Big week as a Philadelphia sports fan and a baseball fan in general watching the home run derby and the All-Star game, both hosted in Philly. In the derby, hometown favorite Kyle Schwarber was bested by Jordan Walker (despite magenta ball conspiracy theories since he won on a white ball) in a dramatic six homers in-a-row ending. The stadium, exhausted from booing every MLB player from across the league all night, was justifiably silenced.
I thought, here we go, the online Philly fan hate. How dare we boo your precious best hitters and their fragile egos, barked sports-snowflakes coast to coast. This drew exhausted eyerolls once again from the Philadelphia fandom: there’s a reason our shirts say, “No one likes us, we don’t care.” What people don’t understand is that booing is a sign of passion. We boo opponents as a sign of love for our own team and players. Unless our own teams are doing poorly, then they get booed too.
After a hitless All-Star game, Phillies’ Bryce Harper was asked, “Do you feel bad for Ben Rice when he gets booed by your Philly fans, or Willson Contreras?” “No,” said Harper, laughing, “‘cause my fans boo me too. What’re ya gonna do? Hey, you don’t like it, play better, man.”
Philly fans don’t give applause-participation trophies. Even a few All-Star players acknowledged that, doing volume-up hands for boos as a sign of its honor. If you get booed enthusiastically, like when opponents from the National League East were announced, it means you’re a villain or threat.
If you hear silence from a stadium in Philly, your mediocrity has been laid bare, and now you’ve really been giving something to cry about—so you should pray for those boos, kid. Jordan Walker looked thrilled: a big grin on his face as he received his boos on All-Star night after winning the home run derby the night before, because the rare radio silence he’d achieved wasn’t disinterest, it was something else: the standstill shock of a full stadium, acknowledging a moment in sports greatness.
By far the best moment of the week was the All-Star break for a full Broadway-level cinematic MLB musical reproduction of The Sandlot. While our own players whiffed completely in the game itself, it was a stunning 250th celebration the country deserved. Dress the Phillie Fanatic in patriotic gear, throw in a casual recreation of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and a stellar fireworks show, and call it a win. The MLB went full baseball patriotic nostalgia with kids in backwards-baseball hats and jerseys of their parents’ favorite players like Mike Schmidt and Tug McGraw riding bikes out of their Philly neighborhood straight into the stadium and onto the field to stand beside players on the field, interacting with them while “America the Beautiful” played and fireworks fell over the stadium.
PhilliesNation reported:
Brandon Marsh in right field with a boy in a red T-shirt and a backward Phillies cap and watched the fireworks burst around them. For the 28-year-old outfielder, “The Sandlot” was a childhood favorite. And at the end of the fourth inning during Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, Citizens Bank Park looked like a scene right out of the classic baseball film.
“That was honestly one of my favorite parts of the game,” Marsh said. “Just because that’s my favorite baseball movie growing up. When I hear that song, it almost just brings tears to my eyes, because it takes me back to being 5 years old watching that movie. So it was special. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
When the kid hopped off his bike, the two got to talking. The boy told Marsh that his grandmother is a big Phillies fan who really loves Marsh; he pulled out his phone and recorded a message for her as the show went on.
“We sent her a video and hopefully made her night,” Marsh said. “He was ready. Locked and loaded.”