So, there has been a back and forth between David Murphy of philly.com’s High Cheese blog and Dan Steinberg of DC Sports Bog over the Philadelphia and Washington fan bases. This of course was prompted by the Washington Nationals supplanting the Philadelphia Phillies as NL East champions. Here are the stories:

David Murphy: Washington not used to baseball celebrations

Philadelphia columnist says Nats rely on ‘desperate gimmicks’

Philadelphia and Washington and the sociology of fandom

I didn’t get upset by either of the Murphy columns, I kind of laughed because everything is funny from first place. Basically, it was an old money vs. new money argument. What’s funny is the Phillies fanbase isn’t that many years removed being in a similar position as the Nats fanbase right now. Winning changes things.

I don’t have the deep-seated animosity that some have for Philly fans (though Stan Kasten was still wrong), despite being amongst them while attending Penn State.* While there, I figured something out about the Philly fanbase — they hate their teams more than they hate mine. I’m half-joking here of course though a 25 year championships in 4 major sports dry-spell will do that too. D.C. isn’t far behind that streak too. I also have a soft spot for late Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas.

Anyhow, back to the mascots race. If the Phillies ever get gimmicky and start one, here are my nominees for their runners:

Benjamin Franklin – Great Philadelphian, great American. Obviously.

Rocky Balboa – The Italian Stallion everybody! Heavyweight champion of the world and symbol of Philly resiliency. In movies. Who did you expect, Joe Frazier?

Mumia! – ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Buddy Ryan – Beloved former coach with great defenses and an annual epic win over the Dallas Cowboys. He never won a playoff game, but I understand he’s the messiah of Philly sports radio callers.

I’m joking of course, except about Joe Frazier. That there is a statue of an actor named Sylvester and not the real Heavyweight Champion is a disgrace. There needs to be a good statue of Frazier, something way better than the Rocky statue. Even the multi-armed statues in front of Nationals Park are better than the Rocky statue. *ducks*

Danny Faulkner is no laughing matter either.

Ben is awesome too.

Time to get to the game.

*Pittsburgh fans on the other hand…