New York Is Now Jealous Of Both Boston and Philly

Forget Boston, we have new city to hate

From NY Daily News

No matter where a New York fan turns these days, a vulgar scent of cheesesteak taints the atmosphere and distorts the schedule of sports events on our flat-screen televisions. Philadelphia is the new Boston, suddenly. Maybe not as prim and haughty, but every bit as dangerous and much, much sneakier.

The Phillies have leap-frogged and embarrassed the Mets for two straight Septembers, riding Jimmy Rollins' back-page boasts all the way to a championship. The Eagles knocked off the Giants twice at the Meadowlands this season, the second time decisively.

The Flyers are battling the Rangers and Devils atop the Atlantic Division. The Sixers are mediocre, at best, but that only means they will be jockeying with the Knicks for key draft position. No doubt the expansion Philadelphia franchise will win the MLS title before the Red Bulls.

And still, we hear the whining from down there. It is now winning whining, which is much worse than losing whining. We miss the jeering. Where is the jeering?

"Trashy people from either Philadelphia or the Southern region of New Jersey," is how Urbandictionary.com defines Eagles fans. "They claim they are the most loyal fans in the NFL. ... ONLY when their team is on the brink of a (soon to be a failure) Super Bowl Run. But as soon as their team loses, they disown their team and bash them to pieces."

The problem is, there has been no need for bashing anyone to pieces lately in Philly. There are only these big victories down there in what looks like a farmer's market filled with new stadiums. We were so busy worrying about Boston all these years, we failed to spot Ryan Howard and Donovan McNabb advancing from the south.

We should have seen this coming as far back as 1790, when Philadelphia stole our designation as nation's capital on a lark. After World War I, Philly politicians made a futile legislative and propaganda effort to divert steamship commerce from our ports, claiming we were overcrowded.

"The advantages of New York do not need to be advertised," The New York Times opined in 1918, about Philly's assault. "But not even New York is strong enough to be indifferent to diversion of trade by edict, and wrong notions, and facts which are not facts."

The sixth-biggest city in America was cunning then, and is still slyer now. The town which might have given Boo Radley his name has launched one stealth attack after another these past couple of years.

We search, but find no overt venom spewed toward New York, not like on the Boston airwaves. The Philly fan blogs are generally filled with straight analysis, a dash of pessimism and little braggadocio. Philadelphians want us to believe they are so down on themselves, on everything and everybody, they don't really have a specific grudge against New York.

"I don't think there's an overriding animus toward New York from Philadelphia," insists Bob Ford, a sports columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. "Philadelphians hate the whole world. North Philadelphia doesn't like South Philly , which doesn't like The Main Line, which doesn't think anyone else exists.

"Everyone hates Boston, because they're stuck up. We can't say New York is stuck up. Before the Phillies won, there wasn't a championship since 1983. There would have been great pleasure if the local teams were beating Tulsa for a title. And for sheer civic joy, the fans would have enjoyed it five times more if it had been Dallas instead of the Giants on Sunday."

So Philly refuses to recognize its own role as our new nemesis - which only makes the city that much more annoying.

Boston? Boston is so yesterday around here, and far too Yankee-centric. The Red Sox were a wild-card team last season, nothing more. They've lost Manny, the poster child for anti-pinstriped imagery.

Besides, the Yanks killed them in the offseason. Brad Penny for one year? That's not even trying.

The Patriots lost to the Jets in New England and didn't make the playoffs. The Bruins are in a different division. The Celtics are irrelevant to the Knicks or Nets at the moment, playing in their own little two-team league with the Lakers.

Philadelphia would love us to remain focused on Boston, to forget the increasing threat it presents on the athletic fields.

"We are sort of related," Ford insists. "We share New Jersey, a slow cousin we both have to look out for."