Sure, I’m discovering a solution to work the zeitgeist of the second into the Phillies’ useless zone portion of the calendar. That is running a blog at its most interesting, people.
Philadelphia isn’t a metropolis the place every of the most important sports activities groups lives in a bubble. Positive, there are some followers who solely like baseball and solely root for the Phillies, or who solely care about soccer and are Eagles diehards, however most of us grew up dwelling and dying with the entire sports activities on a regular basis.
A few of us favor one over the others, to a point. I’m a Phillies fan, at the beginning, however the Eagles are a really shut second. As a youthful man, the Sixers and Flyers had been 1C and 1D, however as you become older, you solely have a lot RAM to commit to those issues.
Right here on the Hittin’ Season Billy Penn web page, that is primarily a house so that you can devour all there’s to know concerning the Phillies, however given the Birds’ full and complete destruction of the Washington Commanders within the NFC Championship Recreation final Sunday, it is sensible for these sports activities worlds to collide.
As a result of, if we’re Philadelphia “sports activities followers,” then the successes and/or failures of all of the groups do have an effect on the others.
Which brings us to those Eagles and the 2025 Phillies. Clearly, Phils followers are pissed off at three straight postseasons that haven’t solely didn’t result in a parade down Broad Road, however every has ended a spherical sooner than the one earlier than. Not solely that, the crew hasn’t been capable of considerably deal with the offensive shortcomings which have torpedoed every of the final two postseason runs and there’s concern that, though the beginning rotation has improved, the bullpen isn’t nearly as good because it was a season in the past.
The Eagles have a chance to place the Philadelphia sports activities group on Cloud 9 with a revenge Tremendous Bowl win over Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and provides the Phils somewhat cowl. They’ve a chance to win their second Lombardi Trophy and deny KC the excellence of turning into the primary franchise in NFL historical past to win three straight Tremendous Bowls.
On the most recent Hittin’ Season podcast, we mentioned what sort of affect an Eagles victory (or loss) within the Tremendous Bowl would have on our collective angst as Phillies followers.
Make no mistake, there might be an affect.
If the Eagles win, the stress on the Phils to lastly win a World Sequence title might be lessened a bit. The fanbase will be capable of take a number of of their championship-starved eggs out of that basket, and it’ll set off a launch valve of euphoria that ought to cut back the mania for Bryce Harper and the boys to lastly recover from the hump. In fact, by the point the pennant races are in full bloom in August and the Phillies encounter the slumps and stumbles that associate with each 162-game marketing campaign, we’ll seemingly get crusty once more, however we’ll additionally nonetheless be a bit distracted re-watching NFL Movies clips of Tremendous Bowl 59 on YouTube.
Alternatively, if the Eagles lose to the Chiefs, I shudder to suppose what it can do to the psyche of the fanbase. The 2 groups have already butted championship recreation losses in October of 2022 and February of 2023. One other Tremendous Bowl loss to Mahomes, Reid and the Chiefs can be a crusher, and there’ll undoubtedly be a requirement for the Phillies to “save the town.”
No, it received’t be truthful, however it will likely be actuality.
No matter what the Eagles do, Phillies gamers, and the franchise itself, received’t be affected somehow by the Eagles’ Tremendous Bowl end result. They know they’re overdue for a World Sequence title and that, for a lot of of them, time is operating out. They really feel it greater than we do.
We don’t know the way lengthy the Phils’ World Sequence window will keep open. Proper now, they’re nonetheless a top-five crew in Main League Baseball. Outdoors of the Dodgers, they’re nearly as good as anybody. Harper, Zack Wheeler and everybody else actually have to win a World Sequence sooner or later, don’t they?
An Eagles Tremendous Bowl win would give them some much-needed cowl to start out the season, however a loss will solely ratchet up the stress, truthful or not.