Will Dodgers help Phillies bust the ‘Curse of Billy Penn’?
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There are warm and fuzzy curses that have been turned into warm and fuzzy HBO specials. ‘The Curse of the Bambino’ that haunted the Boston Red Sox for 86 years. The never-ending pain in Chicago, where the Cubs serve up ‘The Billy Goat Curse’ every year like deep-dish pizza.
But the William Penn Curse? Well, many Philadelphians swear by it, or swear about it.
The problem, it seems, is that Old Billy Penn (or at least the statue of him on Philadelphia’s city hall) has a Malibu-like trait: no one had better block my view with their new house.
Legend has it that when One Liberty Place was completed in 1987, Billy was ticked off. The skyscraper ended the unwritten agreement that no building would rise above Penn’s statue on top of city hall.
Philadelphia sports fans have suffered since the building opened.
The Phillies lost the 1993 World Series on Joe Carter’s Game Six home run. The 76ers lost to the Lakers in the 2001 NBA Finals. The Eagles lost to the New England Patriots in the 2005 Super Bowl. The Flyers lost in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1987 and again in 1997.
No Philadelphia professional has won a title since the Sixers in 1983. (Sorry, arena football, lacrosse and indoor soccer -- we’re talking major sports only.)
So why do the Phillies stand a chance? The Comcast Center, now the city’s tallest building, opened in June. Atop the structure, workers placed a small bronze statue of William Penn.
The Phillies, Eagles, 76ers and Flyers had better get busy. The American Commerce Center is scheduled to open in 2012 and will rise above Penn by about 500 feet.
As to Phillies being going all of 27 years without a World Series championship, the derisive laughter you hear is from Cubs fans, who could do 27 years standing on their head.
-- Chris Foster
