"You can't win them all." Connie Mack

My heart is broken but my head is unbowed. Go ahead, laugh, mock, whatever. But if you do, I'll know you really don't get it.

When you live in a sports town like Philly (or Boston or Chicago) whose fans view their teams as family (in good and bad ways), you want your sons and brothers to win. It's a matter of family honor. And pride.

We're proud of our Phillies, teach our kids to look up to them, emulate their determination, work ethic, sportsmanship, love of the game.

We admire them because they're regular guys and genuine baseball players. Not obscenely overpaid, pharmaceutically enhanced celebrity Transformers.

We sure don't like it when they're dissed by those Transformers and their fan base of self-appointed entitlement junkies just for the fun of it. If that's what New York calls fun, I'd really rather be in Philadelphia.

Phillies have plenty of MVP's, Golden Gloves, All Stars, Cy Young Award winners. And to a man, they are more focused on their game and their teammates than they are on their personal honors and bragging rights.

Yes, really. As Charlie Manuel said about Chase Utley during a World Series press conference last week, "That boy loves to play. I honestly think he'd play for free. He just loves baseball that much."

Hyperbole? Sure. But can you imagine in your wildest dreams anybody saying that with a straight face about A-Rod? Jeter? Any member of the Yankees? No. Way.

"The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers." Earl Weaver

Who's the better team? Not so easy to say when you look at the stats. And more, at the players. This year, the Yankees won the series in part because the Phillies lost the series.

It wasn't a blowout. Or a walk-off. It was a battle.

Call me naive, but I'm not alone in viewing with dismay the mean-spirited taunting and boorish behavior of the New York media, fans and, to some extent even the team, that created such a gladiator circus.

Everybody makes jokes about Philly's blue collar fans' "attytood," but it was New Yorkers who showed a lack of sportsmanship and ...here it comes... class.

Why did New York and its fans have to turn the World Series into a grudge match, a name-calling, schoolyard bullying slugfest?

Baseball's supposed to be fun, win or lose.  But all six games were too intense to be fun. Even the games we won weren't nearly as gratifying.

This whole World Series made me and a lot of fans toss and turn every night, gave us agita, frustration, hope, disappointment, gloom. More hope. Pain.

It eventually weighed most on Philly's spirited, come-from-behind winning baseball team.

Think of that first game. Cliff Lee's flawless pitching and unusually laid back demeanor --not to mention two boffo plays-- had even the announcers laughing. Chase Utley's home runs amazed everybody, the players from both teams chatted on the bases, smiling, laughing with each other. 

Somehow that all came undone. The games got increasingly taut, tense, decidedly UNspirited. That's not Mother, Apple Pie and Baseball. It's a family feud.

Congratulations, New York, on winning the World Series. Hard to say those words because you're so busy stuffing them down my throat. No matter, I love my team still. They're family.

AtHomePilgrim's Thank You, Phils will tell you, with love and affection, all the reasons we're so proud of each member of our Phillies baseball family, win or lose. In fact, they're all winners to us.

And here's Harry the K, one last time, to remind us there's always next year. Keep watching, Harry, we'll be back. We have High Hopes.