What a sports day in Philly Sunday. By a quirk of scheduling, both the Eagles home game against Washington and Game 4 of the National League Division Series between the Phillies and Milwaukee started at 1 p.m. and ended at 4 p.m. Two victories may have been too much to ask, but no matter- the Eagles lost to fall to 2-3, but the Phils decisively defeated the Brewers in Milwaukee to win their first playoff series since 1993.
So are people in Philly happy or sad? Judging from WIP in the few hours after, the calls ran about 5-1 in favor of "Eagles suck" (as opposed to "Phillies rule"), although some of the Eagles sucks-ers did give credit to the Phils. Perhaps today will mark a turning point in the movement of Philly back to a baseball town.
The Phils will face the Los Angeles Dodgers in a bicoastal NLCS between two teams that haven't advanced this far in awhile (the Phils in 15 years, the Dodgers in 20.) As with most playoff series, I suspect this will come down to who's hot at the right time, although the teams seem fairly evenly matched. What the hell; I say Phils in 7. Red Sox-Phillies, in an East Coast Bias Series, remains probably the best bet.
Meanwhile, I feel for Cubs fans, I really do. They deserved better. However, I expect them to follow the Red Sox lead of finally winning that elusive championship AFTER the visionary ownership group takes over.