It’s Really Tough To Be A Fan

With no snowballs to throw, the stadium full of season ticket holders booed them to the locker room.

Helaine and I were dumbfounded, beside ourselves. “When does spring training start,” she wondered?

BA6RWe were excited to watch the Eagles play this afternoon. There’s been a lot written about them this summer. Expectations were high. And, today the Eagles were playing patsies, The Jacksonville Jaguars.

On the first series, Nick Foles the unexpected, but apparent, savior of Philadelphia, looked very mortal.

Hit.

Fumble.

Turnover.

Just like that it was 7-0.

Foles coughed it up again, was sacked five times and threw an interception as the Eagles were threatening. 17-0 at the half.

With no snowballs to throw, the stadium full of season ticket holders booed them to the locker room.

Helaine and I were dumbfounded, beside ourselves. “When does spring training start,” she wondered?

Fans are fans. If you’re one you understand. We watch the Phillies play, though their view of the rest of the National League is dim tail lights in the distance. We weren’t going to abandon the Eagles either. We’d be crushed nonetheless!

A different Eagles team came out for the second half. How is that possible? How can a turnaround be so movie script dramatic?

All of a sudden the Eagles were unstoppable. The scored 17 to tie it, then another 17 for good measure. Final score 34-17.

Via Instant Messenger&#185, my buddy Bob in Florida typed, “clearly the best half time locker speech ever.”

Clearly.

Meanwhile, H and I were so invested in the Eagle’s season we were still emotionally distraught from the first half! It’s sort of crazy, isn’t it? To be that much of a fan?

It’s not a choice you make. It just happens.

&#185 – My friend Bob and I are the last two people on AOL Instant Messenger. I remember when that was the Internet’s hottest property.

Peter And The Cheerleaders

I phoned my friend Peter this afternoon. He lives in South Jersey in a condo at the water’s edge.

“I can’t talk,” he said seconds after we made contact.

He was on the beach. He wasn’t alone. The Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader’s calendar photos were being shot.

Really? That’s more important than a call from me? I’m crushed.

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A Tale Of Two Front Pages

Here are the front pages from today’s New York Daily News and Philadelphia Daily News.

Sunday night on NBC’s primetime football game Bob Costas admonished the NY Giants not to listen to the radio today! Is there reception where they’ll be hiding? I’m sure the feeling in Philadelphia is very different.

With that in mind here are the front pages from today’s New York Daily News and Philadelphia Daily News.

A Day Of Sports

For the Phils pitcher Roy Oswalt scored from second on a play where he ran past the third base coach’s very visible stop sign then slid into home wearing a warmup jacket and gloves! The only thing missing was a red cup full of beer!

As you might imagine the Foxes spent the day watching the Eagles then the Phillies. We weren’t disappointed. Both teams won.

Interestingly neither game was carried to Cablevision customers in some of the Philadelphia suburbs. I hope Cablevision paid their customer service operators hazardous duty pay today. Let the cursing begin!

Both games had interesting moments. Kevin Kolb the Eagles quarterback aired it out and played like the passer he’s supposed to be, but disappointingly never has been. For the Phils pitcher Roy Oswalt scored from second on a play where he ran past the third base coach’s very visible stop sign then slid into home wearing a warmup jacket and gloves! The only thing missing was a red cup full of beer!

On a day like today it is difficult not to take advantage of technology. The Eagles game wasn’t on TV here so I borrowed a friend’s DirecTV to-go package. Computer quality is good, but not yet as good as a broadcast channel.

We watched the Phils live on Fox through the DVR allowing us to pause the action. Actually that’s where technology came back to bite me!

As Ryan Madson pitched to the Giants in the ninth I opened Facebook. For me there were two outs to go but on Facebook a friend had revealed the game was over. Oops.

I tried to tell Helaine I didn’t know, but it’s not the kind of thing anyone hides well. Certainly not me.

How I’ll Watch Two Games At Once Tonight

This is the techno equivalent of rubbing your stomach while patting your head and hopping on one leg.

Comcast has upgraded our DVR. Actually that may not be the proper characterization. They’ve changed and prettied it. Upgrade? The jury’s still out.

In order to enable the new stuff Comcast eliminated a few minor never used features like the picture-in-picture I want to use today! The Eagles and Phillies are both playing at 8:00 PM.

It’s the 21st Century. I can ad lib a solution… maybe.

Our Vizio TV has picture-in-picture built in, but one picture will have to be the cable tuner in HD and the other the set’s built-in tuner. It too might be HD. I’m really not sure at this point. This is the techno equivalent of rubbing your stomach while patting your head and hopping on one leg.

In case you’re wondering what I’ll be doing during halftime of the Giants/Texans game you now know.

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Conclusion: Wow, it works! The setup to split the screen was reasonably straightforward… if you’re nerdy. Seriously, this is not for the faint of heart.

On top of that there is the ability to actually make the split 50/50 and swap audio from side to side.

As it turns out the picture-in-picture Comcast removed was inferior to what I already had.

Ask Me Anything–Why A Philadelphia Fan?

It is where I realized I was an adult. Normally you slide into adulthood gradually. Not me.

I’m currently answering all your questions. Read more about it here.

Dave writes, “As you grew up in NYC, have lived in the Buffalo area and now CT how did you and Helaine become such avid Philly sports fans?

Yeah, funny thing isn’t it? A lot of my friends don’t understand.

Helaine’s explanation is easier. She grew up in Philadelphia, the only child of a father who was a rabid Philly sports fan. It was from him she learned to talk back to the TV and question balls and strikes even when the Phils are up by a dozen. They shared a Phils season ticket package as she grew up.

My answer is a little more difficult. I grew up in New York and was a marginal sports fan. Nothing serious. I attended a few games–even a Mets game at the pre-Shea Stadium Polo Grounds!

I worked in Philadelphia on the radio from 1975 to 1980. Philly is where I realized I was an adult. Normally you slide into adulthood gradually. Not me.

It happened in the late 70s when I began playing poker every Thursday night with a bunch of guys around my age. Most of them had families. All of them had responsibilities. Each was accomplished in his own way. It was an impressive group.

They were adults and treated me as an equal. Therefore, I realized in one Eureka moment, I too was an adult. I was ready for adult pursuits.

At the same time a friend whose father was a season ticket holder to the Eagles asked if I wanted to buy two of them. Bingo! My love of Philly sports began.

I sat through a 4-10 Eagles season in Section 614. I never left before the final gun.

I attended a load of Phillies games at the Vet. I was there for the Phils-Dodgers playoff game where the fans rattled Bert Hooten so badly he had to be pulled!

I find watching sports with my wife among the most enjoyable parts of our relationship. She knows a lot more about the games than me!