It's not always easy being a Flyers Fan...

For those of you who don't know me, which probably all 5 of you do, I am a huge Flyers Fan.  Huge, not as in size huge, but I love them!  Here is me at work when they were in the playoff about two years ago.  I am pretty sure this is two years ago or so, because this was the first of three offices I had in my 30 months in that job.  I was going to a playoff game that night and one of my friends snapped this picture of me..

When I first moved to Philadelphia about 20 some years ago my first night in Philly (well, actually I was living with my friend's parents in Merion) was a Flyers experience...we were in a bar in Ardmore watching a Flyers playoff game (now Brownies 23 East), and as we were leaving a huge bar fight took place and the cops came, people got arrested, it was wild.  I was merely a witness, but sheesh...way to welcome me to the Main Line!!

I went to one playoff game this year - and well, the stunk so bad we left (along with everyone else) after the second period when they were down by 6 or 7 goals - most games you may have 6 or 7 goals total..But here are two pretty fun pictures I took when I was at a playoff game this year, they were playing the dreading Penguins with the hated Sid the Kid.

And this is pretty much how I feel about Sid and the Penguins in general.

Nice look if you can pull it off.

Because we are fortunate enough to be season ticket holders, I feel the need to let the team ownership/management about how well they are doing their job.  In case you did not know it, the owner, Ed Snider, that would be Mr. Snider to everyone, is a big time Republican supporter.  Not that I have any big issues with that in general, but I really don't like to mix sports and politics, unless it's the Olympics - and then it's USA USA USA!! We are all on Team USA!

So, back to the Flyers and me.  In 2008, the Flyers opened their season against our mortal enemies, the New York Rangers.  It would be the beginning of a 10 game losing streak to start the season, which, while bad enough, was not my real issue...My issue was that Mr. Snider invited America's "Favorite Hockey Mom" to drop puck to open the season. Yepper boys and gals, here is the picture..

As widely reported in the World Wide Media, Philadelphians gave her a less warm welcome than they did the Rangers.  She was roundly booed.  Well, prior to this actually occurring, there was an announcement that it was going to happen.  Being an entitled season ticket holder, I decided to let the Flyers know my feelings about this..Below is the email that I sent to about a half dozen people in the Flyers organization about my feelings about their decision.

From: Arms, Pamela [mailto:parms@upenn.edu]
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 2:19 PM
To: Name redacted to protect the innocent
Subject: Sarah Palin dropping the puck

I cannot tell you how disappointed, angry, and offended I am as a season ticket holder (SEC 104, Row 19, Seats 9&10) that you would turn our season opener into Ed Snider’s political endorsement of Sarah Palin and John McCain.  IS NOTHING SACRED????

Are you telling me there isn’t a single hockey mother in all of Philadelphia that is more worthy of this honor than the governor of Alaska?  Not one wife or mother of a police officer, a mother with a son serving our military, or a mother who has volunteered for countless hours in our community for youth hockey?

I was proud to be able to work with the Flyers on December 27, 2007 to have my dear friend Major Steve Piotrowski be honored as a community partner by the Flyers – he got a standing ovation from our grateful Philadelphia fans, and as he serves today in Afghanistan, he brought along the jersey he received and the DVD of that night- that is the type of person that is worthy of dropping our puck.

This will be the first opener I will be missing in quite some time, as I am happy to let my 10 year old non-voting son sit there – and likely boo – in my place.  He will boo, not because of Sarah Palin –rather because he is smart enough to realize his team has sold him out for Ed Snider’s political “crush”.  

Hockey is one of the few pure sports left in this country and Flyers fans are a passionate crowd – I can’t wait to see how this will play in the national media – just another black eye for our city I am sure.

Well, off to Modell’s to see if I can scoop up that Rangers jersey in time for Saturday night….

Pam Arms   

I gotta give it to the Flyers, they are totally a customer service focused organization, they promptly responded..

Thanks for your email.  We certainly appreciate your feedback.

As you are aware, the Philadelphia Flyers held a contest for the ultimate hockey mom. This is not about politics. This is about recognizing her for bringing attention to the sport of hockey. She has brought more attention to our sport in the past two months and is being recognized for her promoting our sport. Her appearance does not mean we support or do not support her political views.

Your comments are important to us and I will certainly share them with the organization.

Being a polite Philadelphian, I responded in kind.

Dear Person I protected your identity:
Thank you for your thoughtful and timely response. Peter Luukko reached out to me as well and we had a really great conversation. If I had to boil this down to a single point, its my great love of Philadelphia as a city and of my fellow Flyers fans that I see not unlike my own passionate Italian family. I would hate for our expressions of like/dislike for any person to be viewed with a jaded negative eye by those who take pleasure in recycling the negatives about the "Philadelphiasports fan." 

I love my adopted city and their teams (being a long suffering native Clevelander), I just see this as not the best decision at this time in the race. 

All my best, I am sure this has not been an easy day for you. 

If you are reading this carefully, you will notice that Peter Luukko reached out to me..actually he emailed me and called me.  Do you know who Peter Luukko is?  Here is his picture..he is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Comcast Spectacor.  This guy is a total gem. 

He called me at the office and we talked for a good ten minutes.  Really, the President and COO of Comcast Spectacor called me to talk about my email and concerns.  Clearly, he was toeing the party line, but you know what...I was satisfied, and I let my son go to the game that day.  I am pretty sure he did not boo, because he is classier than I am.

As a postscript, I usually let my son go to Flyers games in our seats.  I am too lazy to go to games on weeknights, I hate the traffic getting out of the Whatever Center, and beer and I don't agree, and the only place you can get a mixed drink is where they also let people smoke.  

But I listen to the games on the radio, or on my NHL app...I am quite a devoted listener, and in fact turn off the TV announcers if its not the local guys and listen to the radio and watch the game.

Hockey season starts in less than three months..are you ready??

Of course, it would not be a Divepam blog if I did not include a picture of a hot Flyer player...sadly, many of the dreamy ones have been traded away...like..Mike Richards

But we still have Danny Briere

Of course there is one player who is just dreamy...no matter who he plays for..Jose Theodore..which is ironically my son's pseudo name...

I bet you thought I was going to put a picture of Eric Lindros here...ehh, he was the original pretty boy..