BY ERIC ZORN | E-mail | About | RSS

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Thursday, October 30, 2008

Stay classy, Philadelphians

Philadelphia Phillies owner David Montgomery, being interviewed on TV after his team closed out the World Series last night four games to one:  On behalf of our organization we'd like to congratulate the Tampa Bay Rays on a spectacular season.

Phillies fans in the stadium: Booooooooo!

Wow. The depths of poor sportsmanship. I was rooting for Phils mostly because there'd been a 25-year title drought in their home town and Tampa Bay can wait its turn.

Now I'm sorry I did. May those graceless fans have another 25 years of suffering.



What is the source on that quote? I don't know whether it is true or not.

Looking through today's Inquirer there is a story on boorish behavior by the fans. But the only booing associated with game 5 that is mentioned is booing Bud Selig who did have the Phillies play through dangerous conditions until the Rays tied the game and then postponed resumption until there was good weather in prime time. Not the same thing as booing the Rays.

It is possible that Phillies fans did this. But it is odd that it would not be included in a story that reports on worse behavior by Phillies fans earlier in the series.

It is possible that Selig walked out during the interview (usually a stadium full of fans can't here a tv interview, so unless the source above got wrong the context of the remarks as well, that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense either).

ZORN REPLY -- The source is my TiVo, where I watched it again to get the wording just right.

I was at the old Chicago Stadium in 1992 when the Pittsburgh Penguins won game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals, sweeping the Black Hawks. I distinctly remember the fans cheering wildly while the Penguins were skating around the ice raising the Cup. It was one of the neatest things I've seen in sports. I remember as I was clapping thinking that the better team won, I got to see one of the greatest players in the game (Mario Lemiux), and I am looking at the Stanley Cup in person. So, my team lost after giving their all. Big deal. What a great night. Too bad for Philadelphia fans that they do not understand the meaning of sports.

Philadelphia fans boo everything and everyone. I'm not surprised. Sarah Palin used one of her daughters as a "shield" when she dropped the opening puck at a Flyers game; her reasoning was that they would never boo a cute kid.

I'm not sure what happened in the World Series this year, but it might have been scripted by a curmudgeon like George Carlin. What a fiasco it turned out to be.
The baseball season is just too damn long when the boys of summer are out there playing in 35 degree weather and worrying about possibly playing into November.

What in god's name has happened to the City of Brotherly Love? Man, talk about the death of sportsmanship and the rise of the boorish lower class. What a disgrace to America. They're almost as bad as soccer fans.

Makes me wish all the more that Tampa had been able to take the crown. I was rooting for them because I'm a Cubs fan and I'm glad Tampa beat the Sox.

Eric: It's Philly!
They booed Santa Claus there.
They'll boo anyone & everything there.
If they gave out a $100 bill to everyone in the park, they'd boo because it wasn't ten $100 bills!

Obviously not a long time baseball fan, Mr. Zorn.

One of the old Phillies greats [Steve Carlton maybe?] once said something along the lines of, 'these fans are so brutal they boo the kids during the annual player/children game'.

And I'll take rabid home town fans like those over the St. Petersburg fans who didn't even fill the capacity of either Comiskey or Wrigley-earlier this year during a three game stand with the Sox, when both teams were in first place, or for a Fox game of the week this summer vs. their Div. rival Red Sox, only getting about 12K for a Saturday afternoon game.

It was great of Mr. Montgomery to praise the Rays, but it isn't the fans job to cheer the other team, ever.

Maybe some polite clapping when an injured player gets up, but never to cheer the other team.

I'm a native Pennsylvanian (but not a Phillies fan) and I know that Garry and Megan are spot on. Philadelphia fans are the toughest, meanest, most spiteful fans in the country and often direct their anger at their own players (e.g., booing McNabb, Mitch Williams in the '93 Series, even Mike Schmidt). The Santa Claus incident that Garry describes is a good example of how the Philly fans treat guests. The show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" accurately portrays the Philadelphia mentality. I think it's funny and I hope Philly fans never change. If it offends the sensibilities of the easily offended then so be it.


Posted by: Jack O'B | Oct 30, 2008 8:59:26 AM

"Philadelphia," like so many other things today, is just a word. Take cars, for instance. The Chevrolet Impala? More like the Chevrolet Rhinoceros. The AMC Matador? "Matador" means "murderer." The Kia Sorento? Didn't somebody tell them how to spell that picturesque Italian town's name? I could go on and on . . .

