10,000 Losses

I have a strange fascination with failure. I figure that people who are failing are at least TRYING. And by that count no one has tried harder than the Philadelphia Phillies, who are (as of this post) 14 losses away from losing their 10,000 game. And the Phillies being who they are they might figure out a way to do that in the next 5 games.

I was a kid growing up in Philadelphia when the Phillies beat the Royals in 1980 to win the World Series. I was naive enough to think this would be a semi-regular event. And when the Sisters of St. Joseph were kind enough to let us make our own signs and parade around the block singing “We Are The Champions” I felt a sense of pride in being associated with a winner.

I was incredibly disappointed when they didn’t win the World Series in 1981. Or 1982. They made it back there in 1983, but lost. So close. And what was once hope and pride was slowly turned, by a series of heart-breaking summers, into a feeling of impeding doom and failure that can only be categorized as “being from Philadelphia.”

Here, victory is fleeting and ephemeral, not an encouraging sign that further success is ahead but a taunting hint that disaster is just around the corner in a city where defeat has become the natural order.

Godspeed to 10,000 you magnificent bastards.

Written by Mike Monteiro on June 13, 2007 |