A Home Away From Home

By Mike McGann
Posted Sunday, July 1, 2007

PHILADELPHIA -- They hate us. It’s their ballpark, their Phillies within reach of first place and yet everywhere you look, there they are: Mets’ fans.

Sure, there was no shortage of Phillies jerseys ranging from Jimmy Rollins to Mike Schmidt at that little jewel neighboring the South Philly Navy Yard, Citizens Bank Park. But it seemed like for every Schmidt or Rollins, there was a Seaver or a David Wright shirt. So maybe the crowd for this game was about 40-60, favoring the home guys.

So Mets fans weren’t the majority, but they were there in much stronger numbers than you’d see in any other ballpark not called Shea.

But don’t think this is a new thing. Mets’ fans have been running down the New Jersey Turnpike to first the Vet (now a parking lot) and The Spank since the mid-80s and Shea became so corporate that regular fans got squeezed out in Flushing. Back in those days, it was a bit more hostile, the Phils were winding down from the only real dominant era in team history and the Mets were supposed to be a joke.

But times change. Except for the mirage that was 1993, the Phillies struggled until a couple of years ago, and while the gorgeous new ballpark and a truly competitive team have helped, spiritually this town lives across the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles. So, these days, the Phillies are often little more than something to do between Eagles seasons for many. In fact, Wikipedia claims that Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, a native New Yorker and former mayor of Philadelphia, is a Mets’ fan. Ed was personally disinclined to confirm this to me, of course.

So, Phillies fans, and there are a number of hard-core, die fans, to be fair, have gone from being kind of angry to mostly bemused. As Philadelphians hate New York (it started with a grudge just after the revolution), no team gets lustier boos at park than the Mets. And the Mets’ fans start the “Let’s Go Mets” chant...and it becomes a rowdy afternoon at the park.

I took my six-year-old son Kenny to the game Friday afternoon and virtually everyone was polite, despite his Carlos Delgado shirt and Mets’ cap. Echoing other Mets fans sitting around us, Kenny started to trash the Phillies. I stopped him, explaining that we were guests in their stadium and should be civil, which seemed to shock some of the Phillies fans around us. I also explained to him that most of his friends and a number of relatives are Phillies fans, and he should show some respect.

While Kenny seemed content to scream for his favorite player, Delgado, who crushed a home run to center in the second, making making my son’s day (if the cotton candy didn’t), I ended up having a number of conversations with Phillies fans, mostly, good polite ones. We talked about Chase Utley and Rollins and Shane Victorino and Charlie Manuel’s erratic managing style. The Phillies fans have gotten used to us, and while they despise some of the more obnoxious Mets fans who scream obscenities and act like they own the place (in other words, they act like fans at Cyclones’ games), once assured that you’re not one of those fans, they treat you with civility and sometimes even kindness.

And it’s not just the fans. The people running the Phillies know the deal, too. Vendors were roaming the stands selling Mets’ yearbooks, and they could be found right next to the Phillies’ yearbook as you walk into the place. If nothing else, they like Mets’ fans money.

And why not? For a segment of Mets’ fans, Citizens Bank Park is closer to home than Shea. The parking lot outside the ballpark was stuffed with New Jersey plates and people in Mets’ gear. And truth be told, it’s a lot easier to get in and out of Philly than trucking it out to Queens from anywhere in North Jersey, and even arguably places like Orange County, N.Y.

So, like it or not, and whether the Phillies like it or not, Citizens Bank Park is a second home for the Mets, for nine games a year. So far, it’s been a hospitable one, both on the field and in the stands. Hopefully, though, Mets fans can remember the lesson I tried to instill in my son: let’s remember we’re guests.

Oh gosh, the New York newspaper guys strike again. They’re killing Paul Lo Duca because he had the temerity to point out they go to like four guys for all their quotes. Somehow, he’s racist for pointing out that other teammates, Latino and otherwise, speak perfectly good English and that maybe writers could talk to them once in a while.

And of course, The Daily News went after Lo Duca, again (You may recall, I wrote, uh, lovingly about it last time). Peter Botte decided it was a shot against Latinos because, well because he decided it was.

"Right now, I'm a gambler, a racist, and I like 18-year-old girls," Lo Duca told Don Burke of The Star Ledger. "That's the perception of people in New York about me. Is any of it true? No. None of it. Yet, no one knows that.”

What was missed here was the fact that by and large, sportswriters are lazy slugs. Sure, there some talented, hard working people, even at The Daily News, but a lot of the guys working that clubhouse are just phoning it in, getting the easy quote. And yes, it’s true that some of the Latino players are a bit more difficult to interview, as they have varying degrees of accents.

At times, I’ve had to use translators with minor league players (although, I speak and understand enough Spanish to usually get the gist of what someone is saying, and more importantly if the coach or player translating is editing the comments), and yes, it can take a bit more time to work through an interview with someone whose first language isn’t English. But I’ll note I have had to work through similar issues with Japanese, Korean and Chinese engineers when writing about electronics. And let’s be honest, it’s bit more complicated to work out details of an audio circuit than to talk about whether a home run came on an 0-2 slider.

So Botte’s piece was lame. And it was more lame that the original piece vaporized from The Daily News Website.

So maybe now it’s time to start covering these people, these sportswriters, the way they cover players. There’s a ton of dirt out there about writers and editors, some true, some an entertaining fiction.

Maybe it’s time to start applying the same standard to sportswriters and editors and unleash the blogosphere on them. I wonder how they’d cope with that?

Not well, I’m guessing.
 

One final personal note. Eight years ago today this woman I know made an entirely foolish decision. She married me.

I would like to thank her for the joy her poor decision making brought to my life, and hope she doesn't figure out she messed up for another 50 or so years.