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They are preparing Broad Street in anticipation of the World Series victory parade of the Philadelphia Phillies, and here's hoping the civic leaders can still remember how to organize such an event.

Over the past quarter century, the City of Brotherly Love could have been referred to as the City of Interminable Losers.

While Toronto Maple Leafs loyalists bemoan the annual futility of their hockey team, which last won the Stanley Cup in 1967, consider for a moment the plight of the Philadelphia sports fan.

Philadelphia has teams in the NHL, NBA, NFL and major-league baseball.

Yet, despite all the sporting involvement, it has been 25 long years since Philadelphians have been able to celebrate a championship.

The last time the city of Philadelphia has been able to back a winner was in 1983 when the Philadelphia 76ers and Moses Malone swept aside the Los Angeles Lakers in four successive games to win the championship of the NBA.

Since then, no Philadelphia team has been able to duplicate the feat, some 98 combined seasons of sustained disappointment.

The Phillies hope to end that dubious distinction, holding with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series over the Tampa Bay Rays before last night's Game 5 and needing one more win to earn what would be just the second World Series title in franchise history.

Charlie Manuel understands full well what it would mean to bring a championship to Philadelphia.

"I think it would be great," the congenial manager said last night, several hours before the start of Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park. "I think it would be great for me to be called world champion here or in Buena Vista, where I grew up, or in Florida, where I live, or in Japan [where he played].

"I think it would be great, really."

Before the Phillies of 2008 there have been six other occasions where Philadelphia sports teams have made it to the finals only to be turned away.

The NFL's Eagles were the last team to represent the city in a professional championship, losing to the New England Patriots in the 2005 Super Bowl.

Before that it was the Phillies that disappointed losing the 1993 World Series against the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

In 2001 the 76ers were bullied out of the NBA Finals in five games by the Lakers while the NHL's Flyers have been denied in the Stanley Cup finals on three separate occasions since 1983 — in 1985, 1987 and 1997.

Centre fielder Jimmy Rollins is completing his eighth season with the organization and he said he has always been determined to reverse the perception of Philadelphia as a city of bad sports.

"When I first got drafted to this organization, I kind of vowed to myself that I was going to try to change the face of it and change the way people think about the Phillies and note them as winners," he said. "And it's just taken a whole bunch of years. It's taken a lot of players, a lot of good players have come and gone and a lot of us are still here.

"So a championship is the only way to fully reverse that thought of how the Phillies are portrayed."

Ryan Howard, the big Philadelphia first baseman whose return to form with his bat in Games 3 and 4 has played a key role in tilting the World Series in the Phillies' favour, concurs with Rollins.

"We're in that position to change the label and change the face and achieve the goal that we both had set out when we first got to this organization … and that's make this organization a winner," he said.

Rollins said he cannot wait to see the city of Philadelphia's reaction should his team win the series.

"If we get that game, I believe we will be happy, the city will be happy, there will be a big parade and … I guess, getting that monkey off our back for that drought of a championship," he said.

While the Rays are not about to roll over in order to make the sports fans in Philadelphia feel better, their task to come back in the World Series is onerous.

The Rays are the 43rd team to fall behind 3-1, and only five since 1925 have come back to win, most recently the Kansas City Royals in 1985 against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Evan Longoria, the prized rookie third baseman for the Rays, who has been held hitless through the first four games, said Tampa has the capability to come back.

"We've been doing it all year," he told reporters after Sunday's 10-2 loss to the Phillies. "We've never given up and been written off plenty of times. All we can do is our best and see what happens."