Nothing engenders superstition in a sports city quite like a couple decades of consecutive losing, and by 2007, Philly sports fans could be forgiven for looking for hexes wherever they could find them. For some time, eyes had been cast towards Philadelphia skyscraper One Liberty Place, which many had decried for having been built in 1987 as 397 feet higher than the peak of the William Penn statue that rested on top of Philadelphia City Hall, breaking a longstanding silent agreement that no building should tower over Billy in the city of brotherly love. Since then, no major Philadelphia sports team had won a championship, despite all four teams having made the finals at least once in that period--although, truthfully, the drought began a couple years before that. In any event, the disrspect shown to our city's founder was considered by some to be a contributing factor to, if not the overarching cause of, the title dry spell.
Just in case, then, when the Comcast Center was finished being built--now the new tallest building in the city--on June 18, 2007, workers John Joyce and Dan Ginion placed a small William Penn figurine on top, reinstalling his status as official overseer of Philadelphia. "We don't believe in the myth," said Bill Hankowsky, chief executive officer of the company building the Center. "But to be safe we've added the statue." The move did not pay immediate dividends, as the Phillies would get swept in the 2007 NLDS and the Flyers would lose in the 2008 Conference Finals, but sure enough, the streak was broken the following summer, as the Phils won the World Series in convincing fashion. Maybe Billy just needed a year or two to get the sulking out of his system.
In any event, as far as curse reversing goes, it was a much quicker and less expensive fix than the Yankees jackhammering up a buried David Ortiz jersey at their new stadium. Nice work, guys.
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