I have been a fan of Philadelphia teams for over thirty years. In those years I have gotten to see four championships. All of them spectacular in their own right from the back-to-back NHL titles to the World Series and then the NBA championship.

In the last few years I have become a good friend with a guy from Boston. His name should be the "Boston General Public" because he exemplifies the sports fans of the whole Boston/New England area. Being a die hard or better known as a hard-core fan like myself, this guy takes the cake. I like to think I am pretty good when it comes to statistics on the Philadelphia clubs past and present. However, apparently being from Boston you are educated from a very young age with regards to who the sports heroes are and who the villains are. Being from Boston seems to mean there is a sixth sense about sports. From the novice sports enthusiast to the hard-core fan people born and raised in the Boston or New England area seem to know everything there is about the sports teams in their town.

Mention 1918 and you get a groan. That was the last year that the Red Sox won a World Series. After that they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for one hundred thousand dollars. In addition the New York boys threw in a loan of two hundred thousand-dollar so the Red Sox owner (a Henry Frazee) could finance a play that opened and closed on the same night. Just in case you have not watched the Baseball playoffs it’s been eighty-five years since the last World Series win for Boston. Even that statistic doesn’t bother them.

When you talk about Bobby Orr you automatically think the person you are talking to do know him personally. By the way the Boston Bruins were one of the original five NHL hockey teams. The last Stanley Cup win was in 1972. When you hear Boston fans talk about the Celtics you can’t help but be impressed with the number of NBA championships that they have.

Most recently, in 2002, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl after three attempts.

Being a Philly fan there just doesn't seem to be the tradition that the Boston fans have. It could be many reasons but I think the biggest reason is the ownership of the teams. We just have not had the ownership to bring a consistent team to the Philadelphia area. The closest thing to a tradition is the Flyers. They have been in the NHL finals many times but have not actually won it since the mid 70's. We have had some of the greatest players in their respective sports to ever play the game but unfortunately the ownership in Philadelphia think it's only going to take one or two players to bring a championship to the city. Boston survived all those years by creating a team. I give all due respect to Donovan McNabb, Jim Thome, John Leclair and Allan Iverson. Those guys are great players but you are going to need a real good supporting cast around you to win championships consistently.

Boston fans need to believe that next year is going to be the year for the Red Sox. Philly fans hope that the Phillies will be better than a five hundred-ball club. The difference between the Red Sox and the Phillies is we have just had bad teams and they have had bad luck. We did get lucky once in 1980 and for that we are grateful. And remain full of hope for a repeat.

The Patriots have been in the league since the creation of the AFL in the early sixties and have been to the Super Bowl three times. Winning it once. The Eagles have been around since basically the creation of football and they won a couple of championships back in the old days of the NFL. In modern times they went to the Super bowl once and lost. That was twenty-three years ago.

The Sixers have had the team to win the NBA championship but unfortunately that was twenty years ago. Then you have the Celtics, who speak for themselves.

I think the Bruins have had the roughest time of it all. Hockey lets practically all its teams in the playoffs and it’s been longer drought than the Flyers since they won a Stanley Cup.

A Philly fan hopes that the tradition is going to start next year and a Boston fan believes that the tradition is going to continue on until their next championship game and beyond. I never realized how much that means to people in other cities to have a sports champion until I met my friend from Boston. I could only imagine what the Cub's fans are going through.

I know this is not a food article but this time of year I would think there are more sports fans out there then there are food critics. To all of you sports fans that wish for your team to win a championship year in and year out, GOOD LUCK!

Chef Mike