Philly Fans In Mid-season form at Spring Training

A good friend of mine was down in Florida for spring training last weekend. Though a lifelong Mets fan, he visited Clearwater to take in a Phillies game. Below is his account.


I returned last night from my long weekend Spring training in Florida.  We did our last game in Clearwater -- one of the best ballparks and home to the fightin' Phils.  It was a great reminder of all that is Philadelphia sports fans.

First, off the place was packed (it was St Paddy's day), people were pounding beers and everyone is was in green Philly outfits or red philly outfits (and there is absolutely no diversity in the place).

The crowd reinforced that there are only three types of Philly sports fans:
  (1) White Women - generally hotter than you would expect
  (2) Fat old white men with all their girth located in one giant beer belly
  (3) Fat young white men (who will turn into fat old men) with all the girth in their belly.

By contrast, when I saw the Mets, it was the usual smorhgasbord of pathetic looking people of all ethnic varieties

It was 1 o'clock and hot and the tiki bar in left field was mobbed with people boozing it up.

In the 6th inning, some (fat) Philly fan proposed to his (fat) girlfriend on the field and was roundly booed by the entire stadium.

I was sitting next to some 14 year old Philly kid and his dad.  When the dad went to get a beer in the 6th inning, the kid (who had been eyeing my Mets lid all day), looked at me and said "you suck".

Of course, the kid was who we all hope our kids will turn out to be a ... a walking encyclopedia of baseball (and specifically Phillies knowledge).  I kept up with him for about two innings but then he dipped into the Phillies prospect system to explain why they should have traded some minor league outfielders for someone and I just couldn't keep up anymore.

My 14 year old buddy made his dad take him to Clearwater at 9 30 every day to watch the practice fields and get autographs, then insisted on being the first person to enter the actual stadium when those gates opened.

Finally, they had Sean Landeta -- the Eagles punter (somehow forgetting his Super Bowl rings were with the Giants) there to sign autographs.  I passed on the autograph but took the occassion to ask him about the 1985 punt in Chicago in the playoffs that blew off his foot -- a great conversation.