Oh, I’m really scared! Your hurt my feelings! As IF!!!

Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock (and according to a former classmate on facebook, she has been), the New York Yankees are playing the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.  Now if anybody knows me, I’m a die-hard Yankees fan.  I’ve been through the good and the bad.  I’ve been to probably 100 games at the old Stadium.  I watch just about every game on TV, or catch it on the radio.  When it comes to baseball, I’m no bandwagon fan.  I can’t say the same about hockey or football, but that’s not the point here. 

Anybody who knows me knows there’s hardly a time I don’t wear a ball cap.  More often than not, it a Yankee cap.  Each year, because I’m a superstitious asshole, I buy a new one and wear it the entire season.  This year it’s a white one commemorating the inaugural season in the new Stadium.  I got it in April, and have worn it every day since.  Pay attention…this is important. 

In addition to the hats, I have a pile of Yankee t-shirts.  I own a couple jerseys.  Oh, and the pictures on the wall.  And the flag outside.  And a couple of jackets.   My wife got me a real nice Yankee jacket.  It’s the same one the team wears in the dugout.  And now that fall has finally come around, and it’s a little chilly in the morning, I’ve been wearing it for about three weeks now.  In addition to the same hat I’ve been wearing since April. 

Picture this with a Philadelphia background, and you get my drift.

Now I take the train in every day from the suburbs into Center City Philadelphia.  As I strive to be on time to work, and as a creature of habit, I take the same trains, sit in the same cars, and essentially run into the same people.  But now that the Yanks are playing the Phils in the World Series, they’re approaching me, and telling me how brave I am for wearing a Yankee jacket in Philadelphia.  Brave?  BRAVE???  Brave is running into a burning building.  Brave fighting in Iraq.  Brave would be wearing a klan robe in North Philly.  But I’m wearing a fucking Yankee jacket!!! Do these people really think that there’s a 90% chance that the crowd would beat the shit out of me if I actually went to Citizens Bank Park?  Are Philly fans really that dumb?

Do you really want me to answer that question?

 I’ve spent over five years in Boston back before they broke the so-called Curse of the Bambino, and in all that time, I’ve taken my fair share of heckling both inside and out of Fenway Park.  I’ve gotten in heated exchanges, but it’s never gotten into fisticuffs.  Good for me for knowing where to draw the line.  But I’ve been in situations, seen the line drawn, and know where to zip it if necessary.  Again, I still have a pretty face. 

Bottom line, the Philly fans still don’t know how to heckle.  While Sox fans will yell at you from across the street that “Yankees suck”, the only thing Phillies fans know how to do is mutter “Phil-ees!”  This is also the same crowd where the largest word they know how to spell is Eagles, but again, another topic for another time. I guess all these years playing in the National League with the Mets hasn’t prepared Phillies fans for a good verbal heckle.  (Damn, I never did write about my trip to Shitty Field!  I should get on that in the next couple of months!) 

Bottom line, Sox fans will tell you to your face that you suck, while Phils fans will just be obnoxious, but without the personal attack.  I guess there is some truth to the slogan “City of Brotherly Love”.