Philly could have a fun rookie ride with Quinyon Mitchell, Jared McCain and Matvei Michkov

The best part of being a sports fan isn’t when your favorite team wins a championship. It’s not the goal. It’s the ride. It’s the daily joy you get from following a great baseball team all summer long. It’s the anticipation of a big NFL game and the satisfaction you feel over the next 48 hours after your team wins. It’s the wonder and joy that fills your heart as you watch a team that was just reforming – or was just plain terrible – transform into a contender. The hustle and bustle of a championship parade subsides. The journey stops. The ride is the good thing.

Then there is the ride within the ride. There is an opportunity to see how potential players develop into players and how young talent develops and blossoms over time. This process creates a strong connection between these athletes and their local fan bases. The 2008 Phillies are popular; Any team that ended a city’s 25-year Pro Championship drought would be. But they are adored due to their core: Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Carlos Ruiz, Ryan Madson, Brett Myers. They had all been in the Phillies organization from the start of their careers, and people felt like they had seen these guys grow up.

” READ MORE: Eagles long snapper Rick Lovato and his wife Jordan had difficulty having a child. He is here thanks to IVF.

So take a look at the Eagles, the 76ers and the Flyers in this context. At first glance, their seasons don’t seem to have much in common. The Eagles are 9-2, the second-best team in the NFC, behind the Detroit Lions. The Sixers are 3-14 and are nearing the point where it would be more beneficial for them to continue losing games – and secure the highest possible draft pick – than try to push for a playoff spot. And the Flyers are somewhere in between: fifth in the eight-team Metropolitan Division.

However, there is a common thread that connects them: each has one or more newcomers who promise to be excellent, if not great, for a very long time. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean have improved the Eagles’ overall defense with their presence this season. Jared McCain was the most pleasant surprise — heck, the only pleasant surprise — of this terrible Sixers season. And with every game he plays, with every moment the puck is on his stick, Matvei Michkov makes it clear why, even though the Flyers knew he might never play for them, they took the chance on him anyway to recruit.

In fact, Mitchell, McCain and Michkov were so good that each of them could win their respective league’s Rookie of the Year award, which would be a unique development in Philadelphia sports. Three rookies of the year in the same year? As Jerry Seinfeld would say: There’s no precedent, baby, although it’s come relatively close.

For example …

– Allen Iverson and Scott Rolen were both ROYs in 1997, but neither the Eagles nor the Flyers had a worthy candidate.

— In 1973, United Press International voted Eagles tight end Charle Young its rookie of the year, and for good reason. Young was an All-Pro who caught 55 passes for 854 yards and six touchdowns. Bill Barber of the Flyers finished second in Calder Trophy voting behind Steve Vickers of the New York Rangers, and Phillies catcher Bob Boone finished third in National League ROY voting.

” READ MORE: Sixers’ Jared McCain quickly learns a lesson about life at the top of scouting reports: ‘We need his aggression’

– Then it was 1984. Dave Poulin had a great first season for the Flyers with 31 goals and 76 points. But he was a distant fourth in the Calder Trophy voting, behind three teenagers: goalkeeper Tom Barrasso and high-scoring forwards Steve Yzerman and Sylvain Turgeon. Juan Samuel put together the most dynamic offensive season any Phillies rookie has had in years: a .272 batting average, 36 doubles, 19 triples, 15 home runs and 72 stolen bases. Still, it’s hard to blame voters for putting him behind this year’s National League ROY: the Mets’ Dwight Gooden.

However, the Eagles had a rookie of the year in 1984. UPI honored its placekicker Paul McFadden, who led the NFL with 30 field goals and is probably best remembered as a member of that quirky 1980s fraternity: the barefoot kickers. Rich Karlis, Tony Franklin (another former Eagle), McFadden – it was a time of toe-jam football.

Of course, Mitchell, McCain and Michkov should have a little more staying power and positive impact on their teams than McFadden. He spent just four seasons with the Eagles, who parted ways with him after he missed 10 of his 26 field goal attempts during the strikeout-shortened 1987 season. The ride within the ride can only last so long before a man fails to put on his other shoe.