Lehigh Football Nation

Bryce Harper took control of the city of Philadelphia on a 1-2 pitch. He fouled off two 99 mph fastballs, took a changeup just low, and then crushed Daniel Suarez's 98.9 mph sinker into the left-center stands. At that moment, so many people in the Philadelphia area erupted that it felt like it registered on the Richter scale.   Citizens Bank Park, filled with many fans who just two months ago might have been cursing the organization for being stuck in third and very possibly falling out of contention, were jumping around, waving their Red October towels, in the midst of a wild party they will never forget. For Phillies fans and Philly fans, it was a moment they had been waiting for after an eleven year playoff drought.  For my wife, who listened to the radio call on WIP on our way out to dinner, it was a goosebump-inducing experience. It's probably not accurate to call Philly fans "long suffering" (ask any Mariners fan), but in a lot of ways in this case it's not ...

(Photo courtesy nj.com) With the Phillies making it once again to the World series (and, for good measure, facing the hated Yankees in the first-ever Turnpike Series), it's unsurprising that my thoughts on Lehigh football might also turn to baseball. But in Philly closer Brad "Lidge" there's perhaps something that the Mountain Hawk football team can look to for inspiration as they take on Colgate, Holy Cross, Fordham and "that school in Easton". Even with a feel-good win this weekend over Bucknell, it feels like Lehigh may as well be taking on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. And with word that freshman QB Michael Colvin being done for the year with a fractured leg - Lehigh's second-leading rusher - and junior RB Jay Campbell sitting out the Bucknell game as well, it will not be easy at all. Then again, it wasn't easy this year for Lights-Out "Lidge" this year, either. ***** From "Lidge"'s Wikipedia page , it states tha...

"Philly really, really deserves it." That's what my wife, the Phillies fan, said to me after Brad Lidge stuck out the last batter, got on his knees and pointed up at the sky - and after Ryan Howard and the rest of the Phillies gang-tackled him at the mound. First pitch, 8:37 PM on October 27th. Last pitch, a little after 10:00 PM on October 29th. In between, a weather pattern that seemed to imply that a second Phillies World Series was having a rough time fitting in with the cosmos. Pouring rain, which caused the first (and only one, to this point) World Series game suspension. The next day: rain, sleet - and snow, for the first time in this area in 30 years. Even earlier today it wasn't at all clear that the game would go on with more sleet and snow. Much was made about Philadelphia's drought with pro sports franchises in the past 25 years, the curse of William Penn, and the like. The attempt of folks to shroud it in some sort of "curse", it must ...

After watching the wet slop at Game 5 at the Linc today - and the incredible game suspension in Game 5 in the middle of the 6th inning 2-2 in a game that never should have even been started given the weather forecast, all I can keep thinking about is: what the Philadelphia fan needs is a creed, like the unofficial one at the Post office. Instead of " Neither snow, nor rain nor heat stays these couriers from their appointed rounds ", it ought to go something like this: We are Philadelphia fans. We love each other like brothers, but will roll others out of the upper decks like nutters. We are cheesesteak-eating, soft pretzel-munching Rocky's, Pat Croce's, Bernie Parent's. We go about our day with memories of bitterly falling short in key situations, near-complete ineptitude in the front office, strange blot clots taking out top goalscorers one series before the Stanley Cup, Allen Iverson, mysterious stomach viruses affecting our starting quarterbacks, and - wors...