We're Back

Some Phillies comments while the Reverend roots for North Carolina in the title game tonight. Me, go Spartans +7.5. 3 Chipotle burritos on that.

You may have heard, there were some boos in the stands last night at Citizens Bank Park.



I laid on a few of them. Granted, they were reserved for Chipper Jones and the paratrooper who missed the stadium (just kidding, hope you made the landing OK man, that was scary). But Brett Myers got booed when he gave up his 3rd homer of the night in the second inning. Not a deep, 44,000-strong chorus, but significant boos nonetheless. This as ole Adam EatShit, sitting next to me in section 102, was screaming at Brett to get back to the minors. In the second inning of the first game of the season, no more than an hour after the championship banner was hoisted. A little extreme, perhaps, given said banner.

Well as many bloggers, radio hosts, prognosticators and pontificators far and wide said today, this was out of hand. How bad are Philly fans that they boo their World Series championship team an hour into their title defense?

The crowd went from getting fired up for a 2 out, 2 strike pitch in the first inning to barely noticing during any of Myers' 6 strikeouts in his 6 innings of work. We were down 4-0 and it felt like 12-0 in a meaningless game in the middle of the season. In true mid-July form, a good half of the seats were empty by the time the top of the ninth rolled around. This in the most anticipated opening day in 28 years. On a national stage, the first baseball game of the season. I must admit, there were some disappointing moments in both the play on the field and the crowd's reaction to it.



Why? There are plenty of reasons. For one, the 50% of the crowd in the under-30 set was flat wasted. The lot had the atmosphere of a rock concert, not a baseball game. Take the chick in front of us who was so shitfaced that she thought some middle-aged man and his 10 year old son stole her championship pennant. To the point she threatened to stab him. This high level intoxication had half the fans out of the game and surely was cause for many early exits.

Rather than making excuses though, I'd like to think there were boos, early exits, drunkenness, and anything else you would have seen at a Phillies game 10 years ago (sans WFC championship celebrations) taking place last night because the game was played in Philadelphia. And in Philadelphia, we boo if you suck, cheer if you do good, and threaten to stab people who take their kids to games and steal giveaways (no seriously, that girl was sloshed and obviously misguided).

I know it's only one title and not the 6 that Boston has won since 2001, but let's hope our recent success after years of suffering won't turn us into the complete bunch of smug assholes that Boston has become. We won't lose our identity. You tuned into a game in Philadelphia last night, and you saw Philly fans being themselves. As it should be.

Only 161 more to go.

Let's go Phils

And Flyers, and Sixers.