This Chicago Transplant is Raising His Kids as Phillies Fans

Jimmy Smuda and his family have a birthday tradition: whenever the special day comes around for he, his wife, or one of their three kids, the other four bake them a homemade cake.

"We all chip in," Smuda said over the phone this week.

On Smuda's 37th birthday, his wife and kids baked him a cake that illustrated his dual hardball allegiances: a Chicago Cubs logo on one side, a Phillies "P" on the other. The family took a picture of the cake, Smuda submitted it to Patch's Greatest Fan contest and the rest, as they say is history.

Oh and about those dual allegiances. Turns out Smuda is a Chicago transplant who recently moved to the West Chester area to take over as Pastor at Trinity Assembly of God church. He assures us that while he crew up a Cubs fan, his children, aged 10, 7, and 4, will be raised to root for their hometown team.

"The kids are getting to the age where I want to introduce them to baseball," he said. "That's tough to do from a distance. We decided that, wherever we landed, we were gonna root for the home team."

"We’re in out first year of rooting for the Phillies," he added.

They could have picked a better year.

Voting for the regional contest will take place in the comments area of the regional voting article, from Wednesday, April 10 at 12:01 a.m. to Friday, April 12 at 10 a.m.