Nothing Less Than Perfection Expected for Phillies and Flyers

By: Steve Johnson

Remember the good old days? The years when the Phillies were already out of it by July. The days when you expected the Flyers to fly through the regular season just to blow it in the playoffs. The times when the Eagles would get knocked out in the first round. Ok well maybe the last one is still happening. In a city that waited 25 years to call themselves winners who would expect to have not one but two teams with a "championship or bust" mentality, just three years later? The typical Philly fan is raised to expect the worst. To always root for their teams, but to question the outcome in the back of their head. Well it's different this year, at least for two of the four teams. Our Flyers and Phillies are arguably both the odds on favorites to not only make the championship games but actually win their leagues respectively. Imagine that, the possibility of a city hit hard by these terrible economic times, coming out of the shadows to celebrate not once but twice on Broad Street. It's been a long time since we've seen our teams push all their chips in for a run at a championship. With the Phillies having arguably the best starting pitching staff in baseball history, they're not only looking toward winning it all this year, but for years to come as well. The Giants proved last year that pitching and hitting in clutch moments wins championships. They came up big in key moments in last year's NLCS, while the Phillies came up short. A typically down year from what was expected, the Phillies look to bounce back this year being 3/1 odds to win it all, according to Vegas. The Flyers on the other hand made it to the Stanley Cup Finals last year, losing in 6 games to the Chicago Blackhawks. Looking like they're out for revenge, the Flyers are cruising through the regular season, already up 9 points through 60 games on the 2nd place Tampa Bay Lightning. I know it's hard to not get ahead of ourselves, but hey we're not use to this feeling. So enjoy it while it lasts, take in the season, get excited. Just remember we're still a ways away from holding up trophies and parading down Broad Street once again. As Philly fans we can only hope and wait, until they either do the unthinkable or they let us down...again.