Calling It A Mass Of Humanity Is A Massive Understatement

The sheer amount of humanity I saw at the parade on Friday was simply unbelievable. I've never in my life seen so many people in one spot. However, the funny thing is...the same amount of people could be seen for a 4 mile stretch and then culminated with 80,000 people divided into the Linc and Citizen's Bank Park.

It was estimated that 2 million people attended the parade and that doesn't count the hordes of people that were stranded in South Jersey and Suburban Philly by mass transit. Tell me another city that has a turnout like that for a parade? I doubt anyone has had a turnout like that.

While it was a bit anti climatic from my vantage point, I'm still awfully happy to say I was a part of it. It was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life and as I was once told, life is about experiences. This is one I will file away for the rest of my life.

I hope all you Phils phans got to experience it as well.

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By the way, is anyone else in the midst of a small spending spree buying up Phillie championship clothing and memorbilia? I know I am.

-One other point....I know there has been some sentiment locally that people are happy that the Phils were the one to break the curse and not the Birds, mainly due to the snobbish ownership/management group of the Birds. I thought this article in Sunday's Inquirer summed it up nicely and particularly enjoyed this passage:

So what are the lessons the Eagles could learn from the Phillies? It is unlikely the football team will look at it this way since it rarely needs advice, but perhaps just this once.

One large piece of the puzzle for the Phillies has been the organization's ability to admit its mistakes. Maybe that is part of the nature of the game. When your team loses 70 times a year in a great season, coming to grips with failure isn't a rare occurrence.

The Phillies made enormous personnel mistakes along the way, but moved past them quickly. If Freddy Garcia, Jon Lieber and Adam Eaton weren't enough to wreck the starting rotation of a team building to a title, it is only because the team didn't remain stubborn in that regard.

To their credit, the members of the Phils' front office never claimed to get everything right, and didn't mind altering their initial plans. From the outside, that isn't the case with the Eagles. The only problem with always telling people that you're the smartest kid in the room is that it looks bad when you start failing tests.

It also doesn't help to have the public face of the franchise refuse to answer the most basic of questions about the team. Andy Reid isn't a bad guy. He's a pretty good guy, but his that's-for-me-to-know answers not only infuriate the populace but they deepen the paranoia within the bunker and the locker room.

Another lesson that could be passed along is that it doesn't hurt if the players actually like playing for the organization. The Phils and Eagles operate in different worlds because of the NFL salary cap, but even those players who leave the Phillies because of financial considerations - a group that Pat Burrell will probably join - leave with the feeling of being treated fairly while they were there.

The Eagles' organization is viewed with suspicion by its players. Lito Sheppard said the other day that if you don't play their contract game, the team will blackball you. Other than that, one big happy family.