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The Phillies are Stressing Out Philadelphia
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
WalletHub ranked Philadelphia the 7th-most stressed city in the country, citing things like work and financial and family stress. Blah blah blah. The Phightins are the leading cause in all of these categories. Lets be honest, we’ve moved on from the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles and we’re fully entrenched in baseball season. That’s the funny thing about Philadelphians. We spent decades complaining about how our lives would be better if our sports teams just started winning. Finally, we get two Super Bowls in six years and it’s still not enough. Some would call that greedy or say that we have a mental illness, others call it passion and an insatiable desire for more so we can rub it in our opponent’s faces. That’s where we find the Phillies, who are right in our crosshairs. The 15 games over .500 Phillies might I add:
Let’s look at the factors. People are spending their hard-earned money to watch guys chase balls out of the zone (financial stress). They’re leaving work early in time for a 6:45pm game because 76 and 95 are an absolute mess, while their boss hounds their ass to get them that report they’re a week overdue for (work stress). Sometimes the other side of the pendulum flips and causes stress too, like fighting with your WIP uncle that Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, and Rob Thomson are all bums even though his formative years were spent watching Travis Lee, Desi Relaford, and Terry Francona (family stress).
Now, I don’t hold the same sentiment as many, but if you go on social media after a game it’s paramount how much people are annoyed with this team after one loss. It doesn’t matter they’ve missed Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, and Jose Alvarado for a significant amount of time fans, can’t believe in these guys because they’re still swinging at shit and you never know what you’re going to get from the bullpen on any particular night.
We had fans crashing out in the middle of June after being swept by the Pirates. Try to tell me the Phillies aren’t the leading cause of the stress in this city after listening to this:
Look at the other cities that are ranked behind us. Washington D.C. doesn’t care about the Nationals. They’re riding the high from the Commanders being good for the first time in 30 years. New York is still riding high on a World Series appearance and the Mets have a payroll richer than god. Detroit, Michigan, which was ranked the #1 most stressed city, might have a good baseball team currently, but everyone knows that stress is caused by the Lions being inept for decades. The first time in forever they’ve been Super Bowl contenders, grab the #1 seed, first round bye, and they lose in the Divisional Round. That’ll give any Detroiter a heart attack after years of build up. Cleveland, Ohio, which got silver, is the same thing. All you have to do is look at this Browns jersey:
Baltimore pulls into third place, and even though they have two Super Bowl titles this century, you’d never know it. Not with the way Lamar Jackson is scrutinized in that town. If Joe Flacco was still under center they’d have another, maybe two:
So yea. The Phillies misfortunes in the postseason the last couple of years is the conduit to all of this built up anxiety and stress. Nothing in this world could convince me otherwise that 25 guys and their manager contributes to your dad’s high blood pressure. Maybe a Phils game broadcasting on AppleTV is going to send him to an early grave too, but I digress.
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com