You might have heard by now that game one of the NHL's Stanley Cup Finals was last night. If you don't know who's playing for it this year, or you don't know what the Stanley Cup is, you aren't alone.
But if the Eastern Conference were being represented by the Philadelphia Flyers instead of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the chase for ice hockey's greatest prize, I almost guarantee you would have heard about all of this.
And I mean that literally. You would hear people on the street talking about it, it would be on the front pages of all the newspapers in the boxes on Walnut and Spruce Streets, and there would probably be some kind of encouraging message on the light display atop the Exelon Building on Market Street.
This city has great sports fans, even if they get a little over-zealous sometimes.
But there's a very simple reason for this passion: no major professional sports team in this city has won a championship for 21 years.
Yes, that's right. There are people our age who have lived in this area and have never seen any of their teams win a championship in their entire lives. So naturally, things get a little crazy around here when a big shiny piece of metal gets within reach
Witness the love showered upon the Saint Joseph's men's basketball team during their wonderful run to the Elite Eight of this year's NCAA Tournament.
Even diehard Penn, Temple and Villanova fans got behind them, and that's quite an accomplishment for any Big Five team.
I am fairly sure that you will never see Bill Cosby -- perhaps Temple University's most famous alumnus -- wearing a St. Joe's sweatshirt to a basketball game again, and it takes a lot to cross City Line Avenue in the Catholic school rivalry known simply as The Holy War.
As for Penn alumnus and current Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who also got in on the act, he has to be neutral -- at least officially. But we all know which side of the Palestra his season tickets are on.
If Smarty Jones wins the Belmont Stakes and becomes horse racing's first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978, there will more than likely be a parade down Broad Street with him as the guest of honor.
Yes, that's right, the people of this city will throw a parade for a horse. A horse!
Already, nearly 13,000 people have been to Smarty's practice sessions at Philadelphia Park in Bensalem, Bucks County.
But few teams get people in this city whipped into a frenzy more than the Flyers.
For 30 years now, they have been among the elite teams of the NHL, always coming so close to winning their third Stanley Cup but never quite getting there.
The Flyers have one of the highest average attendances in the league, which is pretty impressive considering that they also have some of the highest ticket prices.
Indeed, even the most dedicated Flyers fans can't even get a whiff of the Wachovia Center's upper deck without paying through the nose for it.
Now I admit, I'm not exactly a Flyers fan. In fact, I used to really despise them.
I'm a Washington Capitals fan, and I also know all too well what it means to pay nearly $50 to sit in the upper deck at a hockey game.
But by virtue of being a Washington sports fan, I have seen championships -- three super bowls and four titles from the city's professional soccer teams. So I don't have that emptiness that Philadelphians do.
That emptiness that provokes thousands of Flyers fans to come to every Flyers-Capitals game in D.C., usually to make more noise than we do.
There have been many epic playoff series between the two teams in my life, and I've been on the losing side of almost all of them.
Most years, the Caps' organization struggles mightily to sell out an arena that showcases a team that has only gotten as far in the playoffs as the finals in 1998, only to be swept by the Detroit Red Wings.
So I have seen my fair share of losing.
But this year, I wanted the Flyers to win it all.
Aside from the effect it would have on hockey's TV ratings, which are kind of important right now since the league might just go out of business in two weeks, I really wanted to see Philadelphia's championship drought end.
And I was a bit saddened when Tampa Bay won Game 7, and moved on to face the Calgary Flames.
When Philadelphia's wait finally ends, it will be one of the biggest events in American sports history.
The Flyers' 1974 championship parade drew two million people. I have a feeling that the next parade will get double that.
For most of us at Penn, it would probably be more convenient if the Phillies or Eagles broke the numerous jinxes that supposedly exist in this city, because those parades would take place during the school year and a far larger part of the Penn community would be able to partake in the celebrations.
But right now, most Philadelphia sports fans don't care about that one bit.
They care about two decades of disappointment, almosts, nearlies, and what-ifs.
And a horse.
