With the Phillies’ World Series and Eagles overlapping, these Philly bars say the choice of which game to show Thursday is an easy one
At almost any other time, the situation would be incomprehensible in Philadelphia: Another sporting event is eclipsing an undefeated Eagles team.
There is no debate: The one working TV at Doobies Bar will show the Phillies in Game 5 of the World Series on Thursday night.
“Any playoff Phillies game or the World Series, I wouldn’t hesitate to put that on” over a regular-season Eagles game, said Patti Brett, owner of the Graduate Hospital corner bar and a die-hard Phillies fan.
At Memphis Taproom in Kensington, a large projector in the outdoor beer garden and the 60-inch TV over the bar will show the Phillies, said cofounder Ken Correll. A computer will stream the Eagles game.
“I think even the Eagles want to watch the Phillies,” he said.
At almost any other time, the situation would be incomprehensible in Philadelphia: At bars with limited TV screens citywide, another sporting event is eclipsing an undefeated Eagles team in early November on Thursday Night Football. It was impossible to imagine just a few months ago, when few predicted the Phillies would make the playoffs, let alone the World Series.
» READ MORE: The Inquirer's complete Phillies World Series coverage
The rare and unexpected confluence of sports successes has been a major boon for Philadelphia sports bars, in part because the excitement around the Phillies’ playoff run has provided a steady stream of business, including on weekdays. The Eagles almost always draw a crowd, sports-bar owners say.
But on Thursday, they anticipate the Phillies will be the main attraction.
The TV-scheduling powers-that-be did not plan for the Phillies and Eagles to go head-to-head. World Series Game 5 had been scheduled for Wednesday, with Thursday as a travel day if the teams needed to return to Houston for Game 6. But the rainout of Game 3 on Monday pushed the series back a day, forcing a direct conflict in both the Philadelphia and Houston markets.
Several Philadelphia bar owners said they aren’t expecting conflict among customers over which game they’d rather watch on the big screen.
The undefeated Eagles are heavily favored to beat the 1-5-1 Texans. Meanwhile, the Phillies — consummate underdogs who in a matter of weeks have endeared themselves to the region with grit, personality, and clubhouse dance parties — have the World Series at stake.
“If they are going to win tonight and tomorrow, and might close everything out on Thursday, then the Phillies are going to be on all our televisions,” Douglas McCusker, of the family-owned McCusker’s Tavern in South Philadelphia, said Tuesday, hours before the Phillies beat the Astros, 7-0, in Game 3.
Correll said a few Memphis Taproom regulars have already told him they’re content following the Eagles game on their phones while watching the Phillies with the crowd at the bar.
“The Phillies are in the World Series,” said Rose Capozzoli, co-owner of Ray’s ‘Happy Birthday’ Bar in South Philly, which plans to show the Phillies on the TV in its front barroom and put the Eagles on in the back room. “People are going to be here for the Phillies.”
A similar plan is in place at Local 44 in West Philadelphia’s Spruce Hill neighborhood. The TV in the bar will show the Phillies, said co-owner Nathan Irish, while the dining-room TV will be tuned to the Eagles game.
In Center City, Dirty Frank’s has several indoor and outdoor TVs, as well as a large projector, said co-owner Jody Sweitzer, but it is able to show only one channel at a time on all the screens.
It won’t be a difficult decision.
“We support both teams, but the World Series will definitely trump the Eagles game,” Sweitzer said.
And if anyone in the bar really wants to watch the Eagles, she said she’ll recommend nearby establishments that can show more stations at a time and are owned by her friends.
“There are a thousand bars in Philadelphia,” Sweitzer said.
All in all, bar owners say it’s a good problem to have.
At Doobies, Brett, an ever-superstitious fan, will be waving her rally towel, she said, and encouraging customers to touch her mini stuffed Phanatic for good luck during tense moments.
If the Phillies win it all, “the city is going to go nuts,” said Correll, of Memphis Taproom, which opened in 2008 and held an impromptu dance party when the Phillies won the World Series later that year. “I’m getting chills just talking to you.”
“The magic is back in the city,” he added, “and we’re just loving being part of it.”