Phillies Win.

So for those of you who've been living under a rock for the last weekend, the Phillies won the World Series!  I'm still a loyal Cubs fan of course, but it was never-the-less exciting to be here for this historic victory.  My post may be trite but as it speaks to both city planning and Philadelphia issues, I'll continue.

Sports bring people together.  At first it sounds like a shallow connection: I like the Phillies and so do you, what's your point?  However, this weekend's post-victory events revealed some of sports' deeper virtues.  

The love of a team transcends demographics.  On Wednesday night after the Phillies win, my two friends and I sprinted from a bar in West Phila. to catch the first cab or bus that would take us downtown.  Plenty of others had the same idea, and as we stood at the corner every single car that passed honked its horn.  People hung out of car windows to slap hands with those outside.  We jumped up and down and yelled and cheered with each other "Go Phils!"  White kids, black kids, young kids, old kids, women, men, everyone, all of us, the whole city was so excited that nothing else mattered.  James and Matt and I couldn't wait any longer so we just started running down the street.  We ran about 6 blocks before we caught a bus to take us to Broad street.  The street was filled.  Packed.  Everyone was chanting and laughing and giving each other five.  Nothing mattered except for a mutual victory.  It wasn't just for a team, but for a city, and for everyone rooting for the Phillies everywhere. 

Now economic planning often shows that building a new stadium isn't worth the city's investment.  I'm inclined to agree.  But I think the value of having a professional sports team runs deeper than mere economic analysis.  Economically speaking, sports bring people into the city and therefore people spend money in the city on dinner and drinks and on transit (where transit exists).  Culturally speaking, sports create a realm of inclusion in which everyone can participate.  They give us something to cheer for together.  

The beauty is this: it doesn't take much to be a sports fan.  Sure, there are people who know everything about every game and every player and every rule; but just by virtue of living in a place you can call yourself a fan of their teams.  My grandmother's first question to my dad after he told her about meeting my mother was "Is she a Cubs fan?"  Grandma Vi didn't know that much about baseball but she knew it was a family value.  You don't have to have money or education to appreciate a walk-off home run or a full count, two outs, bottom of the ninth strike out.  When your team loses you're devasted.  When they lose for a season (or 28 seasons in the Phillies' case, or 100 seasons in the Cubs case) it hurts.  The whole city mourns.  But when you win the whole city rejoices.  A collection of people is united in devotion to a game.  How simple.  How elegant.  The stakes feel so high at the moment, but even if they lose it's not like losing a war.  Sports offer a break from daily life.  They create a melange of sensory experiences - peanut shells underfoot, hot summer day, sitting still, drinking a beer.  They also bridge gaps between generations.  I love that I cheer for the same teams as my father and grandfather.  I love that all I know of baseball I learned from them, incrementally, over the course of 23 years' worth of baseball games.  

I could keep espousing the personal value of sport but I'll let the events speak for themselves.  The Phillies' victory parade on Friday brought over 2 million people to downtown Philadelphia on Friday.  That's about 500,000 more people than the city's official population.  Even if you think sports are trite, the ability of a game to bring so many people together to celebrate a single event is undeniably astonishing.