When people used to talk about long-suffering Cubs fans, I can’t help but roll my eyes. If you’re a sports nut in Chicago, you got to see the ’85 Bears become a national phenomenon before winning the Super Bowl — to say nothing of the SIX championships the Bulls won in the 90s propelled by the greatest basketball player of all time.
Really. My heart bleeds.
Those legendarily tortured Red Sox fans? Their pain is over, what with two World Series in the last four years. And, again, if you’re a Boston homer, you just very narrowly missed out on three sports championships in the same year (marking the only time in my life I will ever thank the Giants for anything, but God bless you, Eli and David Tyree.)
It doesn’t necessarily follow that being a from a city means that you root for all its teams, but that’s more or less how it goes in Philly. The Phillies last won a championship in 1980, a couple weeks before I was born. The Sixers last won a ring in ’83, which I don’t remember. Philadelphia currently owns the longest championship drought of any city with at least three professional sports franchises. Like, hundreds of seasons, fam. Tiny-ass, third-tier cities have rings — I see you San Antonio — and we don’t.
So you know. We’re up 1-0 on the Rays. But I still remember ’93 — go to hell, Mitch Williams; kiss my ass, Joe Carter — and so I’m not getting my hopes up just yet.
