Give This Series a Chance! Phillies Fans Ripe To Be Villified

If you watched ESPN at noon today, you no doubt noticed the long segments devoted to the Tampa Bay Rays. This comes, despite the fact, that they did no such tribute to the Philadelphia Phillies, who play in a city that hasn't won a thing for exactly a combined 100 season in the four major sports.

How quickly does ESPN forget their lovefest with all things Boston Red Sox and move on to their next love—the Tampa Bay Rays. Never mind the fact that only days ago, they wanted them out at the expense of the Red Sox.

This is understandable, since the majority of ESPN's anchors are New Englanders by birth or North Easterners in general. Since Philly seems to be the next logical choice based on its geographical location compared to Tampa, what explains their new lovefest?

We've already heard the Rays' success story. We know they went from worst to first. Problem is, this thought isn't original, as Philadelphia native Stephen A. Smith correctly pointed out yesterday on ESPN's First Take that the Braves actually instigated this same feat in 1990 by losing 97 games and then making a World Series appearance the following season.

We also know the Rays have a great young nucleus, we know they have a great charismatic manager that the players love to play for, and we know they took down the big bad Yankee$ and equally annoying Red $ox.

If ESPN and Fox, which is broadcasting the series, isn't careful, they are going to risk overhyping this series to the point that whatever drama and intrigue is left that they haven't already overanalyzed or reported is going to fade, and we are simply going to be expecting the Rays to win.

It could get so bad that should they actually live up to newfound expectations, our ability to share in their excitement could be lost since we'll have been desensitized to the victory they feel simply because we'll have been droned into expecting it and nothing less. This happened in 2004 with the aforementioned Boston Red $ox.

They also risk creating new Phillies fans out of spite for their bias. Las Vegas has already made the Rays the favorite and members of the national media are already buying into the love fest. For the media to simply do this as Johnny-come-latelys is an insult to the Rays fans who have followed this team the whole magical season.

All indications are that the Phillies and their fans are ripe to be vilified, should they dare step in the way of this all-too-often-used phrase: Cinderella season. The only worse team I can think of is the team that knocks off the Cubs if and when they ever make it back to the Fall Classic.

I feel bad for them, should they be the ones who break up this magical "nine equals eight" season, who ended this so-called destiny simply by doing their jobs. It will be no fault of their own but they could be seen as the ones who stopped this from becoming reality and completing one of baseball's best (and overplayed) storylines in quite some time, thanks to ESPN: the hype machine.

It's bad enough that the media has already predicted the ratings could be the worst ever, despite not giving this series or its players on both teams a chance. Now they risk taking away whatever reason fans may have to watch the game by overplaying their hand.

It will be easy to see the cosmopolitan media poking fun at the grandfatherly West Virginia-born Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, and simply overlook his tenure with the team and the fact he was on the chopping block several times in one of the hardest and unforgiving markets to play, something Rays manager Joe Maddon would know nothing about, playing in a small market with no history or expectations prior to this year.

I can hear the jokes now, especially when he'll be put up against the more savvy, energetic Joe Maddon of the Rays in postgame press conferences. If Joe Maddon was a candidate, he'd be Obama with Manuel completing the role of McCain.

Everyone already knows Manuel isn't the most gifted verbally, and this coupled with the improbable matchup, likely horrid ratings, and his witty counterpart will likely only make this more obvious and painful for Phillies fans to watch and FOX commentators to report on as they think of things to keep their minuscule fans interested in a series where they've already settled on the outcome before a pitch was thrown.

ESPN/Fox: All we are sayyyyying...Is give this series a chance. We owe it to the Phillies, and their fans who won't deserve the criticism they'll get should they actually win this thing.

Let's just hope those announcers involved can leave their blatant biases at the door and call a good series, however long (or short) it may be.

All we are say-ing is, give this series a chance.........