Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.....

Perhaps you've heard "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" or are a fan of the television series of the same name, but, as those of you following the World Series already know, that is NOT the case. (Although, ironically October has been the driest month around here in a LONG time and all the landscape people were crying "drought...") Monday night's game, which many of us lifetime Philadelphia residents were hoping would end our city's 25 year drought of championship sports teams, is currently in a rain delay, tied at 2-2.

Nothing, as they say in Philadelphia, is easy. Especially winning.

I do not think they will be able to play the game Tuesday night (I am writing this Tuesday afternoon) and I think we may have to wait until Wednesday or perhaps Friday or Saturday to see the end of this Series. I hesitate at this point to think of what could happen--which is basically anything.

Baseball is a lot like horse racing. The baseball gods are as vengeful as the horse racing ones and perhaps our city's premature glee offended them. Perhaps we were not meant to taste victory so seemingly effortlessly. But truly, I thought we had paid our dues, as far as weather, on Saturday night when we actually stood around for two hours in pouring rain (though thankfully not COLD pouring rain) until the game started at the bizarre hour of 10:15 at night. Apparently not the case...

Humility, it seems, is critical. Maybe our thoughts of parades were too reminiscent of Dutrow's predictions for Big Brown. Maybe we were meant to keep our anticipation to ourselves, not document it endlessly on local television and radio stations, with interviews of every long suffering fan who could taste celebration. Maybe the better tactic would have been to pull a Michael Matz--to simply not look too far ahead, to take one game at a time, to compliment our competition, to silently hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

Perhaps we blew it, though I think not. I think in this case Major League Baseball blew it, waiting until Tampa tied the game at 2-2 to suspend play so that no one would take the rap. And if the sport were not at the mercy of television, they could have played the game Monday afternoon, when it was decent weather. People would have still come. This is, after all, the World Series.

Here's what I hope happens: that the Phillies put it away rapidly once the game resumes so that no one, and I mean no one, second guesses their victory. Decisive, cut and dry, no room for excuses baseball that simply underscores the fact that they are the better team.

But this being Philadelphia, I hesitate to count on anything other than the fact that anything could happen.