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…on Saturday, April 19, SNY.tv’s Ted Berg and i, along with our video producer, Jason, hit the road for Philadelphia to check out the Mets and Phillies in Citizen’s Bank Park…
…video from our day in Philadelphia, complete with the Pat and Geno’s Cheesesteak Challenge, will hopefully be online towards the end of the week…
…the plan was for people to meet up in Lot N starting at 12 noon, and by the time we arrived, more than a few hundred Mets fans had already set up shop…it was pretty impressive…some people had buses, another crew had a camper, though most were small cars packed with food and drinks and Wiffle Ball, which i was happy to play…i did not make a fool of myself, as i feared, hitting and throwing a few pitches…however, i did tweak my hamstring a bit…seriously, i hurt my hammy, and my arm was sore the next day…which is a new and pathetic low for me…
…it’s always great to meet people who read this site…i know i have said it before, but when i am able to put the ‘page view statistic’ to a face, it’s always nice…it makes the whole experience of writing this blog more personal, and i like that…also, for the first time, i saw some 
one wearing a MetsBlog t-shirt in person, which was very exciting…thanks, Mike, for the support…
…speaking of t-shirts, a large group of Mets fans had t-shirts printed with a picture of Pedro Martinez on the front and the words, “Philly Sucks” printed below it…on the back, pedro’s quote about fighting the Phillies was in bold, with all of the fans names and nicknames in small print featured at the bottom…nice work…
…speaking of fans, Phillies fans are some seriously angry people…i get the sense they are looking for a fight…which is disappointing…i mean, you guys won the division last year, act like it…also interesting, unlike Shea Stadium, i didn’t see one family in the house – and it was a Saturday afternoon…instead, it was wall-to-wall college kids, which is fine by me…but, for a sport that is concerned about building a future fan base, it was a bit alarming…and frankly, given the language and violence and general hatred in the stands, if i was a father, i’m not sure i would bring my kid to that building either…something tells me Billy Wagner would agree, based on his recent comments in the Daily News…actually, Bob Klapisch put it best in a 
column for the Bergen Record, in which he said that Phillies fans reached a new low on Saturday when booing Jose Reyes for not being injured…savages…in all fairness, there were plenty of Phillies fans who were polite, but, as in most cases, the rowdy few spoil it for the many…
…on the other hand, they have some pretty attractive female fans…i mean, when i thought ‘Phillies fan,’ i imagined a drunk, angry guy looking to kick my ass, i didn’t think cute, brunette girl in white shorts…so, this was a pleasant surprise…in other words, good for Chase Ultley, who has one helluva fan club…
…i was also able to meet Mike Nichols and Brandon Eddy, both of whom contribute to MetsBlog…i’m glad they could make it to the stadium, and if i didn’t say it on Saturday, guys, thank you for all of your hard work on MetsBlog…it’s always appreciated…
…me, ted, jason, mike, Zoe Rice, Coop, the Brooklyn Met Fan, SNK, dykstraw and others spent the second-half of the game watching from behind home plate in general admission…it’s a nice view, and 
though it’s standing-room only, i like the experience and look forward to having this sort of set up in Citi Field…i pace, and like to move around, especially when i’m nervous, so, for a baseball game, this is the ideal location for me…
…all in all, it was a fun trip, and though i feared for my life during the entire day, i hope to do this again later in the summer – maybe over July 4…
To view MetsBlog’s photos from Saturday, click here.
To read Zoe Rice’s notes from the afternoon in Philadelphia, and to see her pictures, which include me playing Wiffle Ball, pre-injury, click here; and to read Coop’s take on the day, also with pictures, click here; and to read Crazy Met Girl’s notes, and see pics, click here.
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Yeah, I was amazed by how angry the fans were too. I was wearing a Wright shirt and I knew I would get some grief from the fans, but I literally couldn’t walk 10 steps around the concourse without getting ravaged. I don’t take that stuff too seriously so I didn’t really mind, but I was surprised overall at how brutal and relentless the Phillies fans were. Also, about 75% of the comments I got were along the lines of “David Wright is gay,” though that would be the kindest and least offensive way that they phrased it. So yeah, definitely an interesting experience in Philadelphia. Class is not the word I would use to describe, though there was one (1) Phillies fan who actually came up to me after the game in the parking lot to say “good game.” So I guess there’s that.
wouldn’t you be angry too if you had to live in that dump of a city and have won one world series and no super bowls ever?? They are second-class in every sense of the word.
