Monday, January 12, 2009

It's official: Philly owns New York

Philadelphia may no longer have to suffer in the shadow of New York, at least when it comes to sports.

In case you haven't noticed by now, the Philly sports scene is completely dominating the New York sports scene. The Eagles victory over the Giants seals the fact that every Philadelphia team in the 4 major sports is better than every New York team, even in the sports in which New York has two teams. It's been quite the reversal of fortune for two cities who had gotten used to their roles as underdogs in Philly and as heavy favorites in the Big Apple.

The Phillies, of course, are on top of the baseball world having just won the World Series. The Phillies success is directly related to their New York rival which has made a habit of collapsing at the end of the season. In each of the last two seasons, the Phillies have overtaken the Mets in the final month of the season for the NL East crown. The Phillies have also made the playoffs last season, something the Yankees failed to do.

The Eagles are fresh off their victory over the defending Super Bowl Champion Giants. While the Giants took the NFC East in the regular season, the Eagles were the better team when it mattered, in the playoffs. The Birds finished with a 2-1 record against the Giants this year and won both times they played in the Meadowlands. The other New York team, the Jets, didn't play the Eagles this season but they didn't even make the playoffs, finishing with a 9-7 record, a half game worse than the Eagles record of 9-6-1 (gotta love that tie!).

The Flyers made the Eastern Conference Final last season, something neither New York NHL team has done since 1997 when the Rangers lost to the, you guessed it, Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers also recently took over first place in the Atlantic Division from the Rangers who had been in first since the beginning of the season. The Flyers currently sit just one point above the Rangers but they have played two fewer games. As for the other New York team, the Islanders, they are the worst team in hockey and I can't even remember the last time they were relevant.

The Sixers are the last Philadelphia team who is currently more successful than their New York counterpart, but they have the least to brag about. The Sixers are currently an unimpressive 3 games under .500 and are the 9th seed in the Eastern Conference while the Knicks are slightly worse at 13-22 and are the 12th seed in the East. Sixers fans don't have much to gloat about but at least Philly made the playoffs last year, something the Knicks haven't done since 2004.

As you can see, it's good to be a Philadelphia sports fan. Not only are we on top of the baseball world and one game away from the biggest stage of them all, the Super Bowl, but every Philadelphia sports team is better than our biggest rivals in New York. You could even take it a step further and say that every Philly sports team is better than every team in New Jersey as well, except for the Nets. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh still has the Penguins and Steelers so no such claims can be made about our rival on the other side of the state.

I am not sure how times could get much better for the Philly sports fan. I suppose a Super Bowl victory and a Stanley Cup would put us over the top. What a difference a year makes, before we would have been happy for just one title now we want as many as we can get. It's even sweeter to know that New York won't be winning a championship in the near future.

1 comment:

GaroH said...

If the flyers beat the Lighting tonight, I think it can be said that we own Tampa Bay as well: beat the Rays in the World Series, the Bucs lose on the last day to allow the Eagles into the playoffs, and the flyers take the Lightning... of course, that would mean if we make it to the Super Bowl, which is hosted in Tampa....