Thousands of fans made the journey from Philadelphia to the Bronx yesterday to see the Phils take on the storied New York Yankees in the first game of the World Series. Shortly after Yanks pitcher CC Sabathia threw his first pitch at 8:01, the crowd let the Phillies fans know how they would be received.

"Phillies suck!" they shouted.

But it got quiet near the end of the game. Very, very quiet. Two runs in the top of the eighth - breaking open a game in which the only scoring had been a pair of Chase Utley home runs - will do that, even in a shiny new stadium that had been outfitted to recall the glory of "The House That Ruth Built."

By then, many of the Yankee faithful were already on their way out.

When Raul Ibanez knocked in two runs, Section 226, populated with a good number of Phils' fans, went wild.

"Let's go, Phillies!" they shouted.

"Shut the [obscenity] up," was the retort from the next section.

Don Mills paid no attention. He's the father-in-law of backup catcher Paul Bako, and has been following the team since the beginning of October.

"I'm getting kind of old for this, and my heart can't take it," said Mills, 66, of Lafayette, La. "But my, I love it."

And with the final score 6-1, why wouldn't he?

Even so, before the game started, some fans had been cautious.

On his way up to New York, Larry Bendesky of Wynnewood, Pa., wore his Phillies sweatshirt. But at the urging of his friends, he took it off when he got to his Manhattan hotel.

"Don't go into an enemy park wearing that," said Bendesky's friend Robert Mongeluzzi, 53, of Merion Station, Pa.

"We did the cost-benefit analysis, and the cost was too high," reasoned Drew Duffy, 39, of Haddonfield.

There was even spirited debate about how loud to cheer for the Phillies.

"How much do you give yourself away?" Duffy mused. "Let's just say there's a lot of golf clapping."

Another group showed no such restraint.

On the way up from South Jersey, the Monticolo-Cohen family of West Deptford - Joe Monticolo Sr., his son Joe Jr., daughter Michelle Cohen, and son-in-law Phil Cohen - tried to keep a low profile, their car unadorned with Phillies stickers or flags.

"I didn't want anybody to egg it," said Phil Cohen, 35.

But Joe Jr. couldn't help himself.

"He was shouting, 'Let's go Phillies!' out the window," Phil Cohen said.

In the stadium stands and on the packed concourses, there were a few random gestures of goodwill - one fan shouted "Have a good series!" to Joe Sr. and smiled - but mostly, it was a bit tense being a red dot in a sea of navy blue.

Tom McCormick, 51, of Hatfield, Pa., otherwise known as The Big Kahuna, said he wasn't sweating a few boos. He wore every Phillies item he could think of - an Utley jersey, a red Phillies T-shirt underneath, a Phils' cap.

"Let's put it this way - I would rather be a Philly fan going into New York than a New York fan coming into Philly," he said.

Some of the Phillies faithful wanted to give as good as they got.

Sonny Forriest Jr., a Northeast Philadelphia singer and guitar player, came to New York in search of an affordable ticket. He struck out on that mission, but stayed outside Yankee Stadium anyway, singing as he typically does in parking lots outside Phillies games.

In a clear, lovely choice, he sang his "New Phillies Anthem" - which namechecks most of the Phillies' roster plus Harry Kalas, and promised a Phils' victory in the series. After he finished, Forriest looked around and frowned.

"The New York Post had the audacity to put Shane Victorino in a tutu on the cover," Forriest said. "That perturbed me so much, I had to go ahead and sing my song twice."

Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 215-854-5146 or kgraham@phillynews.com.