Of Hats and Homeboys

The NFL playoffs are here already, and I find that I am still wearing my Phillies cap.

Normally by now I have moved on to my Eagles hat. It's warmer, for one thing, and when there is a foot of snow on the ground, the air temperatures are hovering in the teens and the wind chill would make you seriously consider moving somewhere warmer except that all of those places are just way too red on the political map (what is it with conservatives? don't they own coats?), warmer hats are good things.

You can always add clothing. There is only so much they let you take off.

I also tend to follow the Eagles a bit more closely than the Phillies, and given a choice between watching a football game or a baseball game on television, I'm definitely there for the football. It's different in person - baseball is a great game when you're there, since so much of what goes on is what isn't quite happening and you don't get that on television - but the last professional football game I went to featured a kicker with half a foot who retired sometime during the Ford Administration. He was the best player the Eagles had, too, which explains their win total that year.

I did get to some games when I was in high school, mostly because I had friends in the band and we would hang out. Once I got drafted into an "alternative band" that some of the more creative dissidents in my high school dreamed up - they gave me a triangle and told me to stay in time - but I couldn't tell you who won, even though it was our Big Rival and we got time off from school for victories.

I never did make it to a game when I was in college despite the fact that we were league champions in three of my four years there as well as the fifth year when I lived off campus. The games started at 1pm. Who's up that early on a Saturday in college?

I switched over to the Phillies cap last year when they made their playoff run, and after they won it all I kept wearing the hat for a couple of weeks until it felt sort of band-wagon-ish and I took it off. But this year I actually followed them all season, as much as I ever did - I knew who most of the players were and could tell you where the team stood in the standings with tolerable accuracy - so I felt a certain ownership. I had a right to wear the hat.

Plus, they lost in the Series this year and somehow I find that comforting. It conforms to my worldview much better than winning it all, and if anything it makes me want to wear the hat more than when they won.

I'm also the only person in Wisconsin with a Phillies cap, as far as I know, so it makes it easy for Kim and the girls to find me in a crowd. So there are practical benefits, too.

I suppose I should switch over to the Eagles hat now that the playoffs have started, especially since they open against the True Team Of Evil down in Dallas.  Time to show support for them, too.

I'm probably overthinking this, though.