WORLD SERIES: THE CURSE IS BROKEN

World Series Win: Phillies!

In an odd World Series game â€" game 5 of the series was suspended in the bottom of the sixth inning due to rain, then rained out the next day, and the following day, in just two-and-a-half innings, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays in the 104th World Series by the score of 4â€"3.

For the Phils, it has been a dry spell since 1980 in terms of winning the World Series, and for the city of Philadelphia, since 1983 since a championship had been won by a local team. Many locals said it was the Curse of William Penn that kept the teams from winning.

William Penn, the colonial Quaker for whom Pennsylvania is named, was granted a charter for the land that encompasses Pennsylvania in the late 1600s, and arrived in Philadelphia on October 29, 1682.

For the Philadelphia sports teams, die-hard fans, when Philadelphia City Council approved construction of buildings that would be taller than Philadelphia City Hall, the Curse of William Penn was set. To understand, you'd need to look back to the 1800s, when Philadelphia's City Hall was built, and atop, a statue of William Penn was placed, overlooking his city. At that time, the city's forefathers decided, by gentleman's agreement, that no building would ever be built in the city that would overshadow â€" be taller â€" than City Hall.

1998 T-shirt showing the From-Cursed-to-First chant that was popular, showing the Phillies logo, the World Series logo, and Philadelphia City Hall's statue of William Penn That gentleman's agreement held until 1983 when a few corporations came to the city, looking to bulldoze old buildings and construct new, larger office buildings. One was proposed to be taller than City Hall itself. That drew argument from some, praise from others, and condemnation in general from all sides for the other party. In the end, though, business won out and buildings taller than City Hall, which overshadowed William Penn's statue, were built. At that time, the supposed Curse of William Penn took effect.

On October 29, 2008, 326 years after William Penn set foot upon terra firma in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Phillies seemingly broke the Curse of William Penn.

Though the Phillies still hold the record of most loses in professional sports, the team has made many in the city proud. It's that kind of underdog status that many Philadelphians cheer in their teams.

Despite the equivalent of corporate welfare and blackmail engaged in by the team's leadership a few years ago to get a stadium just for the baseball team, not to mention ticket prices that prevent most die-hard fans from ever seeing a game in the Citizens Bank Park stadium, it seems forgiveness and redemption may have been partially earned with this season's finale.

To the players of the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies: thanks for the memories, and thanks for the we-can-do-it attitude.

Being a resident of hometown Philly for mostly all of my life, I can't but help to smile and yell. After the 28 year of fighting a losses since that 1980 win of the World Series, we have finally broken the curse and brought about a win for the ages. Cole Hamels was the MVP for the World Series game. Although I believed Ryan Howard or Shane Victorino "The Flyin' Hawaiian". But man we celebrated like no other, they shot off fireworks lit fires, flipepd cars and everything else. Like barbarians I know, but then the parade yesterday was great. Utley dropping the F-Bomb is pretty cool too. Watching the Phillies, never in my whole life have I been more proud to be a member of Philly than I am now, and from South Philly at that. Congratulations Phillies!

WORLD FUCKING CHAMPIONS!

author=Max McGee link=topic=2363.msg41230#msg41230 date=1225561754
Word up! Go fucking Phillies, we finally did it, world champions.

I don't personally care about baseball that much but my fucking family lineage like requires me to say this even though we're from New York (but fuck the Yankees, and especially, fuck the Mets).

That's ironic we had signs that said "screw the mets".

author=Max McGee link=topic=2363.msg41237#msg41237 date=1225562744
One of the things that my dad said (over and over) in his moment of ecstasy after the phillies beat TB for the World Series was "FUCK EVERY MET!" which I thought was funny because I mean come on the Phillies weren't even playing the Mets in the world series but I guess the hatred runs really deep.

Well the main thing was cause I remeber when the Mets booed Chase Utley and he swore of television, and Philly hates Joe Buck that's for sure.

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uIbsVx7lAk