HOPES CHICAGO IS FOG-FREE TONIGHT
Video: Inquirer's Bob Ford debates the Series
Photos: 2009 Phillies NEW YORK - In these champagne-soaked times that we live in, just about every person with ties to the Philadelphia area will tell you he is a die-hard Phillies fan.
For some, it might be the truth. For others, it might just be a chance to bask in the reflected glory of a winning team.
But if you want to see some real, honest-to-goodness, nothing-but-Phils-blood-in-their-veins fans, check out some of the cats who were in the Big Apple yesterday before Game 2 of the World Series.
Some guys, like Don Curran of Conshohocken, drove up to Yankee Stadium without a ticket.
He paced the concourse in front the stadium last night, hoping to snare one from a scalper, but also was prepared to resort to Plan B.
"I don't care if I don't get in. I have a portable transistor radio with me, so I'll just sit out here and listen to the game, old school-like," he said.
Curran, 46, gamely exchanged verbal jabs with Yankees fans, who were noticeably more testy than they were before the Yanks' Game 1 loss.
"I'm wearing my Chase Utley shirt," he said, beaming. "So, a couple of people have told me, 'Utley sucks!' I say, 'Oh, yeah? Who hit two homeruns the other night?' "
Want another genuine die-hard?
Look no further than Frank Gramlich, 30, who drove up to New York from Philadelphia yesterday. He and a few friends were thrilled because they had cut a deal on Craigslist - four tickets to Game 2 for about $350 a piece.
They picked up the tickets from the seller in Manhattan, then raced to Yankee Stadium. That's about the time they realized the tickets were fake.
Gramlich was bummed, but believed he and his friends could figure a way into the game.
"I'm pretty excited. We're going to shell Burnett," he said. Gramlich, who wore a pinstriped No. 4 jersey with "Nails" written on the back - a tribute to feisty former Phil Lenny Dykstra - noted that he was willing to endure harsh treatment from Yankees fans in the name of supporting his team.
"I'm ready for taunting, maybe even a beer tossed across my back," he said, grinning.
Yankees fans' treatment of Phils supporters was indeed chillier last night - a contrast to the indifferent, if not amiable, reception that many fans encountered on Wednesday.
Stephanie Maratea, of South Jersey, who was decked from head-to-toe in Phils' gear, said she was greeted with a string of curses when she left the subway at 161st Street, across the street from the stadium.
"Some guy said, 'F--- Phillies!' Then he barked at me," said Maratea, 22.
Barked?
"Yeah. That was a little different," she said, shrugging.
"I think whatever they get, they deserve," said Yankees fan Mark DeNaro, 45, of Ringwood, N.J., who wore a blue New York Giants hoodie.
While posing for a photo next to a World Series banner near the stadium's Hard Rock Cafe, DeNaro complained of seeing "way too much red around here. I don't know how they [Phillies fans] got so many tickets."
Part of the collective stink eye that was directed at Phillies fans had to do with last night's starting pitcher, Pedro Martinez.
While many fans noted that there is, essentially, no real rivalry between the two teams, Yankee lovers have long loathed Martinez for his stints with the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets.
"We hate Pedro up here. Hate him," confirmed Adam Yaun, 24, of Beacon, N.Y.
But it wasn't all bad vibes up in the Big Apple. The mood was quite a bit lighter earlier in the day at Stout NYC, a restaurant and bar on 34th Street near 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
Bar owner Noelle Mooney, a passionate Yanks fan, engaged in some good-natured ribbing with bartender and Phils' lover Gerard Leary. Both had attended Game 1.
"I told him he could wear a Phillies shirt to work if he also wears a skirt, like that Shane Victorino picture on the front page of the New York Post," said Mooney, 38.
Leary, 30, sat silently.
"C'mon Ger, I'll give you $200," Mooney said. The dare suddenly got interesting.
But Leary demurred. "I will not wear a skirt," he said. "My legs are not that attractive."
Instead, he went for a Clark Kent-like approach, by wearing his Phils gear under his work clothes.
"If they win, I'll just rip my shirt open," he said, before adding: "Phillies in five."
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