Booing Jimmy, Cheering Jayson
Can we please put the whole J-Roll thing behind us?
Booing Jimmy, Cheering Jayson
Todd Zolecki
They came, some booed, they cheered when Jayson Werth homered.
That's pretty much the story from last night's 5-4 victory over the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park.
Jimmy Rollins heard a mix of boos and cheers before each of his four at-bats. He heard only boos after he made outs in those at-bats, although he hit the ball hard in three of them. He flied out to the warning track in right-center field in the eighth. When the ball left the bat it looked for a second like it might have a chance to be a go-ahead home run or a double off the wall.
You could sense fans were ready to erupt with cheers, but the ball was caught.
"If they want to boo me, that's fine. Boo me," Rollins said. "Just keep it off everyone else. . . . You had some cheers, you had some boos. Like I said, when you get the win, they'll cheer you."
They cheered when Werth hit the go-ahead homer following Rollins' at-bat in the eighth. It provided a much needed victory against a terrible team the Phillies should continue to beat this week. The Phillies remain 1 1/2 games behind the Mets.
"It seems to me I hear we're out of it right now, like we're not even close," Werth said of the division race among the Mets, the Phillies, and the Florida Marlins. "But the reality is we're a game and a half back with six weeks to play," he said. "I feel we're the best team in this division. We just need to go out there and play like it."
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Why are we booing? John Gonzalez explains.
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I saw a photo of a fan holding a sign that said, "Phillies Fan 45 Years. J-Roll Fan No Longer. Trade Him."
Really? Trade him? That's how upset you are at Rollins?
Dude, come on.
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The Phillies have won 3 of 4, but have hit just .200 in those four games. They are hitting .184 in their last seven games and .204 in August.
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In the Phillies Notebook: the Phillies are interested in David Ross, Rollins tells us what players on other teams think about Phillies fans and Pedro Feliz could return action tonight.
Depending on what we could get it may not be the worst idea to trde Rollins. Not because of his stupid comments, but because we have a top prospect in the minors and need an ACE pitcher, a RF, and a Catcher, unless Marson is truley going to start next year in teh majors. He could get us one or even two of those components--wonder if the Cardinals have what we need, he seems to like the fans there— jeff gross- Looks like STL is heaven to more players than Scott Rolen-lol. If Howard and J Roll end up there I'm switching allegiences.— Truth
- TRUTH....Here's the link to the Cardinals' blog called Birdland: http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/bird-land/ It looks like a great place to talk baseball. You might as well get an early start. No sense in waiting around here any longer.— bski
- Truth - how much does Rolen love St. Louis now? The grass is always greener until you get there. Some people are just never happy.— Gary Varsho
- Hey, I'll take that trade. We give St. Louis Howard and Rollins and they take Truth as well. THink we make out best— jeff gross
- To the fan who had that sign up, you're an idiot. I happen to agree with what Rollins said 100%. Again, being out of the bubble of negativity that is living in the Del. Valley (in terms of sports), you can see things alot clearer. Are they playing great? No. But jeez, some long term memory might be nice from the fans. And I know this isn't just Philly fans who do this, but we do seem to do it better (at least one thing we are number one in) than anyone else. If a guy is in a year long slump (Howard, cough cough) they might deserve the boos. But we are so willing to turn on guys in a heartbeat.— Deb in Dixie
- Deb: Part of the problem is out long term memory. We remember that we havn't won a WS since 1980-that's 28 years. We remember all the awful teams this franchise has sent out to play during tht time. If this was a team who had been winners for the last decade and was having an off year, that would be one thing, but we remember--we remember all to well— jeff gross
- Zo, does anyone challenge statements like Werth's that he "hears" we are out of it? Like from who..Philly fans, media, tarot card readers? This generalization mode the players fall into is such nonsense. No wonder they don't get it regarding fans. They ain't out of it and the overwhelming majority of fans feel that way. We are disappointed in their play but that isn't the same. For a lot of guys that went to college, they sure think like 8th graders.— jimmymack
- "Hey what a great game, we won AND we got to boo Jimmy Rollins. And thank goodness Rollins went without a hit and we still won because I'm not sure what I would have hated worse: Rollins succeeding or us losing. Hopefully we win the division and Rollins goes without a hit the rest of the way. After all, he deserves it!"- The hard-nosed, no-nonsense, and apparently emotionally fragile Phillies fan---- oh yea almost forgot "E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!!!"— CyHamels
- The problem with this situation is that no one would have gotten on Jimmy had he not said what he said, even though he is having a down year. There are many ways to comment about the fans without making a blanket statement and accusing all of them of basically being fair weather fans. Some of what he said is true, but that doesn't mean he should be going on a national tv show and making statements that are clearly going to anger the fan base. Something more along the lines of "The fans are tough, they want a winner...etc... But sometimes the booing doesn't help, and as players it sometimes has a negative effect,etc, etc...." would have been a lot nicer way to describe the situation and wouldn't have angered a majority of the fan base. The worst part is, I think he's just going to keep making it worse with his comments like he made after the game: "You had some cheers, you had some boos. Like I said, when you get the win, they'll cheer you."— Gary Varsho
- Great point Jimmy! If the fans can get called out for over generalization, then the players should be as well. If the fans need to understand and accept that we boo indiscriminately or show a general lack of support, then the players need to understand and accept that they cannot lump all fans together indiscriminately or gloss over the fact that playing in front of a full house every night is nowhere near a lack of support.— bski
- JM, most players went from HS to the minors. If they did go to college, well, we all know how tough schools are on their "marquee" athletes.— John in LA
- I'd love to see the Phils blow-up the team in the winter - trade Rollins and Howard. Think about what they'd get. Clearly neither wants to be here. Give me the excitement and hope of the Rays any day over miserable, whiny "superstars."— John in LA
- I think Jimmy is playing games with all of us. He is trying to take the pressure off players like Carlos and Jekins etc... So we don't pay attention to them as much. Jimmy likes the attention. We are all just falling into is plan. And I hope it continues. And CyHamels you got to be kidding me? You would not have cheered if J-Roll hit the winning homerun instead of Werth?— Beef69
- Not a blanket statement- it's a quote from a hard-nosed, no-nonsense, and apparently emotionally fragile Phillies fan, like I said. And these are the fans who have been the most vocal in the past week, due to Rollins comments, and as confirmed by the booing last night.---- Here's an idea- I'll serve as a liaison to the players, and you guys can tell me what you want the players to say to the media just so there's no miscommunication anymore. Because, obviously, winning games is not as important as the post-game comments or general comments in the media and some people continue to harp on every word that is being said, while the context is being much over-analyzed. These guys are paid to play baseball, not to alleviate your battered psyche. That's what moms are for.— CyHamels
