In Philly, fans make it a double

One day, two franchises and a pair of showdowns against New York

PHILADELPHIA -- Across these lots of pavement at the end of Broad Street, a city has lived its sports life for two generations of broken dreams now. All of it packed tightly into a confluence of stadiums and arenas forever short on celebration and long on forlorn lament. For there is no place quite like this in America: a utilitarian collection of buildings known unappealingly as "The Sports Complex."

Then on Sunday came something this city had never seen. In fact, something no American sports city had ever seen. In the baseball stadium to the north the Philadelphia Phillies were playing the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the World Series and in the football stadium a parking lot to the south, the Philadelphia Eagles played the New York Giants for first place in the NFC East. Even the place of so much lament had to celebrate this.

At about 7 a.m., Bill Cahill, a contractor from Delran, N.J., pulled his refurbished Snap-on Tools delivery truck, re-painted in black and green and silver with a Philadelphia Eagle screaming off the side, into Parking Lot F1 across the street from Lincoln Financial Field. He paid the attendant the $40 fee and began his search for a spot. Because surprisingly, even at 7 a.m., with a dull light just beginning to sprinkle though a gray morning mist, Lot F1 was nearly full.

The biggest day in the city's sports history would start early.

"Of course, it's fun when everybody's winning," Cahill would later say with a laugh in the hours after the Eagles beat the Giants, 40-17, and before the Phillies lost to the Yankees, 7-4. "What you'll find is this is a community,"

He was talking about the parking lots, about the party that burst to life in the shadow of Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, the Wachovia Center and the Spectrum. But he could have been talking about Philadelphia as a whole, a blue-collar town that adores sports and yet lives with a fatalistic dread that its teams are forever on the verge of deceiving them. There is a pure sports passion here, an affection built up over decades. Undying, many would say. But it is also a fractured love, one broken over the years by the Eagles, who haven't won a championship in 49 years, and the Phillies, whose World Series championship last fall was the team's first since 1980.

Filing complaints

They are a fatalistic bunch, Philadelphia fans. They cherish the few bright moments and sit in gloom waiting for another darkness to descend, finding it easier to boo and curse rather than have their hearts trampled upon again. Which is how, on Sunday morning, 59-year-old Barry Martin from Broomall in nearby Delaware County stood scowling outside his aging Winnebago with an Eagles logo painted on the side.

He had tickets to the Eagles game and the World Series game. He had been to Game 3 on Saturday and the Phillies' 8-5 loss to the Yankees had left him sour.

"For punishment, you know," he grumbled when asked if he was going to Game 4 as well.

Above him, attached to a bent piece of PVC pipe affixed to the back of his Winnebago, an Eagles flag flapped in the breeze. Below it waved another flag, this one with the words: "Lurie [Stinks]," printed on the front.

It was once a prominent refrain around here, an editorial comment on the previous failings of Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. But in recent years, as the Eagles have reached five NFC championship games in eight years under Coach Andy Reid, the anti-Lurie sentiment has somewhat cooled. That is, in most places other than Martin's RV. Inquiries about what Lurie qualities Martin finds most lacking are answered with a 13-point thesis that fills four type-written pages, listing his gripes.

(No. 8: "The constant pushing and shoving down our throats of his wife Christina's 'Go Green' ecology theme. We go to the games to watch football. We do not want to be instructed on how to live our lives according to his wife's ridiculous pet projects.")