Thursday, October 16, 2008

New Angryville

T.J. Simers, taking a swipe at Philadelphia and its fans, called the city "Angryville" before the series started. This morning, his colleague Bill Plaschke describes a scene in Los Angeles that fits that description far more closely:
As the Phillies hugged and danced and partied long into the night, Ethier was one of the few Dodgers to return to the field and wave to the fans, but you can't blame the ones who didn't. They were probably worried for their safety in front of a crowd that spent the long evening lashing out like jilted lovers.

Dodgers fans booed in a way they've rarely booed before, from the leadoff homer by the Phillies' Jimmy Rollins to the final stranded runner by Nomar Garciaparra.

They booed sadly horrible Chad Billingsley, who couldn't survive three innings for the second time in a week, couldn't consistently throw inside again, his two worst performances in his two biggest games, and who knows when he'll recover? . . . They booed the painfully awful Rafael Furcal, who tried to play with a sore neck and paid for it with three errors in one inning that led to two runs that finished them . . . They booed the just plain lousy Blake DeWitt, who hit into two double plays and ended the series hitting .077 before he was replaced by Jeff Kent.
You'll have that when you lose ugly like the Dodgers did, but given the contrast between the supposedly easy going Los Angeles crowds and the real joy and jubilation in Philly as described in the post below this one (can you imagine that kind of scene unfolding in Los Angeles?) I think it's probably a good idea to put an end to the slamming of Philadelphia fans that goes on every time one of its teams reaches the national stage.

7 comments:

bigcatasroma said...

Damn straight! Give it to those hacks, Craig!!! You are now welcome on the Philadelphia bandwagon, but there may only be a seat or two left!

Go Phillies!!

Craig Calcaterra said...

Thanks Bigcats, but I was defending the good people of Philadelphia, not the Phillies. I think I'd probably pull for them against the Sox, but it may be tough for me to do so over the Rays.

RoyceTheBaseballHack said...

I can almost forgive the normally even-tempered Dodger fan for being a bit, shall we say, vexed. After Manny (must have) made his team mates take turns dragging his batting helmet around the warning track all day to make it look eight years old, and after dismissing the Chubbies (remember them...97 wins and lead the NL from wire-to-wire, this year...???) in only three games, only to have their heads handed to them by a very spirited and sound Phillies squad. I think I'd be angry, too. However, the Dodger fan is a smart fan, and I think they'll see, before the end of the WS, that they just got beat by a better all-around team.

Anonymous said...

APBA Guy-

The Phillies v. Rays. Who cares what Fox thinks, that will be real fun. I can't wait to hear the Phil's comments about Tropicana Field.

Diesel said...

They booed Santa Claus, dude.

They booed Santa Claus.

Animals, the lot of them.

bigcatasroma said...

Connor, you're an idiot. That story is completely twisted in about 13 different ways. But, also, you should read some of the stories about the Dodger fans this past week. Then realize that there was not one arrest last night here in Philadelphia, where the streets were more mobbed than from any sporting event ever, save probably the Re Sox wins.

Diesel said...

@ bigcatasroma

Really? Good lord man. Check for sarcasm before you start calling people idiots. Italics are generally a giveaway.

I might have to forgive you if you really are an AS Roma fan, but that's the kind of response I'd expect from some Lazio-loving facist literalist.