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Monday, October 27, 2008

Was wandering through the visitor's locker room this morning -- by that, I mean Tampabay.com -- and read a disturbing piece about how Philadelphia fans are the worst. The headline: "Phils fans live down to their reputation."

And I wondered if this is a "cultural difference," or we've got some 'splainin' to do.

The St. Pete Times piece is by columnist John Romano, who wrote:

During Game 3 of the World Series on Saturday night, Rays family members and employees say they were harassed and abused by Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park to an unacceptable degree.

Children were cursed at, and one 9-year-old boy had beer poured on him. A Rays family member stayed locked in a bathroom stall because, he said, Phillies fans were banging on the walls and threatening him.

I'm curious. Was anyone there who can shed light on the ambience at the ballpark?  Anyone see the bathroom incident?

He goes on:

This isn't just rude or profane; it is intimidating and threatening. It is women being called whores and worse. It is children having food thrown at them. It is being pushed, shoved and jostled in the concourses.

Does this sort of thing happen at other stadiums? Without a doubt. And I'm sure it has happened on occasion at Tropicana Field, too. But no city has the reputation of Philadelphia. And the Rays have never complained about another stadium in this way.

He quotes Ray's coach Joe Maddon's good-natured comments about the fans, and how he'd enjoyed his back and forth, but wished people wouldn't throw mustard at his granddaugher. Can't blame him.

The writer then calls Philadelphia fans the nation's most brutal. This is a favorite meme of visitors, but there's fresh atrocity reported. Again, I'm still curious -- anyone see this stuff? I'd love to know what it was like from other perspectives.

Posted by Daniel Rubin @ 1:54 PM  Permalink | 237 comments
Comments   
Posted 12:48 PM, 10/27/2008
somethingIsWrong
i was there and noticed the rays fans completely horrified that we all didn't have cowbells, and that we stood for the game, and that we were all yelling and screaming for our team. they were baffled. horrified. confused. they also noticed that all of our merchandise is all worn in and it looked like we had been to many many games before, and didn't just pick up a rays 'i'm a fan now' pack at the stadium. i'm sorry to say, that all of the above is true.
Comment removed.
Posted 12:50 PM, 10/27/2008
jimmymack
Like to know where they were sitting. Even though we were all wet and tired waiting for the game, all I saw/heard Saturday night was some prety tame ribbing. Locked in a bathroom stall? Hard to believe Harry.
Posted 12:58 PM, 10/27/2008
rodnougat
I find it hard to believe those accounts. Are there even mustard packets in the building? There are relish packets. But where are the mustard packets? Mustard and ketchup is dispensed by those terrible "taps". That's shenanigans number one. The Phillies security have been quick to act all season long. If beer was actually poured on an 8 year old ON PURPOSE, the fans themselves would police it before the security got there. I'm not saying Phillies fans aren't bad and won't rib their opponents. I sat in a section during the Milwaukee series with 3 rows of Brewers employees. No incident. I'd like to hear from Phillies security on this.
Posted 01:00 PM, 10/27/2008
pfeif34
i refuse to believe a "9 year old" had beer poured on him. Yes- it gets rough sometimes- but come on!
Posted 01:03 PM, 10/27/2008
sneakdogg420
I was at the game and what I saw was a lot less tormenting of Rays fans than other fans usually get tormented, because come on they have no REAL fans! The physical abuse part I am convinced is made up, once again the media hates philly! Go Fightin's!!!!!
Posted 01:04 PM, 10/27/2008
palmyra21
i was there (section 107) and all we did was boo... I didn't hear any cursing or see any food/drink flying.
Posted 01:09 PM, 10/27/2008
Nova
This stuff is about as believeable as the other junk emails I get. You have a disgruntled 22 year old fan in St. Pete's making claims about "his visit to Philly" when he probably never left Tampa. Just other people hatin' on Phillies fans.
Posted 01:12 PM, 10/27/2008
Scholes
This is Very Jayson Blair-ish on details. No quotes or anything. "Twelve? TWELVE! In a crowd of 45,900? In a town known for having the country's most brutal fans? In a game that did not begin until after 10 p.m., giving fans more booze time? Chuck E. Cheese's has more ejections on a Saturday." What's the logic, here? There should be a minimum number of ejections? A quota system. To say the least, this is terrible reasoning. This guy is like that young reporter in The Wire, engaging in moralizing without details against an easy target and fudging the details in ways people won't question. Give me a quote about an incident with a name and I won't believe that he wrote this piece on the plane before he got to Philly.
Posted 01:26 PM, 10/27/2008
dreinterests
My last Phils game was on a dollar dog night. I tend to think they shouls have family sections and college student sections, at least on those nights. At any rate, one drunk kid accidentally kicked a little kid in the head when he was trying to "skip" to the next row. He refused to apologize. the other fans, including other drunken college students, began to point at this guy and chant "a-hole" until security came to see about the ruckus. the father explained what had happened and they escorted the offender out to two sections worth of cheers. it's worth noting this kid had a mets hat on at a phils game.
Posted 01:27 PM, 10/27/2008
Philth
Yeah, I'd say the Rays fans got off extremely light. Playful ribbing, maybe even some "A-sh-le" chants, but nothing even remotely close to this. Frankly, the Rays fans aren't good enough to be deserving of such creative torments.
Posted 01:31 PM, 10/27/2008
Philly2LA
Yet another smear campaign by out-of-town media. Don't these morons know that in 2008 they can't write a made-up story and not have it make its way to Philly? I live in LA, but my buddy went to games 3 & 4 and he told me that aside from some booing and good-natured ribbing, the crowd really didn't care about Rays fans. They were too busy watching the Phillies. This Rays writer is obviously salty that his team is stinking up the World Series, so he makes stuff up. I think the Phillies and the security staff should sue this guy for libel.
Comment removed.
Posted 01:39 PM, 10/27/2008
jlamb
actually, it wasn't thrown onto the bench.
Posted 01:44 PM, 10/27/2008
potus
pay $7.50 for a beer only to pour it on a 9 yr old kid, methinksnot.
About Daniel Rubin
Since joining The Inquirer as a staff writer in 1988, Daniel Rubin has reported from 27 countries, but most of them were small. He's a metro columnist and has been the European Correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers. For two years he sat at home and wrote Blinq, the paper's first daily blog. Now we make him come to work. Dan began newspaper work in Norfolk and Louisville, Ky., after getting his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Northwestern University. He has lived in all four commonwealths, most recently in Pennsylvania. He teaches urban journalism at the University of Pennsylvania

Email Blinq here. Visit Blinq 1.0 here. My day job - Inquirer metro columnist - is here.

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