Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

In 1976, Tampa Bay got it’s first of the four major pro sports teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  It wasn’t long before meeting Philadelphia teams in the playoffs became a sort of tradition.

In fact, in their first-ever playoff appearance,  the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 24-17.  That was December 29, 1979.

The first playoff appearance for the Tampa Bay Lightning was also against a Philly team.

Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Philadelphia Flyers (4 games to 2) in the first round of the 1996 Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Those games at Thunderdome versus the Philadelphia Flyers once held the record for fans in attendance at an NHL game.

And yes, Philly ended up beating Tampa Bay a couple of more times in season-ending tournaments.

At the turn of the century, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers twice reached the Wild Card Game against the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles beat the Buccaneers in both years.  21-3 at Philly in 2000, and 31-9 at Philly in 2001.

After that, the tide began to turn.

In 2002, the Buccaneers had to travel to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship.  Tampa Bay won on the road for the first time in their playoff history, in the last football game played at Veterans Stadium.  The Bucs beat the Eagles 27-10 en route to their first Super Bowl appearance.

In 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers (4 games to 3) in the 2004 Eastern Conference Finals to advance to their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance.

Trouble is that none of those teams from Philly went on to win a championship.  The Bucs won the Super Bowl after beating the Eagles in 2002, while the Lightning won the Stanley Cup after beating the Flyers in 2004.  In fact, the city of Philadelphia has not won a championship in the major sports since 1983 (and that was in something called “basketball“).

• Philadelphia Eagles - the NFL team’s last championship was in 1960 - 48 years ago.
• Philadelphia Flyers - the NHL team’s last championship was in 1975 - 33 years ago.
• Philadelphia Phillies - the MLB team’s last championship was in 1980 - 28 years ago.
• Philadelphia 76ers - the NBA team’s last championship was in 1983 - 25 years ago.

Twenty-five years since a championship in that town.  PhillySucks.com says it best:

“4 teams, 100 seasons, 0 parades.”

Plus, the Phillies are the only American pro team to LOSE 10,000 games.  They blame it all on some Curse of William Penn.  No wonder the Jan Brady of Northeast Cities has the least happy fans.

Anyway, in both hockey and football, Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia has become quite a fun rivalry.  And now a Tampa Bay team has the opportunity to beat a Philadelphia team in baseball, too.  It all starts Wednesday.

Update Tuesday 10am:  Gary Shelton also notes that it is always Philly, as does the NYT’s Ben Shpigel.  Mick Elliott agrees, but finds out that Philly doesn’t really notice.