"Win together today, and we walk together forever"

That quote, from legendary late Flyers coach Fred Shero, dates from the 1974 Stanley Cup Finals, when the Orange & Black won their first championship. And 34 years later, the prediction has been borne out -- I promise you there will be at least a few elder statesmen in Citizens Bank Park tonight who can name every player on the '74 Flyers roster.*

*I can probably give you at least half of 'em, and I hadn't even been born yet.

Which brings us to tonight. Win together today, and we walk together forever.

Win a championship in Philadelphia, and you become legendary. People still talk about Andrew Toney there, and he lives three caves over from J.D. Salinger.

Cubs fan malaise is about the Cubs -- about a third of baseball fans in Chicago don't even like the Cubs. Red Sox fan malaise pre-2004 was about the Red Sox -- New Englanders had 16 NBA Championship banners upon which to dry their tears. Phillies fan malaise is about Philadelphia -- that's what makes Philly sports unique.

When the Sixers made the NBA Finals in 2001 against the heavily favored Lakers, I worked in Old City -- across from Independence Hall -- and lived in South Philly. During that playoff run, I would walk 12 blocks home after work every day and invariably drift through a half-dozen conversations about the Sixers -- from executives in Center City through loafers on South Street through people sitting on their stoops in Bella Vista to kids running around on the streets across from the Southwark Housing Project. Black and white, young and old, die-hard and newcomer -- All Sixers, All The Time.

That's gotta be what it's like there now. It's probably even more pervasive, as the baseball season has the spotlight all to itself all summer. I wish I was there.

Of course, any Philadelphia sports fan knows not to presume things.* Even as great as Cole Hamels is -- his mental makeup is maybe the only thing better than his stuff -- he could be hit in the pitching elbow by a line drive off the bat of the first hitter of the game. So at good as it looks, it's not over yet.

*It's a rare occurrence, but sometimes we drink the Kool-Aid. The last time we really, honestly expected a Philly sports team to win was in the 2002-'03 NFL Playoffs, about which a Philly sports columnist wrote, "Do you really think the Eagles could lose the last-ever game at Veterans Stadium against Tampa Bay [long the Eagles' punching bag in the NFC playoffs] for a chance to play in the Super Bowl?" Our answer was a resounding, "No, I don't think they could lose that game at all. In fact, I wholly expect a win." Well, you know what happened -- they were annihilated.

I don't even know which way is up right now. And I really can't believe the Phillies have an opportunity to clinch a championship in front of the hometown partisans. And if it happens, it'll be wholly appropriate. Unlike in most any other town, a Phillies championship would be for the city.

Lacing up my Shawn Carters with the pinstriped lining...

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