Philly's Days of Bore
Philadelphia has endured many playoff droughts. Another one is now upon us.
The human body can go 21 days or so without food, but only three days without sleep or water ... The Carpenters sang "I Won't Last a Day Without You." ... But how long can Philly sports fans last without a playoff game? Well, we may be on the verge of finding out.
Since the Flyers were eliminated from playoff contention Friday night, the next possible postseason game would be if the Phils were to be in a wild-card game on Oct. 1. At that point, there would have been 492 days in between playoff appearances (May 26, 2012; Sixers' Game 7 loss to the Celtics).
Should the Phils falter, Chip Kelly's Eagles could end the string as early as Jan. 4, 2014 (587 days) ... or the Sixers and/or Flyers could nip it next April as it approaches 700 days.
The 492-day drought we are guaranteed at this point would be the longest for the city in nearly two decades (ended on May 7, 1995) and the fourth longest in the city's four-team era (since 1967-68).
Now, imagine going over 5,000 days between postseason appearances. That actually happened twice in the city's history ... before hockey and pro basketball as we know it today came to town.
Here are the most days between playoff games in the city's history, beginning with the Athletics' first appearance in a World Series in 1905 (four-sport era in bold):