The Reaction
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, however. Remember when the Philadelphia Phillies had Four Aces? Right, it wasn’t the year of their most recent World Championship or their most recent league championship.
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But as February turned to March, everyone in the Delaware Valley forgot about losing their only Super Bowl-winning quarterback. They also forgot, and some will deny later, their angry texts to friends about how they couldn’t care less if Harper brought his precious self to Philadelphia.
The world was new. By 5:18 p.m., sports talk radio station WIP reported there was already a billboard up on Route 322 welcoming Harper to the city. (That took about two hours on the nose.) Shortly thereafter, an excited woman calling the same station began her call with a simple, happy shriek. By 9:30 p.m. the station was already repeating a faux home run call for Harper’s first bomb at the Phillies home opener, exactly a month away.
That was a bit weird (and perhaps a jinx), but Philadelphia isn’t Boston. Hope for a championship doesn’t circle South Philly 27 times in a decade.
Early Mar. 1, the print edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer relayed the story of a Girl Scout selling cookies at a Center City train station. She was proud of the $6000 she’s made doing that, but happily assessed the addition of Harper for so much more: “I respect the hustle.”