I was there a couple times last year PRIOR to when things
really got heated and in REAL good seats behind 1B.
Except for my girl,these philly fans are very angry people
and not just the 20-25 y/o crowd but even some of the grannys. Having said that however, some of the hits i.e.
“wrights gay” etc. sound alot like what you hear at Shea
nowadays as well as from most of those who post to this
site. lastly BOTH Geno’s AND Pat’s are overrated,tourist-
trap type hero shops. Tony Luke’s much more legit.
I agree. The shea crowd isn’t filled with all friendly people. Mets fans can be jerks too. Its the way of the world. I’ve seen a fight in the crowd of every game I have been to this year (4 games so far). It doesn’t matter who they are playing. It is just more frequent when they play the yankees or the phillies because there are more of the opponent’s fans in the building.
We certainly aren’t all saints at shea.
I am not making excuses for Philly fans but I think we need to not be blind about some mets fans. i was at the Mets - Phillies game at shea and I witnessed a crazed met fan picking on an innocent philly fan on the concession line. He was acrazed maniac and ended up punching the poor kid in the face for no apparent reason. Shea seemed like a warzone that night as everytime I turned around someone was either getting kicked out or getting their phillies hat thrown off the upper deck. I was pretty embarrassed after the concession line incident and thought that after this display we are in for hell when visiting citizens bank, as we should be
like i keep saying, i think the cbp crowd was much better behaved than the shea crowd last week . during the wednesday game i swore i saw a phillies fans on crutches get beat with his own crutches.
(yes, i can simultaneously think this is both hilarious and sad)
What I don’t understand is that everytime there is a fight in a stadium between opposing fans, the home team gets blamed. A met-philly fight at shea and a met-philly fight in philly aren’t caused by anything other than two people being jerks. the location of the scuffle shouldn’t be used as any evidence to condemn a city.
With that being said, philly fans are out of line.
its highly doubtful that one or two phillies fans sitting in a section filled with Mets fans would begin a fight. Dont be naive, the fights start when the home fans band together and begin to heckle and abuse the away fans
the Phillies fans were the ones causing trouble at Shea though. Ever notice how the fights escalate way more during games when Philly fans are in the building than say a Subway Series game?
I’ve been in sections where one or two people from the opponents’ fan base instigate a fight with nearly the entire section. Sure, alcohol is involved, but it happens pretty frequently.
It may also be naive to think that entire sections of fans beat up one or two people because they are wearing a certain shirt. That’s just insane even in Philly.
I have to disagree with the “small bands of away fans wouldn’t start a fight with home fans” line. I went to the Eagles-Giants game this year at Giants Stadium (when the Giants sacked McNabb 12 times), and by the end of the game this group of 4 Eagles fans a few rows below me were just looking to pick a fight with ANYONE. They were just trying to argue with anyone. I was wearing my Mets hat (having just come from the game that shall not be mentioned, #162), and they started giving me crap about the Phillies & Mets. Finally, as the game was letting out, one of them poured what was left of his beer on a girl as she was exiting, and her boyfriend went ballistic and went after the guy, who then threw the (plastic) bottle at him. It was ridiculous. And yea, they were clearly from Philly.
But to the important debate….Geno’s rules, not even close.
No more Willie poll? I thought this was being done at the end of each series.
wow those philly fans were annoying last night
ah…a taped up wiffel bat. Thanks for the pictures and my arm gets a little tender post wiffel game as well, so your not the only one. I think it has something to do with throwing a weightless ball as hard as possible….at least thats what i tell myself to get by.
i was actually expecting a lot worse out of the philly fans, and honestly, i think the atmosphere was a lot worse for the visiting fans during the shea series. i think most of the philly fans are used to having the mets fans around by now.
but i tend to have a good sense of humor about these things, and it helps to toss out a non-threatening, insightful, funny comeback. once you show most people that you’re not a belligerent a-hole and that you have some slight degree of deference as a guest in someone else’s house, they tend to talk to you a lot more and even stick up for you if some troublemaker gets in your face.
in general this may have been the best time i’ve ever had at a game, terrible compromising pictures of me notwithstanding. i would definitely be up to do this again whenever we have another weekend series down there. philly definitely has us beat in the tailgate party department.
