(with the benefit of penicillin, I bet the Babe would’ve hit at least 900 HR’s)
Congrats, Howard Eskin. Your minions were out in full force at Citizens Bank Park last night, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea.
Philadelphia still lived up to its bad-boy image with rowdy fans spewing in much greater detail than mellow Milwaukee, Barry Bonds’ previous stop. While in left field, Bonds repeatedly turned to check out the bleacher bums, who chanted things such as, “per-jur-ee-ee,” and held signs such as, “Babe Ruth did it with hot dogs and beer.”
The pregame announcement about how the Phillies “will not tolerate fans using foul language” was drowned out by “Barry sucks” chants.
“People say Phillies fans are too harsh,” Mike Azzalina, 19, said. “We just love our team so much, we don’t want anyone coming in here and disgracing the game.”
Indeed, Phillies fans are amongst the most discriminating when it comes to their embrace of persons who are a credit to baseball ; Lenny Dykstra, Pete Rose, John Kruk, etc.
Moises Alou suffered a sprained ankle last night and is expected to be out for nearly two weeks. Not that Lance Niekro or Steve Finley aren’t great protection in the batting order for Barry. Philly’s Ryan Madson faces the Giants’ Jamey Wright later tonight.
The Detroit News’ Tom Gage reports that Jim Leyland is selling his Pittsburgh home and is moving to the Detroit area. I’m surprised — I’d previously read that greyhound racing was illegal in Michigan.
I was at the game last night and it was actually pretty mild compared to the jeering that happens when Scott Rolen or J.D. Drew plays in Philly. Bonds looked pretty broken down. He was about the only Giant batter who couldnt get any solid contact off of Gavin Floyd, managing a feeble pop-fly, IBB and a GIDP that David Wells could have legged out. He looked overmatched when Aaron Fultz punched him out in the 8th and I am now doubtful that he is going to surpass Babe Ruth this weekend. I also noted the irony of seeing a guy wearing a Lenny Dykstra throwback jersey howling at Bonds about juicing.
I remember the Pitbulls as being kinda popular at the ECW Arena.
Dwelling on the even more absurd, I was very charmed to see the Sal Fasano fan club in full-effect last night, with pasted-on mustaches, modified Mexican flag with the Philly ‘P’, etc.