Crossing Broad
Oh, what a night,
early October in ‘25
what a very dismal time for me,
as I remember, what a night
Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve had our psyches tested as Philly sports fans. The Eagles won the Super Bowl by destroying a team looking for a three-peat just eight months ago. The Phillies had their best team on paper since 2011. The Union are the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs after a dominating year on the pitch. The Flyers are finally building a foundation where they won’t be in salary cap hell for years moving forward. The Sixers are… well, they just are.
A day ago, we were excited about the possibility of a Philly sports night to remember with the Phillies forcing a Game 4 against the Dodgers with their ace on the mound, the Eagles traveling to MetLife to play a Giants team that they’ve completely owned since 2000, and the Flyers opening up the season against the defending Stanley Cup Champions in Florida.
It worked out exactly that way – for the haters. It’s a night many of us would like to forget, though it’s undeniable that these experiences build Philly sports fan character and resolve. We have been dealt blow after blow after blow year after year after year, as children and adults. We’ve been rewarded with three championships in the modern era, but that doesn’t exactly take the sting away from a Philly sports trifecta when the trifecta is three pretty heartbreaking losses in the span of one hour:
The obvious worst gut-punch was the Phillies’ loss to the Dodgers. Once again, the superstars failed to show up in an elimination situation where they weren’t facing a 75-year-old pitcher who’s retiring after the season. The actual superstars on this team are the starting pitchers and some of the bullpen arms. They deserve all the praise this off-season until they give us a reason not to. They single-handedly catapulted the Phillies into the No. 2 seed in the National League. Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper have absolutely failed their teammates. The other guys could never be counted on in those high-leverage situations, so I don’t point to them as much as I point to the Big 3, who are paid to do exactly that.
Are the Dodgers probably the best overall team in the league? Absolutely. Their stars struggled in the same exact way the Phillies’ stars did. Phillies pitching held Shohei Ohtani to one hit in 18 at-bats. The series was winnable. That’s why it’s so maddening that the stars couldn’t perform like stars. Two token home runs in a blowout doesn’t skew the data. We know exactly what they did in those high-leverage situations. Harper had three hits in the four games. The power isn’t there anymore. Turner had four hits, with three of them coming in Game 3. Of course a sample size of 162 is greater than four, but the weight 162 holds is...
