these names:

Bobby Clark
Gary Dornhoefer
Bernie Parent

Indeed, they are three of the more recognizable names in Flyers' history, since they were great players.

That, and they helped bring the first Stanley Cup to Philadelphia in the 1973-74 season.

But what many people may not know (and I didn't know this until just now), is that these three players were on the second-to-worst team in the league just a few seasons before winning the Cup. In 1969-70, these players suffered through an ugly year as the team won just 17 out of 76 games, and tied with the now defunct, short-lived Oakland Seals in the NHL's Western Conference.

In 1973 they improved to the first place team, winning 50 out of 76 games.

Dare I say.... wow!

That is one whale of a turnaround right there. And without a doubt there are more than just a few turnaround stories like this in all of sports, but I think it's easy to forget just how quickly it can happen, especially when us Philly sports fans are so used to seeing a team struggle forever and then take a while to become a champion. But with a few good players, a strong coach, and the right attytood, anything is possible. Oh, and just a little thing called patience.

As Axl Rose so poetically once said:

"All we need is just a little patience."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Just a little patience."