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A Phillies Fan in a Strange Land – Part 2Part 2 begins not too long ago. A month we call February in fact. It includes some laughs and some tears, but overall there is a lesson learned in the end. Without further adieu, Part 2 of A Phillies Fan in a Strange Land…
I had booked a trip to San Diego back in February. Upon confirming the trip, my Dad told me to see who the Padres were playing that week. I went to the Padres site and clicked through to July. My heart was in my throat as I read “PHILLIES” across the dates that I was attending. The Padres are playing the Phils when I’m in San Diego? I had thought to myself. I was elated, but it didn’t last. I quickly realized that these were away games. Of course they were. The one time I go to San Diego and the Padres are playing the Phillies in Philadelphia.
My best friend Jeromy, who made the trek with me, pointed out that it would still be awesome to go to the bar and watch the local game supporting the away team. I realized this was a pretty neat opportunity. To cheer for the away team, not in the home teams house, but in their stomping grounds, in their watering holes.
Upon arriving in Sandy, after a long day of flying, we waited for our luggage at the baggage claim. Jeromy had been wearing a bright orange Flyers shirt, and I had tied an orange and black Flyers bandana onto my bag so I could tell the difference in case someone had a similar piece of luggage. I thought to myself for sure we would be heckled. Even a small comment from the airport workers. Maybe a boo pointed in our direction. Anything to put us down for being from Philadelphia.
But there was nothing. Not a single comment. We had traveled across country and no one even cared enough to break our balls about it. It was strange. We made our way to our hotel and prepared for the next few days.
The first day into the beautiful city of San Diego, we took the trolley past Petco Park. My first reaction? Petco Park was underwhelming. Seeing the park, if you didn’t know baseball, you would have no idea the Padres play there. There was a huge advertisement for the new Batman game, Arkham City, sprawling the wall of Petco. I thought it was awesome, but for Padres fans, it doesn’t really support the team. You can walk down the street and find stores carrying more Dodgers and Giants gear than their own home team. It was pretty sad to see and I was starting to feel for the Padres fans.We were watching the local news on the first night where they were previewing the upcoming series with the Phillies and the local sports anchor’s actual words were, “Let’s face it, the Padres suck.” Verbatim. It was really unsettling for myself being from such a proud sports city.
The true test would come a night later. We would jettison ourselves to a local bar to watch some highlights and root for the away team.
It was retro night for the Phils and Fathers and we were excited to see our boys rockin’ the old school. We arrived at the bar just in time to see the Phillies highlights and much to my surprise, no one was watching. As I looked around the bar it was evident that no one cared. I guess they all agreed with their local sports anchor. The Padres did suck, and no one gave two shits.
We even talked loudly about the Phillies. How good they are. How much worse the Padres are. What we thought they would do at the deadline. No one cared. It was surreal. A local bar, in San Diego, with Padres highlights on, and not one person watched the television with interest. Tony Gwynn would be rolling in his grave. If he was dead.
The next day was momentous for myself. I had really started to sympathize with the San Diego Padre fan. They had to be somewhere. I know that they were surrounded by better local baseball organizations, but there had to be someone that I would see who was a proud Padre believer.
That’s when it happened. It was the second game day of the series between the two teams when I saw it. It was like seeing a unicorn or a championship parade for the Sixers, you know, it was like seeing something mythical. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted it.
At first I thought it was a Yankees jersey. The dark blue Padres jersey had never been spotted in the wild up until this point. But there he was. In the heart of downtown San Diego. In the Gaslamp Quarter of all places. The Padres fan in his natural habitat. His blue coat was coming in nice and thick during these summer months. It was a rare breed indeed. The specimen I had encountered was wearing the double three on his back, and the nameplate “Piazza”. He looked something like the specimen pictured to the right, but try to imagine if you can, the fur being blue and not white. I know it is difficult because creatures like this are only talked about in books and the talking pictures.
Just as fast as he had appeared, he vanished. He was startled by something he had seen before. A man with a blue coat, not unlike his own, but brighter. This man had the local attire I was use to seeing. The Piazza Padre fan had been startled by a man in a blue Utley t-shirt.
And that was it. 6 days in San Diego and one fan spotted sporting a Padres jersey. And it wasn’t even a current player. As the days went on more and more did I see the Phillies fans. Matching fathers and sons wearing the Phillies emblem with pride. The random young woman wearing a Victoria’s Secret PINK shirt with the Phillies logo on the front. One man called out to us, he had not been wearing any Phillies gear, but upon seeing our Phillies shirts on he said, “PHILLIEEEEEEEES!” and pumped his fist in the air. It felt like we were home.
But we weren’t. We were in a strange land. One that keeps it’s local fans hidden. Perhaps underground or in the walls until the Padres came back home. It was an eye opening experience for myself. A young man, born and raised to love everything Philadelphia. Growing up in the walls of that city makes you feel proud of your local teams. It’s something that I have always been proud of, being a fan from Philadelphia. And now being in the midst of glory years for most Philly teams, it just makes being a fan even better.
I’ve witnessed first hand some low points for the Phillies and the Flyers, but nothing was as bad as the fandom (or lack there of) in San Diego. I don’t feel like I’ve ever taken it for granted, but after seeing how bad it can be, I’ll never take my hometown teams for granted again. I’ll always be here, and in other cities, proudly supporting my hometown boys.
SW – Brian Maloney
Tags: A Blurry View, Padres, Phillies Fans, San Diego, Travels 1 day ago 1 Comment Short URL Share this post! Share on Facebook Tweet This! 1 Comment
jeromybish says:August 16, 2011 at 12:56 amYou forgot about the hooters that was decked out in steelers swag and instead of having the dads game on they were showing the habs and bruins playoff game 6…. stay classy san diego
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