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The showdown: Philadelphia versus New York
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Let the trash talk begin!
As the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies prepare to face off in the World Series, publications have begun poking fun at the other city -- and offering witty observations on the match-up. Here are some of the highlights:
Yankees fans have a message for the Phillies and their hometown: This ain't Rocky, and the underdog won't win! "The Yankees are going to make Philly cream cheese out of them," a confident Tommy Bayiokos, 44, predicted yesterday in Midtown. "Philly fans are a bunch of whiners and should learn how to dress. They should try reading GQ." Living up to their second-class billing going into the start of the Fall Classic tomorrow, the Phils arrived in New York yesterday -- by train.
Gotham has been regularly beating the pants off Philly since overtaking the one-horse town as the nation's economic capital in the early 19th century. Even Benjamin Franklin, Philly's patron saint, has been described as "the father of all the Yankees." Although Philadelphia doesn't draw the same ire among New Yorkers as Boston or Los Angeles, it's mostly because Gothamites consider the city across the Ben Franklin Bridge pretty pathetic.
The (New York Post) trash talk gets laid on pretty thick - and maybe once or twice lands a clever punch. "Their most famous athlete is Rocky, and he's fictional," said a building superintendent.
One problem: In the first movie, Rocky lost. Last year, the Phillies won. How'd those Yankees do in the playoffs recently?
"New York is all about being on top, with no excuses - just like the Yankees," one young woman says. Really? How about those Mets? No excuses? The Knicks? Remember, the Giants play in Jersey.
Anyway, it will all come to the players on the field - not newspaper nonsense. If New York wins, go ahead brag. But if the Phillies win, well, the Big Fruit really will be The Town That Never Sleeps.
At a number of levels, this will be a fascinating confrontation. You get the sense that Philadelphia - the fans, not the team - has been looking forward to taking on a glamour franchise that routinely fields the best team that money can buy. New Yorkers and Philadelphians regularly commute to, and hang out, in each other's backyard.
But while professional sports connections between Philadelphia and New York are extensive, they are not always that bitter, outside of raucous Giants-Eagles games.
The only previous Yankees-Phillies World Series was played in 1950, and the Yankees won in a four-game sweep. Nothing contentious. The Yankees took the Whiz Kids over their knee and spanked them.
With the Phillies and the Yankees starting the World Series Wednesday, both New Yorkers and Philadelphians have their hackles up about which burg is better: Expect all kinds of comparisons between the two cities on the web, TV and radio in both cities:
City Punching Bag
"At least I don't live in Jersey," the only thing both sides can agree on.
Push
Fictitious Badasses: Batman vs. Rocky
Balboa drank raw eggs and worked out in a slaughterhouse for pre-fight PR. Batman brooded in a cave with a young boy named for a pretty birdie.
Edge: New York
Believe it or not, people down here in Silly-delphia actually think the Phillies will beat the Yankees in the World Series, which starts tomorrow.
What makes this city of 109 neighborhoods - with names like Germantown, Fishtown and Swamp Poodle - unafraid? Do they have anything besides the damn cheesesteaks that we don't have?
They do have the Mummers Parade on New Year's - but what about the other 364 days? They have the Mario Lanza Museum. And of course, there's Independence Hall, where Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and their compadres signed the Declaration of Independence.
But that was so 233 years ago! What has Philadelphia done for us lately?
Once, and it was not that long ago, the Yankees were used as a reason why the Phillies would never win it all. This Yankee made that much, that one made that much. They signed this free agent for all those millions and when he didn't pan out, they signed that one for even more money. They sent scouts to Japan, to Panama, to Guatemala, to Venezuela. They set up baseball academies.
The five highest baseball salaries of all time belong to Yankee players. This season, the Yankees' payroll was around $208 million, tops (by far) in the major leagues. Again.
According to ESPN, the Phillies spent $111 million, eighth in the majors in spending.
New Jersey is an odd place to be, but even odder when you live in the middle. Nothing polarizes the state more than professional sports - good luck being a New York fan in South Jersey. We don't even like Devils fans and that team is actually from New Jersey.
I was trying to figure out what we call this series - the Turnpike Tumult? CC and the Cheesesteak? Ben Franklin vs. the Benjamins? And will the Yankees run that "Rocky" clip against the Phillies?
In perhaps the most unoriginal sports bet ever, New York's senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Pennsylvania's senators, Arlen Specter and Bob Casey, are putting up Brooklyn cheesecakes against Philly cheesesteaks.
May the most runs (not to mention trans-fats and calories) win.
What do you think of the debate? Is Philadephia really that pathetic? Is New York full of itself? Who has the best food? Post your opinions -- and World Series predictions -- below.
Posted in Breaking on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:35 pm Updated: 4:02 pm.
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