Every Finger In The Room... » Philadelphia Phillies http://www.everyfingerintheroom.com A blog about sports and life Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:56:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Why You Should Root For The Phillies [Short Version] http://www.everyfingerintheroom.com/2008/10/why-you-should-root-for-the-phillies-short-version/ http://www.everyfingerintheroom.com/2008/10/why-you-should-root-for-the-phillies-short-version/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:48:00 +0000 Mike http://www.everyfingerintheroom.com/2008/10/why-you-should-root-for-the-phillies-short-version/ It may be difficult for you to consider this post as something other than the sour grapes of a disappointed Red Sox fan, but if you like the game of baseball, you should root for the Philadelphia Phillies to handily defeat the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays are undoubtedly the “feel-good” story of the year, but rest assured, you should be rooting for Philadelphia. This is not because:

  • The Rays just beat the team that I root for (although this is true)
  • The Phillies fans have suffered longer without a championship (although this is also true)
  • Rays fans are a bunch of bandwagon hopping opportunists who don’t deserve a championship team (although this is unbelievably true)1

No, the reason you should root against the Rays is because a Rays championship allows the Players Association and big-market clubs like the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Mets, etc., to perpetuate the myth that parity exists in Major League Baseball and that there’s no need for a salary cap. Now, if you’re a fan of a big market club, go ahead and root for the Rays. But if you’re a fan of baseball, and would like to see some sort of equality in baseball, where every team has a legitimate chance to compete, even if it’s just once every few years, root for the Phillies.

1 If you doubt this assertion, go ahead and watch Game 1 of the World Series and look at the fan base. Try to find somebody with Devil Rays paraphernalia rather than just Rays. The team changed its name this season, and there’s no one in the stadium wearing stuff from previous years. Add that to the fact that the Rays have finished last in attendance every years since 2000 (when they finished 13th out of 14th), and what you have is a whole bunch of bandwagon jumpers, or as we call them around here, pink hats.

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