Mike Jurewicz’s Blog

Every year people all over the country get to experience the thrill of seeing one of their favorite sports teams win it all whether it be baseball, football, hockey, basketball, etc.  Many fans in many cities get to have that feeling multiple times throughout their life.  People in New York have gotten to see the Yankees, Giants and Rangers win titles in my lifetime.  Boston has enjoyed World Series victories by the Red Sox, Super Bowl wins from the Patriots and just this year a NBA Championship by the Celtics.  Hell even the Florida Marlins with their maybe 2,000 real fans and tens of thousand band wagon jumping fans have won two fall classics.   In my almost 26 years on this planet only one major Philadelphia sports team has won a championship.  The 76ers won the NBA Championship in 1983.  I was not even 1 year old when that occurred so I had no ability to celebrate such a win.

We have had multiple oppurtunities with the Phillies in the World Series in 93, the Flyer making it to the Stanley Cup finals in 97, the 76ers in the NBA finals in 01 and the Eagle making the Super Bowl in 05.  But each time we have come up short.  Yet I sit back and watch people in all these other cities bask in the glory.  We have been subjected to a “curse” of sorts.  Not nearly as long of one as say the Cubs but the Curse of Billy Penn.

The curse is based on the old gentlemens’ agreement in old days that no building shall ever be taller than the city hall, which has a large statue of William Penn atop it.  In 1987 the first building to break this was completed.  Eversince then it has been said that no major Philly sports team will win a championship.  So it has been since then.  Some make arguements that the Philadelphia Wings and Philadelphia Barrage lacrosse temas winning championships show no curse as well as the Philadelphia Soul of the Arena Football League winning the AFL title this year shows no curse.  But with any tale it depends on who you talk to.

But that brings me to today.  Tonight the Philadelphia Phillies open the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.  It’s their first time to the big show since 1993 when they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays.  Many people are discounting them already to fall to the cinderella story Rays but I feel that this is the best chance any Philly team has had of winning the championship in my time on this Earth.  The team has been phenominal for the last month and I find them as a tough team to beat when on a roll like this.

This playoff run is also really important for me on a personal level as the last few weeks my life has been throwing myself and my family some curve balls.  It is almost therapeutic to watch the Phils as it takes away the pain for a little bit and allows us to be happy watching a team we like succeed.  It would be an absolutely bitter sweet win to me if they pull it out and win the Series.

Tonight is game 1 in Tampa.  You can be sure I will be watching.  I hope by this time next week to be able to be finally experiencing what it is like to see one of my favorite teams win the big one.

Yes it has been awhile since I have wrote and I’m sorry.  Work has been consuming a lot of time along with dealing with things that life seems to throw my way.  But for the past couple days I have come down with a sickness that I get every 4 years, Olympic Fever.

Yeah there is the Winter Olympics but I never really got into those.  The summer games are just all the magic of what you think of when you think of the Olympics.  Countries battling it out to try to show who are superior at a given sport.  Being a former athlete I am just drawn to this because of my dream as kid to one day be on that stage.  Of course I never made there so I might as well watch right?

Right away I have gotten myself hooked on the Michael Phelps craze.  He in this Olympic games could break the record for most gold medals in a single games and the record for most gold of all time.  This kid is amazingly fast and so very fun to watch.  He has 2 golds already with 2 world records for those wins.  Now he has 6 more to go to break the record.

Then I love watching the track and field events which I believe start next week.  Being a former competitor in track this really gets me excited.  Track rarely gets seen on the big stage except for the Olympics.  This year we get to see 3 of the fastest men in the world as American and defending World Champion Tyson Gay looks to go against the 2 very fast Jamacians Asafa Powell and World Record Holder Usain Bolt in the 100 meters.  Then American and defending Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner will attempt to defend his crown in the 400 meters and will try to break the almost 9 year old world record held by Michael Johnson.  Plus you have the 200, 4×100 relay and all the field events.

I have also enjoyed watching some volleyball, fencing, gymnastics and soccer already.  I just love this time that comes around every four years.  It makes me feel like a kid again and relive some of my best moments in sports.  And most importantly it seems for 2 weeks the world seems to put some of their differences behind them for the thrill of competition.