Raining on the Flyers' parade

Sadly, Philadelphians looking forward to a parade down Broad Street better prepare for another disappointment. Mayor Ed Rendell, a University graduate, can invest the quarter of a million -- or half-million -- dollars he had been planning to spend on a parade. Save it for another year. Unless Flyers fans explode in anger, it's not likely that he'll need the extra police to control looting either. The Flyers -- like the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers -- won't finish higher than second place once again. In last week's Tuesday edition of the Daily News, Sam Donnellon noted that it has been a while since Philadelphia sports fans truly had anything to cheer about. After the Flyers' second consecutive 4-2 loss, it seems that Philadelphians will have to wait another year for the ticker-tape parade they so crave. Like a Steve Yzerman shot slipping through Ron Hextall's five-hole, Lord Stanley's Cup was just passing through the City of Brotherly Love during a display case visit last week. It's even possible that Flyers fans may have seen the last of the players in their black-and-orange uniforms this year. The really sad part about it, though, is that Philadelphians must be getting used to it. Just 10 years ago, the Flyers fell in seven games to the Edmonton Oilers. In 1983, the Phillies lost the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles, and in 1993, Joe Carter sent the most recent parade rumors sailing away in the stitches of a dramatic, series-ending home run off of reliever Mitch Williams, whose voodoo doll continues to be a best seller in the Philadelphia area. With each Phillies' triumph, screams of ecstasy echoed off of Superblock, and every agonizing loss was met with even louder disapproval. Furthermore, even those students who weren't from Philadelphia couldn't help but feel some pride for the hometown team. The same could be said as this past weekend began -- with the notable exception that there were only a handful of students to voice their displeasure with poor power play efforts, horrid decision-making by veteran defensemen and even worse netminding. It is these types of on-ice problems that are robbing Philadelphia of just its third opportunity in fourteen years to enjoy a real parade. String bands are exciting enough, but even they don't compare to guys toting heavy hardware in slow-rolling luxury cars. If you've been watching television in the past week of Cup hype, then you've seen the clips of the parade that followed the 1974 Stanley Cup victory. More than two million people lined and nearly flooded all of Broad Street as they leaned to touch the Cup and view the players who had made them feel so proud. That's what it's all about. Cup fever gives Philadelphians a contagious pride. This pride wells up in people of all ages and races and unites them for one cause -- in this case, to root on the Flyers. How else can you explain the phenomenon of elementary school-aged children decked out in Flyers apparel and standing by the roadside imploring drivers to honk to show their support for the Flyers? And every driver honks. Philadelphia is a city that seems to rally more around its specific sports teams than anything else -- compare your feelings now to those when President Clinton visited or even when major league baseball's All-Star Spectacular was in town last summer. This pride in the hometown team is exactly what Philadelphians live, and why, by the middle of next week, this city will feel like something important has died. That something is another season's chance to show that pride in Philadelphia that isn't normally apparent. It has been 14 years since the Sixers captured the city's last professional sports championship. Fourteen years since the last parade. Unfortunately it looks as though Flyers fans should start turning their thoughts to football. But Ed, don't worry about balancing your budget yet. Those Eagles are a good quarterback away from that next ticker-tape parade.

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