PHILADELPHIA OR LA LA LAND? CRAZIES HAVE CHANGED VICIOUS BEHAVIOR
Once known for vomiting on girls, throwing batteries at players, cheering for career-ending injuries and socking Santa Claus with snowballs, Philly fans have abruptly altered a twisted tone of history
Welcome to a new generation that can’t stand original scorn. If you happen to attend a Phillies game in Philadelphia, a drug attendant might check the crowd for Ecstasy, which is more about clubbing than slugging. Something is in the air, and while they’re still indignant about close proximity to New York, the crowd is now into grateful buoyancy.
No longer is sport an object for their hostility in the world. Now, a town always high on itself has decided to rally every emotion into helping the Phillies win their first World Series in 15 years. You’ve heard the ugly stories: one fan vomited on an 11-year-girl, others punched riot horses and were bloodied, batteries were thrown at players — “Those big ones, the ‘D’ ones. I was spit at. Beer,” said former Eagles coach Doug Pederson, who won a Super Bowl for them — while a career-ending injury of Michael Irvin was cheered, every player was booed and taunted and, of course, Santa Claus was socked with snowballs.
At some point along the way — and no one ever leaves Philly beyond carrying out daily chores — the fans decided through a pandemic and world events to stop being asses like their fathers and grandfathers. I have a friend who insisted this was authentic last year, and as we see national publications delve into it, the scenes every night at Citizens Bank Park indicate they’re expressing three hours of rocking affirmation and producing non-stop electric charges.
Philadelphia or Pleasantville?
Or, as Nick Castellanos said, “I f— with Philly.” This as his 10-year-old son, Liam, went ballistic by the dugout as he rocked thunderous home runs.
“Flat out, I love this place,” said ringleader Bryce Harper, intent on turning the stadium into a global speaker blast. “There’s nothing like coming into the Bank and playing in front of these fans. Blue-collar mentality. Tough. Fighting every single day. I get chills, man. I get so fired up. Man, I love this place.”
“Four hours of hell,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson, repeating what a rival coach told him.
Said reliever Matt Strahm: “I’ve never heard the place louder. I was talking and I couldn’t even hear myself. This place is unbelievable. You can’t explain what it feels like.”
What the people did was pour their thorough sports passions through a positive vein. As long as the change-up works — and the Phillies are 7-1 in the postseason and have out-homered their opponents by an incredible 19-4 — the noise will grow louder and more pretentious for their American League opponents in the Series. This is more than a blip on a screen. This is America, in its most vicious place, becoming happier and joyful since it’s the antithesis of what the rest of us believe. And damned if the Phillies aren’t responding with performances that should make fans think in other places, especially when the Eagles might be on the verge of winning a Super Bowl. “I mean, what an advantage. We have the best fans in the NFL,” said coach Nick Sirianni. “I would love to have high-fived every one of them because they made a big difference in that game right from the beginning.” He mentioned this at a road game in Tampa. In the history of sports, only four towns ever have won both championships in the same year, only Boston since 1986.
Philadelphia or La La Land?
Game 2 of the National League championship series brought another cheerful moment to tuck under a bedsheet. The Arizona pitcher, Merrill Kelly, made the mistake of saying the Philly crowd couldn’t be louder than what he heard in March, when the Phillies’ Trea Turner hit a grand slam in the World Baseball Classic. “I haven’t obviously heard this place on the field,” Kelly said before Game 1, “but I would be very surprised if it trumped that game down in Miami.”
Just before Game 2, as the fans were settling in for another lovefest, Turner said, “AC/DC concert level.” He didn’t need long, the first inning, before ripping a fastball for a home run in a 10-0 crushing of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who may or may not be in this series. Kelly, booed mercilessly when he entered the game, said his comments were magnified into something he didn’t mean while knowing “these fans bring a ton of energy.” Then why say anything about them? Can you imagine if Texas renegade Max Scherzer, part of a Rangers team that should play the Phillies next, mocks the fans?
That will just lead to more massive homers from Harper, Castellanos, Turner and Kyle Schwarber, who couldn’t have had more fun in 2016 with the Cubs than he’s having with two more Tuesday night. “It feels like a dream when you’re in the dugout,” Brandon Marsh said. “For real. Just because all of us grind our tails off for moments like this. This is why we get up on those Sunday morning day games on the road — for the feelings that we felt tonight and the past couple of nights. This, it’s just amazing. We just have to keep it rolling.”
“It's bonkers in there,” backup catcher Garrett Stubbs said. “Some of them look like missiles and some are colossal. We loved it.”
What they really love is how fans have turned slumps into civic roars. Boos? Third baseman Alec Bohm committed three errors in the first three innings of an early game last season, then said, “I hate this f—ing place.” When he responded with a mea culpa — “Look, emotions got the best of me. I said it. Do I mean it? No. It’s frustrating night for me, obviously. The people, these fans, they just want to win,” he said — the fans responded the next night with a rousing ovation.
This year? Turner had a poor first four months after signing an 11-year, $300 million deal. “Obviously, I’m the reason we lost that game,” he told the media. All weekend in August, fans gave him standing ovations at the Bank. He has been the usual difference-maker since, responding on 12 digital billboards in the metro area, “Thank you, Philly.” When in doubt, a Philadelphia athlete used to run and hide. Now they call the advertising company when they break free.
“It was nice to get the message out there and say thank you. I feel like when you're younger, you don't think about things like that,” Turner said. “You're just kind of living the dream or trying to play baseball and whatnot. As you get older, you start to see what's important. I'd never done anything to that magnitude.”
One torrent remains. Because the Rangers took home-field advantage in April, when they won the only three games between the teams this season, they’d open the Series at home and have Games 1, 2, 6 and 7 at Globe Life Field. Those games happened on March 30 and April 1 and 2. When the Series starts next Friday, that’s about seven months earlier. Really? Given all the mashing in South Philly?
You know what this means. Tens of thousands of fans will make their way to Arlington, buying tickets from the baseball-bored Texans. An old, silly rule can’t decide home advantage, just as an old, silly rule can’t dictate the behavior of a town we actually might call cool.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.