Venus Loci

A lot of good has been happening in my home state this fall.  In honor of their recent success, I’d take a minute to cheer for the home teams in a 2-part series: the Philadelphia Phillies and the Penn State Nittany Lion football team. 

The Phillie Phanatic, formerly known as, "The Only Worthwhile Reason to go to a Phillies Game"

Philadelphia is notorious for it’s fair-weather fans.  I grew up in the 80′s with a distinct lack of respect for the Philadelphia Eagles & the Phillies, in spite of living an hour outside of the city.  My family drove down down to see Baltimore Orioles games more often than Phillies games – partly because they had a way cooler stadium, but also because we were all of the opinion that Philadelphia teams flat-out stank.  A friend of a friend, Chad Ogea, who played pitcher for the Phillies back in the late 90′s, has confessed that he couldn’t take his family out in public for fear of what disgruntled Philadelphia fans do or say in front of his two little girls .  Not a very loyal fanbase, eh?

Boy, how times change!  A few weeks ago when I flew home to the ASLA meeting, I couldn’t help but notice the number of people sporting the Phillies gear.  At no point in time did I think it was because the team was actually doing well, I just figured it was another fashion fad that centered around sports, jerseys and sleazy nightclubs.  This past Saturday night my own mother, who found out about the Phillies success just in time to jump on the wagon, stayed up till 2am to watch the end of game 3.   

The World Series may be about to end (and with a Philly win, we bandwagon Pennsylvanians hope!), but the end of Pennsylvania’s winning streak isn’t over yet.  Stayed tuned for Part 2 of the “Phantastic year for Pennsylvanians” series, in which I plan to write about another winning Pennsylvania team who, in contrast to the Phillies, has a very loyal fanbase - the Penn State Nittany Lions football team.