For the record, the times haven't been rosy in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers just ended a 20-year postseason drought by skunking the Cubs. But the Dodgers did achieve a World Series victory in 1988, and have treated their fans to a fine, if distant, history of Fall Classic success.

The Tampa Bay Rays have handed their gun-shy fan base a mostly miserable, 10-year existence, while followers of the Boston Red Sox evolved from historically tortured to unrepentantly smug in only four years.

For chronic-despair potential, this year's final four playoff cast is left with the Philadelphia Phillies and their impressively long-suffering fans. As no slouches in the teeth-gnashing side of fandom, Phils supporters represent a city that has seen championship celebrations escape its grasp for 25 years.

The relentless spirit of this city was demonstrated in film by Rocky Balboa, who defied the odds, the flavor of raw eggs and an artificially accelerated running stride to land a loyal woman, capture the make-believe imagination of a nation ... and LOSE a title fight in the first (and by far the greatest) installment of the series.

We're not sure if infamously crusty behavior was inspired by Philly's true-life athletic misfortunes, but terminal dissatisfaction is required for the booing of a Christmas icon (a Philadelphia Eagles classic moment from 1968) at a sporting event.

Let's take a look at reasons why this town remains so upset.

From the NHL, Philly offers the Flyers, who — after going back to back — haven't seized the Stanley Cup in 33 years. The Flyers' tough-luck-Philly chops were renewed by blowing a 3-1 series lead in the 2000 East Finals.

As the city's leading tease, the NFL Eagles reached the NFC championship game four times in a row this decade, but only managed a Super Bowl trip in 2005. That bitter loss to the New England Patriots in Big Game XXXIX featured Philly's quick-healing superstar receiver crediting the star quarterback with barfing his way to glory in the game's waning moments. The quarterback claims he didn't barf, thus eliminating what seemed like a dandy excuse for losing.

Philly's NBA squads have had a reasonably successful history that includes a 100-point game delivered by a local kid named Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt, who was playing for the Philadelphia Warriors during this salvo, also was a record-crushing force for the 76ers. But his Sixers spent many way-above-average years in the monstrous shadow of the Boston Celtics (with an exceptional 1966-67 campaign that provoked a "Boston is dead!" chant from Philly fans) before Julius Erving, Moses Malone and their cronies claimed the O'Brien Trophy in 1983.

Since then, things have been shaky at times. In 1992, the Sixers traded Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns. A year later, they selected 7-foot-6 buster-to-be Shawn Bradley with the second overall pick in the draft (Eagles superstar Reggie White left for Green Bay earlier that year).

Allen Iverson and the Sixers knocked off the mighty L.A. Lakers in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals, but were spanked into oblivion in five.

That brings us to the Phillies, whose one and only World Series triumph occurred 28 years ago. And while we presume that particular achievement created a fond Philly memory, it seems to have done little to diminish the hardscrabble existence of baseball fans in a city that prefers to cut up a piece of steak and bury it in cheese.

The most ignominious Phillies flop was presented by a 1964 team that included future Congressman Jim Bunning, Johnny Callison, Dick Allen, Bobby Wine and Clay Dalrymple.

During what certainly seemed like a run to the World Series, Bunning pitched a perfect game, Callison hit a walk-off home run in the All-Star Game and Allen played his way into a Rookie-of-the-Year predicament.

On Sept. 20, this formidable crew found itself with a 6½-game lead in the National League pennant chase. The Phils roared toward the finish line (and history) by losing 10 games in a row; a two-game winning streak to close the season was not enough to prevent an infamous Heimlich moment.

Life for Phillies fans didn't quite reach that level of anguish three years earlier when their team ended the season with a mark of 47-107 that included a 23-game losing streak.

But the despair has been resoundingly cumulative. On July 15, 2007, a 10-2 loss issued by the St. Louis Cardinals enabled the Phillies to become the first team in pro sports to lose 10,000 games (It should be noted that the Washington Generals lost more than 13,000 times as foils for the Harlem Globetrotters).

The Phillies' catalog of doom would not be complete without mention of a 1993 World Series appearance featuring a Game 4 bullpen meltdown that began with a 14-9, eighth-inning lead over the Toronto Blue Jays. Two games later, southpaw Mitch Williams — one of the heroes from the Game 4 collapse — was summoned by Jim Fregosi to surrender a series-ending, walk-off homer.

We haven't seen evidence of similar pitching behavior this season, but we know Brad Lidge has it in him.

Let's hope the city's unofficial rally anthem ("Gonna Fly Now") has nothing to do with Phillies-related dissatisfaction and the collective middle finger.