The Men Behind “Why Can't Us?”

Two guys who had never met started one of the biggest rallying calls the City of Brotherly Love has ever heard after a guy named Marty from Delaware asked "Why Can't Us?" and a blogger agreed.

Now thanks to the good work of Dan Levy over at The700level.com and some good old-fashioned word of mouth, the city of Philadelphia is asking in unison "Why Can't Us?" even though the phrase isn't exactly grammatically correct.

Levy sat down with NBCPhiladelphia.com to discuss how he came about popularizing the phrase and starting the Web site whycant.us.

It all started last Thursday (October 16) when Levy was listening to an XM playoff baseball show that was soliciting Phillies fans to call in and talk about the Phightins.

Cue Marty from Delaware and his simple passionate plea.

Marty expressed himself with such "exasperation... he was so emotionally spent."

But wait, who is Marty from Delaware? He is Marty DiSabatino -- a New Castle resident who passionately loves his Phightin Phils.

Levy posted a fun blog about he phrase on The700Level.com and it seemed to take off, he said. Soon mega-Phillies fan, A.J Daulerio from Deadspin.com, also picked up on "Why Can't Us?"

Levy started to get questions about "Why Can't Us?" merchandise, so he went to CafePress.com to design a shirt on the fly. He wanted to do something good, so he decided to donate all proceeds to fight ALS. (Buy your "Why Can't Us?" gear here.)

"I would have been happy selling 50 shirts," said Levy. To date he has sold more than 1,000 items including shirts, mugs, sweatshirts and even a few doggie shirts (to his amazement).

By the first pitch of Game 3 Levy said that the merchandise will have made more than $10,000 for the ALS Association of Philadelphia. with the powder blue t-shirts being the top seller.

So why has the term caught on so quickly? "It makes us sound smart, it's funny and ironic -- we are all in on the joke," said Levy and it helps that everyone can relate to the simple passion of Marty from Delaware.

In an amazing twist of fate, it turns out Marty won't even be in the area for the World Series.  He will be on cruise, according to DiDabatino.

Marty from Delaware is quite surprised by his new-found fame -- "It's amazing," he said.