Well, to end this week, we have to officially declare our loyalty as Phillies fans. Go, Phillies! Every night the Phillies play our neighbors project the game on the side of a building at the end of our street. They all gather together and watch the game and I fall asleep to the cheering and booing associated therewith. Now that the Phillies are headed to the World Series, the Woodfords are joining the fan club.
In honor of our new allegiance and the upcoming holiday, I have decided to include the story of “The Curse of Billy Penn” and I am not making this up! As you know, William Penn was the proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania in the Colonial Era. There is a statue of him on the top of City Hall here in Philadelphia. For many years there was a gentleman’s agreement that no building in Philadelphia could be higher than that statue. However, in March of 1987 the One Liberty Place skyscraper was built and the curse began. Starting on that day no professional sports team based in Philly won a championship. It became such a humiliation that in June of 2007 when the Comcast Center was completed, currently the tallest building in Philly, the construction workers welded a statuette of William Penn to the final beam hoping to appease Mr. Penn. One year later the Phillies won the World Series.
Happy Halloween!
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