In sports, teams occasionally go from "worst to first," finishing last one season and first the next. But the 2007 Philadelphia Phillies are destined to be "first to worst"—the first professional sports franchise to suffer 10,000 defeats.
While the Phillies aren't the only major league baseball club approaching 10,000 losses—the Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds have all lost more than 9,300 games each—it's still a dubious distinction, a milestone that the Phillies organization would prefer to ignore.
Yet Charley DeBow, Andrew Deck and Gautham Chowdry—co-founders of Celebrate10000.com—refuse to let such an historic occasion pass unnoticed. Recently this trio of lifelong Phillies "Phans" launched the website to, in the words of DeBow, "honor the fans who have endured painful, losing seasons, year after year."
DeBow, 28, developed the idea for Celebrate10000.com back on January 13 following the Philadelphia Eagles' 27-24 divisional playoff loss to the New Orleans Saints. "I was in a bad mood because the Eagles had lost, and suddenly I remembered that the Phillies were going to lose their 10,000th game during the 2007 season. I said, 'We should make a toast,' and a few beers later it was, 'Hey, let's start a website,'" he recalls.
While DeBow admits Celebrate10000.com was born out of frustration, he denies it is designed to portray the Phillies in an unfavorable light. "On the face of it, the website looks like I'm trying to be negative—that stereotypical Philadelphian who has nothing nice to say," relates DeBow, referring to the reputation of Philly sports fans, who are perceived to be the most cantankerous, hard-to-please fans in the country. "Celebrate10000.com was created to celebrate the folks who will be standing by the Phillies even as they become the losingest team in professional sports history," he insists.
But DeBow can understand how the uninitiated might question his motives, especially considering certain incidents that reflect poorly on Philly fans as a whole. During the 1999 NFL draft, Eagles fans booed lustily after the organization selected quarterback Donovan McNabb second overall, a rude reception for a quarterback expected to be the franchise's savior. The same year a fan hurled batteries at St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew (now with the Red Sox), who had been drafted by the Phillies but chose to sign with the Cards instead. Also in 1999, Eagles fans cheered as Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin lay motionless on the turf of Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium with what turned out to be a career-ending spinal cord injury.
Then there was the day at Franklin Field in December, 1968 when Eagles supporters pelted Santa Claus with snowballs. DeBow reasons that the Santa incident is illustrative of the passion of Philadelphia fans, saying, "That Santa had a terrible beard and his suit was dirty. In Philadelphia, if you aren't going to come out and do your best, we're going to boo you."
Certainly the Phillies have been less than the best for most of their 125-year existence. On May 1, 1883 the team lost its inaugural game, and things went downhill from there. The club won only 17 of 98 games that year. Between 1938 and 1942 the team lost 103-plus games each season. And no 1960s-era Phillies fan can forget 1961, when the club endured a 23-game losing streak, or 1964, when Philadelphia had a six-and-half game lead with just 12 games to play, and still failed to win the pennant.
It hasn't all been doom and gloom. The Phillies did win the World Series in 1980—the franchise's lone championship—and the 76ers won the NBA title in 1983, the last time any of Philadelphia's four major sports teams won a league crown.
As soon as that ten-thousandth defeat is in the books—most likely, sometime in July—DeBow plans to give Celebrate 10,000 supporters the chance to publicly vent their frustrations. "We plan to hold a parade from the Connie Mack statue [outside Citizens Bank Park, current home of the Phillies] to Chickie's & Pete's sports bar, where we're going to put a microphone on stage and give people an opportunity to air their grievances," says DeBow.
The irony is that Phillies fans don't have much to complain about right now. As of June 20 the team is three games above .500 and just two games behind the first-place New York Mets in the National League East. Yet Philly Phans know better than to get their hopes up. Anyway, DeBow doesn't expect outsiders to understand the subtle distinction between celebrating the Phillies and celebrating defeat. "We're not really celebrating losing," DeBow begins. "We're celebrating the fact that we still care about this team when all they do is lose." "
Jason Zasky is the founder and editorial director of failuremag.com.
