WORLD CHAMPIONS!

I can't believe I'm saying this. I can't believe I'm actually seeing this.

The Philadelphia Phillies are World Champions.

MY PHILLIES are World Champs.

The team I've rooted for my entire life. My first sports love. A Philly team pulled it off.

I'm excited and I don't even think it's sunk in yet.

It felt like everything was against us. The broadcasters. The nation. Major League Baseball. Mother Nature. Yet the Phils kept their cool and won the championship.

They did it for Moyer. They did it for Charlie. They did it for each other.

They did it for Philadelphia.

The Phillies mean a lot to me. Some of my best memories are from Phillies games. I've had amazing times at games with my friends. Some of my best moments with my dad are at Phils games. We rented out a box for my friend Kevin's bachelor party at a Phils game. The Phanatic sat on me and gave my sister Sabrina Dave Hollins' hat.

The last birthday gift my mom ever gave me was a Ryan Howard jersey.

Words fail to describe how this feels. I haven't seen a major championship in this city in my lifetime.

It's finally here.

Congrats to the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

And more importantly, thank you.

Rocky IV Curse

Having not won a major sports championship since 1983, many Philadelphians wonder if perhaps we are cursed. Many believe that when we built a building taller than the William Penn statue on City Hall, we were forever destined to be losers. Many of my generation, those being born in 1984 or around then, wonder if perhaps we are cursed.

I think Rocky IV is the curse.

Sure, Rocky avenges his friend's death AND ends the Cold War, but at what cost? Rocky's at his most articulate, and also at his most ridiculous, beating a gigantic Russian that could have possibly swallowed him whole if he so chose. Has Rocky's final true victory in the ring cursed the four major teams?

The only way to know for sure is to make a true sequel to Rocky IV. Rocky V is garbage, and Rocky Balboa actually is pretty good. Rocky IV was over the top and had that stupid inexplicable robot. We need to jump the Rocky shark one last time. Only this time Rocky doesn't end the Cold War, but rather the War on Terror.

That's right, Rocky Vs. Osama bin Laden.

We pull out all the stops. Absurd training sequence in the mountains of Afghanistan. Paulie tumbling over while complaining. That damn robot! Cheesy 80s soundtrack and gay montage of Rocky and Apollo training on the beach!

Dammit, I just want one of the 4 major teams to win a championship!

It's up to you Rock, it's as that awful song from Rocky IV's driving montage says, "There's no easy way out!"