It Stopped Raining. Now Where's My Damn Parade?

There has long been a disconnect in this town between the Phillies fans and their star players. Heck, any players really. It's like we don't accept our athletes as members of our community even though many of them uproot their entire lives to co-exist with us.

Burrell. McNabb. Iverson. Schmidt. Rolen. Lindros. Cunningham. The list can go on for a while. The love we show to our athletes is not the same as the love we show for our teams. Athletes in this town have always seemed to be a means to an end. We want a championship and they can give it to us. We will love them if they do and vilify them when they don't. And it's not their fault. They were drafted by this city. Sure, some decided to sign here or got traded here, but very few (if any) grew up here. Very few athletes know what it's felt like over the last 25 years. It's their jobs, but it's our lives. Winning a title has always been important to the players, but we know it has been more important to us.

Well, until this week.

I woke up yesterday in a state of bewilderment. I, like most of you, thought we should be making parade plans come Tuesday morning. I, like all of you, felt that the Phillies got screwed by the continuation of play into the sixth inning when clearly the game should have been stopped at the end of the fifth – if not sooner.

As the day grew longer, colder and wetter, I got angrier and angrier. Cantankerous, even. By the time the game was supposed to resume last night I felt my skin turning green. This is ridiculous. Today was supposed to be our parade. Today was supposed to be a cold day for millions in Philly, not because hell froze over, but because two million of us were standing on the sidewalk hoping to catch a glimpse of So Taguchi floating down Broad Street.

My excitement and nervous anticipation for game five subsided a long time ago. But like I wrote yesterday, the sky isn't falling. Hell has in fact not frozen over. It's just baseball. My excitement is gone, and it's turned to anger. I'm pissed. Really pissed. This isn't supposed to happen. Not to us. We've been through enough already. IT'S ENOUGH ALREADY!

And now, the players realize what we go through every day. Charlie Manuel was so mad after the suspension of game five he couldn't talk to the media. Neither could most of the top players. Those who did talks took anonymous shots at Bud Selig. They are pissed too. They know that this isn't fair...to them, or us. They want to be on those floats posing for terribly blurry photos from 10 yards away just as much as we want to be the idiots fumbling with our cell phone cameras trying to document history. Destiny.

For the first time, athletes in this town can finally understand how we feel. They are part of this now. Welcome, Phillies, to the real Angryville. Where we deserve a fucking championship, and we deserve it TODAY.

Where Why Can't Us takes on a new meaning
I've been getting a ton of emails, calls, IMs about Why Can't Us over the last few days. It seems even more fitting than ever, doesn't it?

Well, there was a story about Us in the New York Times yesterday. It was on the back end of a story about Harry Kalas finally getting to call a World Series victory. Harry Kalas...and me and Enrico. In the same story, during the World Series. In the New York Times. There are no words.

• Gonzo's mailbag has people falling off the ledge. Today isn't going to be pretty in this town.

• 'Duk suggests we move the games to Chicago. And he rips on Cheese Wiz. I'd suggest that all who hate Cheese Wiz should die, but I think the Cheese Wiz will take care of that for me in this case. (No, I don't want 'Duk to die. He at least ate the Cheese Wiz).

• How many times can you fit Cheese Wiz into one paragraph? See above.

• The Flyers played last night. And won, big. Yay.

• The Sixers open their season tonight at home. They've moved the start time up to 6:00pm. You hear that Bud Selig. THEY MOVED THEIR START TIME UP TO ACCOMMODATE THE FANS AND ENSURE NO ISSUES OR CONFLITS.

• Last..I didn't know Greg Oden was a Phillies fan.

Comments

[TB sucks]

hey guys,
dont make fun of me for this, but for every playoff game in an effort for me not to bite all of my fingernails off, i have a cherry tootsie pop. and well with this suspended game, do i still use the lolipop from the last game or start up a new one?

GO PHILLIES!!! WHY CAN'T US? IS IT 8:37 YET?

[Mark]

It happens tonight. I can feel it

[Martin]

I spent most of yesterday in a slowly building rage. My wife was ready to kill me by dinner time. Glad to hear the players feel the same way.
Anyway we could talk MLB into putting little Bud Selig faces on the balls they use in the bottom of the sixth?

[the Phunyun]

ALL YOUR BASE(BALL) ARE BELONG TO US

[neal]

I disagree with your opening statement about how the town doesn't love it's atheletes.

I think the Broad Street Bullies will take issue with that. They are beyond loved and they know it (but don't abuse it).

Of course there is great reason to keep loving them, as anyone who has ever had a beer or two will find out these are the greatest guys in the world.

[will]

levy, this situation was just one last test to sum up the experience for our generation. Right before we win, flashs of conines hr, biggio off wagner, ronde barber being the devil, and even joe carter will be erased in less than 13 hours. they cant stop us now.

['Duk]

DL, I love the Cheese Whiz! I'm just concerned for my overall health if I'm held hostage in your fine city for much longer!

[Loqiel]

You better believe the biggest Phillies fan in the world right now is Bud Selig, because if the Rays win now, it's going to tarnish his reputation for good. Don't think he doesn't know this.

[chris]

if some team were to win the world series tonight, would the parade then be on Friday?

[jdawg]

if you happen to be outdoors for any reason on friday... its going to be sunny with a high of 59

[PhillyPSU]

Dan,
thank you for summing up EXACTLY how I and every true Phillies fan has felt for the last 36 hours.
DAMN!!!

I'm in State College--can anyone tell me a decent Philly-leaning establishment up here? Too much effin black n' gold.

[JD]

SHANE VICTORINO AND JIMMY ROLLINS ARE IN YOUR PARK STEALIN' ALL YOUR BASES

[JD]

phillypsu

i spent my 4 years in state college wondering the same thing. i used to go to the sports cafe back when it was somewhat reputable for flyers/eagles games.

you are in uncharted waters here. maybe go to pickles? i had some fun there last summer watching the phills.

[Stu]

@PhillyPSU:
Sports Cafe at the west end of College Avenue (it was a Pizza Hut when I was there 90-94) had a pretty good Philly crowd on the day the Phils clinched the postseason spot.
Not sure if this was due to people being in town (it was the weekend of the PSU-Illinois game) but the place did seem to have a pro-Philly vibe to it.

[PhillyPSU]

@ JD & Stu
Thanks guys--I'll check out Sports Cafe or whatever it's called these days. I went to Champs for Game 5 and it SUCKED. I left as soon as game went into delay. No vibe or energy. Owner's a Mets fan and bartender was a Yankees fan talking smack. Guy next to me almost got in a fight with a Giants (baseball!) fan. And the worst plate of nachos I've ever had. WTF?!

[jtq1]

@PhillyPSU: try actually being in Pittsburgh for this.

[johndewar]

Now Where's My Damn Parade?

This is what I considered renaming my blog to this AM.

[te]

@jtq1 - i'm from media and go to pitt, and there is a quite a few of us out here. if this thing happens tonight and your looking for philly people to celebrate with, head into oakland and go to Peter's Pub. The manager is a phillies fan as well as some of the bartenders. I'll be getting rowdy with an army of phanatics.

[CMart]

To Duk's credit, he said it was the best steak he had ever (or something along those lines), in another blog. He's actually recognized Philly as the way all cities should be at this point in the season...I gotta give him respect for that...