I turned off the TV after the last out, so I didn't see the moment you are describing, but I am still having trouble making sense of it. How did the fans know what Montgomery was saying? Were his comments being announced over the loud speakers?

(ZORN INTERJECTION -- Yes, as at so many events nowdays, the post-game interviews were on the PA system)

I have the local Philadelphia paper, which frankly is not as good a paper as the Tribune in most ways, but does have the most amazingly thorough coverage of sports games that I have ever seen.

According to your account, the fans were reacting to a comment by David Montgomery in a tv interview. But pictures from the celebration suggest that the Jumbotron was showing crowd shots through the celebration. It is hard to believe that the people in the stands were watching the post game show on tv rather than celebrating.

And none of the reporters at the game seem to have witnessed what you did. Admittedly that would not mean much if the Inquirer was in the habit of covering up for the fans. But as I noted, they actually have a story on bad fan behavior during the series, as well as a few on celebratory fan behavior.

And not only is there no account of Montgomery addressing the crowd, as he presumably would have to be doing to make that story make sense, there is no account of anyone else addressing the crowd. And if there was one speech to the crown, Montgomery is not high on the list of fan favorites likely to be delivering it.

The reporters did hear the fans boo Bud Selig, but somehow they missed the fans booing a reference to the Rays. And it is not clear how the fans would have heard that reference to the Rays anyway. Is it possible that you heard the fans booing Selig and thought it was a response to a comment by Montgomery? I would think that the reporters at the game would have more of a sense of what the fans were hearing than columnists watching the game later on Tivo.

ZORN REPLY-- The fans were listening and reacting to what was said during the podium interviews with the Fox reporter. They cheered at appropriate times, booed Bud Selig, etc. You'll have to trust me on this.

Philadelphia sports fans are a subspecies and every insult you toss their way will be taken as complementary.

My theory is that it stems from an east coast inferiority complex. They're not cosmopolitan like NYC. They're not the seat of power like Washington DC. They're not ivy and academia like Boston. What are they? They're a city that abuts South Jersey and they have a sandwich and a mythical boxer as icons. Their best days happened in the post-revolutionary war-era and they're gonna take it out on any sad sack that crosses their path. They're phatethic.

The Philly fans can't possibly be as classless as that guy who hassled Craig Biggio's wife during the 2005 Series. Stuff like that is why I'm a Cubs fan.

And to think that not too long ago Philadelphia was known for its genteel "Main Line" upper class, including the Drexel and Biddle dynasties and the up-from-working-class Kellys (Grace's folks).

Philly sports fans have long been recognized for this sort of behavior. They boo santa claus, the players kids, injured players from the opposing team, etc. If I recall correctly the Vet was home to the first "jail in a stadium" for the unruly fans. Considering some of your other posts concerning boorish fan behavior I might suggest you either follow sports a little more closely, so that you're not surprised by the obvious, or stop following sports altogether to avoid the inevitable future outrage.

Drexel and Biddle? Hell, Philly just hasnt had the same swagger since Randolph and Mortimer's Phony Crop Report Scheme spelled the demise of famed investment house Duke & Duke.


Gee, they sound like the Cubs fans who threw objects at and verbally abused Steve Bartman and revile him for trying to catch a foul ball. If the Phillies themselves had booed the Rays, that would be unsportsmanlike. Why is it unsportsmanlike for the fans, who aren't playing the game, to boo the other team, even for a compliment?

"Philadelphia," like so many other things today, is just a word." Yeah, you got that right, DaveB.

I sell appliances and it's a shame that I can't tell people that brand names don't mean a thing. In reality, what you are basing your evaluations on is marketing, not machinery.
For example, all of the Maytag products are now simply Whirlpool machines with the Maytag name on them. When Whirlpool bought Maytag, they closed all the Maytag plants in the U.S. and no they longer manufacture anything. When you buy a Maytag, you are actually buying a Whirlpool product. Forget about that Maytag claim of 100 years of reliability. It's over.
GE has refrigerators on the market that are made by LG in Korea, and yet have a GE label on them. I could go on.
May the buyer beware.
Brands that were once viable American companies which actually manufactured a product are now nothing more than a name on a product made in China, Mexico, or Southeast Asia.

I think I waited until the right time to post my comments!

Stay classy Philly fans, huh. Yes, perhaps, but how about Cubs fans?

Curse?, sure, whatever...... I think when Cubs fans stop throwing opponents home run balls back onto the field the Cubs will win a W.S.
Respect begets respect.
Seriously moving to Philly



Respect begets respect.
Seriously moving to Philly

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