Phillies fans get psychological boost from team's success

October 14, 2009

You're wearing the same lucky t-shirt since last year--and you haven't washed it.

You watch the games with the same friends-at the same place-and you eat and drink the same things.

You wear red every single day.

You recite the same prayer over and over and over--and keep the same eye closed--when Charlie Manuel puts embattled closer Brad Lidge in to pitch in the ninth inning.

Are you crazy? Nope, you're just a Philadelphia Phillies fan.

Our rabid fandom for the National League Championship Series-bound Phillies helps unite us as a region, says Rowan University professor Michele DiCorcia. And, illogical as they may seem to outsiders, our game day superstitions really just work to further demonstrate our true devotion to our baseball team, she adds.

"As fans, we want to belong to something. We want to be included in these monumental moments," says DiCorcia, who specializes in sport psychology and teaches health and exercise science in Rowan's College of Education.

"For the fans, the Phillies winning feels like a triumph for them personally."

The Phillies are fascinating to watch from the perspective of a sports psychologist, says DiCorcia. While pressure situations in playoff games gnaw at fans' psyches, the team generally plays with intelligence, patience and confidence, she notes. Their exciting, come-from-behind division-clinching game against the Colorado Rockies will further work to unite the team-and build excitement and regional buzz as the Phillies face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, DiCorcia adds.

"For professional athletes, this is what you remember from playing in the backyard as a kid. ‘It's the bottom of the ninth, two outs, we're down by two and up steps number....' Moments like this," DiCorcia says, adding that the Phillies seem to relish the challenge of trying to repeat as World Series champions. No National League team has won back-to-back world championships since the Cincinnati Reds in the 1970s.

"There's a lot of pressure on the Phillies to repeat," says DiCorcia, noting that the team has added pressure this year over last season's championship. "To maintain No. 1 is always harder than trying to knock off the team that is in the No. 1 position.

"Psychologically, this year's Phillies team is cohesive and it looks like they're ready to continue this battle."