(above : happy Phillies rooters, minutes before the human sacrifice of Tampa’s lone traveling fan)
“This is not a matter of Rays fans being sissies,” insists the St. Petersberg Times’ John Romano of reports Tampa players’ families were “harassed and abused by Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park to an unacceptable degree.”
“Something is very wrong about threatening families and children,” scolds Romano. “And something is wrong with a city that allows it.” So it’s ok to bully adult males, then?
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.
The Phillies, the police, the mayor’s office and the citizens allow their reputation to be lowered down to the level of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals because they condone this behavior year after year after year. Condone may not even be the right word. They revel in it.
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.
Yes, because for 10 years prior, the Rays represented no threat whatsoever. Look, I’d never condone terrorizing a child — no matter how thirsty he or she might’ve been — but this somewhat twisted version of a home field advantage does exist in virtually every city in America. Romano is perfectly justified in calling attention to the matter, but to tar all of Philadelphians with the same brush because a vocal minority (say 49% of those in attendance) are a crude, savage lot, is to demean one of the nation’s great sports cities. Had the Mets not been overtaken by Philly and Milwauke down the stretch and actually made it to the Fall Classic, I am confident Romano would find just as much reason to find fault with uncouth New Yorkers.
I wasnt a witness but I am calling bullshit on this undetailed ” 9 year old got beer poured on him” ….WTF about tonights game. I am glad the Phillies werent up by the 4-5 runs that they had ample opportunities to get tonight before the weather got too much as it would have been a seriously anticlimatic way to win the WS. Would the players have ran out of the clubhouse onto the tarp to jump all over each other while the fans went nuts in the concourses?…anyway, starting lineups for Game 5 and 7/18th…..
PHILLIES
Pinch hitter
Rollins
Werth
Utley
Howard
Pop-up or walk
Victorino
Feliz
Ruiz
TAMPA BAY
Navarro
Baldelli
Bartlett
(presumed pinch hitter)
Iwamura
Crawford
Upton
Pena
Longoria
Its going top be a fun day speculating how the respective managers game plan this.
First of all, GC, yes, harassing women and children is worse than directing the same behavior at adult males if it involves profane language or physical intimidation. I’ve worn Mets gear to the Zen expecting verbal heckling, but have instead had objects thrown at me.
But the real problem I have with the fans’ behavior, which Romano doesn’t really address here, is that the organisation actively encourages them to abuse visiting patrons. This policy exceeds the bounds of generally comity at sports events. (“comity”: a nifty little bit of vocab I learned from CSTB’s own David Roth while discussing this very problem at the CSTB Mets-Cubs outing!)
I generally avoid tooting my own blog, but the link behind my name on this one is to a post I wrote about a year ago. It comes off a bit sanctimonious upon re-reading, but contains some salient examples.
Is it ok to just hate Philly, though? I’m all about fairness and every sports environment is a magnet for knuckleheads, but, MAN, do I hate Philly. Aside from the cheesesteak, those people have never contributed anything to our culture (and I don’t want to hear anything about Liberty and Democracy and all that crap…I’m talking tangible shit here). And, no, Hall & Oates don’t count.
First of all, GC, yes, harassing women and children is worse than directing the same behavior at adult males if it involves profane language or physical intimidation.
bjorn, there was no mention of which is worse. romano wrote ““Something is very wrong about threatening families and children,†which would imply that if the threats were kept to adult males that would be perfectly acceptable behavior. apparently romano seems to think it is ok for those same children to witness threats at a ballgame just not be the target of them.