Comcast Center topping-out William Penn figurine and its place in local sports lore

During the 2007 topping-out of the Comcast Center, builders placed a small statuette of William Penn atop the building's final beam in response to the "Curse of Billy Penn" narrative. The Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series the following year, 2008, and local accounts frequently link the placed figurine and the end of the city's championship drought as part of the lore. The anecdote is widely reported in local media and discussed as a symbolic moment rather than a verifiable causal event.