WEBVTT

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(spirited music)

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<v ->There are a lot of people in Philadelphia who believe</v>

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in curses and there are a lot of people associated

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with sports who believe in superstition and curses

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and probably the most famous curse

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in sports involved the Boston Red Sox

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and the trading of Babe Ruth

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and of course Red Sox finally won a World Series

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and that broke that curse

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and the next most famous sports curse story

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was the curse of Billy Penn.

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The curse of Billy Penn is really simple.

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For more than a century Philadelphia had a height limitation

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that prohibited any building from exceeding the height

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of Billy Penn's hat who this incredible statue

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on the top of City Hall,

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a gift to the city by the French government

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and in 1987 that height limitation was finally breached

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by One Liberty Place

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and from the time that height limitation was breached

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no Philadelphia professional sports team

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won a national championship

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and it became a real topic of discussion

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that Philadelphia was cursed

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and that we were never going

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to win another national championship

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in a major professional sport.

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Being someone who loves sports,

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who loves Philadelphia,

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who loves my Philadelphia sports teams,

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when we were building this building

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which was going to be the highest building in Philadelphia.

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I said why don't we put a statue of Billy Penn on the beam

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and once again restore Billy Penn to his rightful place

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and the highest location in Philadelphia.

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<v ->They came up with this idea</v>

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that they would place a tiny little statue

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I think David Cohen was the one that did it.

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Put it up at the very top of the new biggest building,

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the Comcast Center

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then suddenly all our problems would be over

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and everybody laughed at it.

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I believe I ridiculed it for quite some time here at WIP

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and then they won a championship.

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<v ->This little statue of Billy Penn raised up there</v>

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in June of 2007 and of course the next year,

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in the fall of 2008 the Phillies win the World Series.

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<v ->And we all went wow.</v>

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Is it possible that having Billy up higher

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than everything else is really the reason

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that we finally won?

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<v ->People ask me, said "Is that really a curse?"</v>

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I said, "Of course it was a curse".

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We're not going to take credit

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for the Phillies winning the World Series

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but I mean, I think we take credit

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for removing an obstacle that would enable

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our professional sports teams to move back

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to their rightful place as being the best sports teams

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in the country.

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<v ->So I have bought in to it from day one</v>

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and now that we actually won a championship

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who am I to argue it?

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We finally won one.

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I can die a happy man.

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(instrumental music)