My team, the Philadelphia Phillies, won't be in the World Series this year. Instead, they’ll finish the season with the worst record in baseball. Losing, it seems, is something my team does more often than winning.
Still, I care. Still, I sit by the computer every night during the summer, listening as the local Phillies radio commentary streams through cyberspace. I knew even before the season started that 2015 was going to be a wash for my team - not like those glory days a few years back when the Phillies were serious contenders.
This is something Boston fans understand. One year the Sox win it all, take the pennant, and the next they sit alone in the division cellar. It's the vagaries of baseball.
We carry our childhood with us all our lives. And at least for me my childhood allegiance to a hometown baseball team is one of my fondest memories. I only ever attended a few Phillies games when I was young. But I still remember sitting in peanut heaven - the upper level outfield cheap seats - for a double header on a summer Saturday afternoon. It really was heaven for me, a lower middle class kid with a passion for baseball.
Baseball carries me through the seasons - there's the hope of spring when my team really could go all the way. Then come the hot, lazy days of summer when the slow-paced game seems just right for a sizzling afternoon - while in my heart, I still believe my team might have a chance to make it to the play-offs.
But then comes the rush into autumn, as summer seeps away in late September – like my team's chances to make it into post season. The dreams and high hopes of most teams wither with the chill of autumn, and if you're a Phillies fan, it's an all too familiar disappointment.
But autumn has its own refrain… There's always next year. And that’s one of the beauties of baseball - a game in which hope really does spring eternal. So while the lucky few watch their teams vie for a spot in postseason festivities, I'll be thinking of greatness gone by... and the month of April, when baseball season starts again, all things seem possible, and just maybe, 2016 will be the year of the Phillies - or more likely, the local home town favorites, the Red Sox!
