10,000

It's almost obligatory to comment on this milestone, although a friend of mine pointed out that no one would even know about it if ESPN and the Inquirer sports page didn't need something to talk about. That said, I will now fulfill my obligation by rambling about what it means to this one fan.

A girl once asked me why I didn't have a girlfriend, and I responded (only slightly sarcastically) that my emotional reserves were so drained, my heart so worn out, from being a Philadelphia sports fan that I no longer retained the ability to invest myself emotionally in a relationship with any girl. This may sound sad, but there's a glimmer of pride at the bottom.

10,000 is a ridiculously huge number. If I was less lazy I would go look up how many of those loses have occurred since my birth, but the answer would be, "too many," and I would have wasted my precious time. It doesn't truly matter anyway, since there's no number of losses that could make me quit on them. I'll be a fan for life, and there's really nothing I could do to change that, even if I wanted to. I know a great number of people for whom this is also the case, and while it sometimes makes us feel like battered wives who keep thinking "maybe he would change if I just loved him enough," the truth is (for me at least) that our perseverance as fans is a great source of strength and even comfort.

Call me crazy, but it's a lot easier trying to find my way in the big bad world knowing that I will always have our teams to elate, devastate, distract, infuriate, and entertain me, no matter what happens in the future with war and politics, or my career and marriage.

All that 10,000 means is that our team happened to surpass a highly dubious milestone during our lifetimes. It's a little upsetting to have it all over ESPN and everything, but only because of the universal principle that you can constantly ridicule your friends viciously but still want to fight anyone who dares to slightly disrespect them. It gets maddening when it seems like the front office is trying their best to win the race to 20,000, but it's also a testament to our history, our tradition, our city, and our commitment as fans.

Any girl who broke your heart 10,000 times, or even just once a year as far back as you can remember, would have obviously been quit upon long ago. When it comes to these red striped stains, however, we're stuck with them for life, so we may as well say, "Fuck it, Go Phils."