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therev makes a good point. like all groups of people, some are good and some are bad.
I really didn’t think the fans were that bad. I was at Shea on opening day against the Phillies. Though I was in the bleeders, there was a lot more animosity towards Philly fans at Shea than I saw on Saturday (again in the bleeders.) Of course we got the, “Mets suck” comments, but it was nothing compared to the number of fights in the bleachers I saw opening day. Every time a person in a Philly jersey walked up or down the stands empty beer bottles and half eaten burgers would be thrown at them. I didn’t see that at all on Saturday. In essence I thought Philly fans were a bunch of wussies compared to what Mets fans put them through on our turf.
Overall, Saturday was one hell of a day. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to tailgate with my family and friends for my birthday. I didn’t make it over to Lot N I was busy drinking and grilling which is sad because I was in Lot M. We actually started playing flip cup with a group of Philly fans across from us. It gave me the chance to go up to their girls after the game and say, “Hey ladies want to know how it feels to be with a winner.” I was a little inebriated. Great stadium can’t wait until we have ours. I just wish we had the ability to tailgate at our games, that would add to the experience.
My only real statement of discontent was the fact that two males started selling Nitrous Oxide balloons in our parking lot after the game. I didn’t think hippie crack would have been such a hot commodity at a baseball game, further backing up your point that it is not the most family-friendly atmosphere.
it took me all of 5 minutes in parking lot N to get into a fight with some incompetent member of phillies nation.
however, section 307 in promenade definitely ruined the day for the whole upper deck. for that, i am very happy.
good to see you in front of cbp matt
love the kowalski jersey btw
Phillies nation? I think it takes more than a handfull of drunks barely watching a game to be referred to as a nation. Otherwise, my family reunions might qualify as a UN Summit.
nice
i was trying to think of a funny synonym for nation but couldnt think of one
Section 307 was pretty bad(I was sitting a few rows behind you). It comes down to what the fans choose to say. Rather than make fun of the team or the players, they choose to make fun of the fans. Consider youself lucky, they wanted to start talking trash about Mets fans girlfriends. I must have heard “Mets fans are fat” about 20 times by the 6th, before I turned around and told them to grow up.
I had to bite my tongue at the David Wright is gay thing, because I had the urge to tell them that their mom told me different last night. I fought the urge, if only for the sake of self-preservation.
section 307 was a special place on saturday. We were completely louder than the phillies fans and the security guard had our backs.
There were grandfathers giving me the double handed middle finger “F YOU”
sooooo special!
After MVP J.Roll popped out to end the bases loaded phils rally most of the phils fans were clearing out. I started a LETS GO METS chant that i could swear resonated through the whole stadium.
love it. thank you philly for the memories
Holy shtt…… You? You are THE Kowalski? Number 69 black Mets jersey?
We were sitting a few rows back from you. The guys one row behind us were hounding on you all game.
“HATS WITH STICKERS”
clap clap clapclapclap
You are a brave soul my good man.
Section 307 was the section to beat. Tell Jimmy Rollins I Said That
stellar, I think I was sitting next to you. We complained about Willies bullpen style, sound familiar?
its possible.. i spoke to a few mets fans at that game.. you had to have been behind me though because the seats to the left and right of me were my people. There was a guy like two or three rows back who looked pretty animated.. perhaps that was you?
oh, sorry i thought you were talking to me just now… I thought you meant that our current dialouge was stellar
Nah, the animated guys behind you were the ones heckling you. A guy with a beard wearing, of all things, a JC Romero t-shirt. Took all I had not to heckle him for wearing that.
Went to CBP on Friday for the first time. What a game, Johan is money and Willie almost lost it for us by bringing in soon to be former Met Aaron “long ball” Heilman. Just a note Willie lost the game for us yesterday by not countering Charlie Manuel when he brought in Feliz who likes to hit lefties. Willie does not have the in-game intellect to lead any MLB team to the promiseland. The Philadelphia Utley’s didn’t deserve to win but Willie is a horrible in game manager and it proved costly. He takes his own team out of a winning streak and must go.
Yeah, because after b