Philly Sports... A Disturbing Trend

With the St. Louis Cardinals victory in the World Series this weekend, it brought to a light a somewhat disturbing trend in Philadelphia sports: losing to the eventual champs. This marks the third straight year that the Phillies have fallen victim to this trend, after losing in the World Series to the Yankees in 2009 and the Giants in the NLCS last year.

But the Phils are not alone. In fact, only the Miami Heat losing in the NBA Finals kept all four Philly teams from pulling off this feat in 2011. The Eagles fell to the Packers in the first round of the NFL Playoffs, followed by the Flyers being swept by Boston in the 2nd round of the NHL Playoffs.

The Flyers can actually make this dubious claim for each of the last three years, as well. Prior to losing to Boston this year, they lost in the Stanley Cup finals to Chicago in 2010, and lost in the first round to Pittsburgh in 2009. They also lost to evenutal champ Tampa Bay in 2004.

Is this all just a case of bad luck? Or can you put a positive spin that the teams at least are in position to compete with the eventual champs? Personally, I've never been a proponent of the "root for the team that beat you" philosophy. I always hate watching that team move on while my team sits at home. But even more, watching that team beat everyone else serves as a cruel reminder that had our team simply beaten them, we could have been the ones celebrating in the end.