Tough? My ass. Philly fans aren't tough. Philly fans are exactly what Jimmy Rollins said they are. They're front-runners.
Which means they're soft.
All front-runners are, by definition, soft. A front-runner is gutless. A front-runner gets behind a winner, sure, but only gets on a loser. A front-runner takes the easy road. That's what a front-runner does.
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| Evidently, fans in Philly can't handle the truth -- or people with the guts to speak it. (US Presswire) |
They booed him.
You babies.
Look, Philly fans, you can't have it both ways. If you're going to dish it, you have to be able to take it. Flick a player in the nose all you want, but when one of them flicks you back, you have to smirk and let him know it didn't hurt. Otherwise, you're nothing but a schoolyard bully -- strong because you have all that size, but weak as soon as someone fights back.
Rollins fought back, and Philly, the tough town that it is, cried its eyes out.
Here's the meat of what Rollins had said of Philly fans a week earlier on The Best Damn Sports Show Period:
"They're front-runners. When you're doing good, they're on your side. When you're doing bad, they're completely against you."
And here's what that tough Philly crowd said when the team returned to Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday:
Wahhhhh.
And booooooo.
It wasn't all of them. A reporter in the press box estimated the crowd's reaction to Rollins was split down the middle, half booing and half cheering. Since the crowd was listed at 44,143, that means there were 22,071½ people with skin as soft as a baby's behind.
They booed Rollins when he was introduced before the game. They booed when he fielded Ryan Zimmerman's grounder in the first and threw him out. They booed before he came to the plate to lead off the bottom of the inning, and again after he lined out to right.
Babies. You're soft. All of you. And your team's manager is just like you are.
Charlie Manuel knows what Philly fans are like. Everyone knows what Philly fans are like. They're brutal. They're relentless. They're happy when things are going well, sure, but they're miserable at all other times. It's a stadium full of your mother-in-law.
Manuel knows it, but unlike Rollins, he doesn't have the spine to say it. So Manuel deflected the issue before Tuesday's game, ignoring the way Philly fans treat their own and addressing only the size of the crowd:
"They've been here all summer," Manuel said. "The only difference I see is they swear more here."
That's the only difference you see, Chuck? Maybe you're not gutless. Maybe you're just blind. Or dumb.
Whatever the case, Rollins spoke the truth -- and he continued to speak the truth after he returned to town Tuesday. Rollins said the behavior of Philly fans hurts the team's efforts to pursue the best free agents on the market.
"We've had a lot of things said (by opposing players) about fans here," Rollins told local reporters. "Most of them you can't repeat. That's their opinion. They get to come from the outside and look in. ... A lot of times, and I've actually heard it, they don't want to put their family and kids in a situation where they come to the field and these are the types of things their kids are going to have to sit through and listen to. That's just the truth. Those aren't my words. Those are words that I've actually heard."
F--- you, Rollins!
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| HonestIrish: We boo because our town has been filled with heartless players and incompetent for decades. There is no reason a town with our financial resources and fan support should have gone 100 consecutive seasons without a title. Rollins, who I used to like, is falling into the Scott Rolen trap. Rather than being accountable for his lackluster performance, he is blaming the media, the fans and the organization. Standard heartless behavior, and we boo that. There is no logic to your argument. Blaming fans for player performance and organizational futility while we continue to show up to every game? Unreal. I look forward to your next column, which I’m sure will be about how the Eagles haven't won a Super Bowl because we booed Santa Claus 45 years ago. |
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| Gregg Doyel: I didn't mention the Santa Claus cliche because I'm better than that. But you did, which I guess means ... you're not better than that. Meanwhile, you keep booing "heartless" guys like Flash Gordon and Ryan Howard. Go ahead. That'll teach 'em! |
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Right, Philly fans? You idiots. There are lots of reasons your town hasn't won a championship in football, baseball or basketball since 1983 (ArenaBowl doesn't count), and why the Phillies specifically have won a single World Series (1980) in 124 years in the big leagues -- and you, the Philly fan, are one of them.
This stuff isn't rocket science. At the highest level, sports are as much mental as physical. When everyone on the field is a professional athlete, and the skill level is roughly even, the mental side will decide things. Any idea how hard it must be -- mentally -- to compete on a daily basis, over a grinding 162-game schedule, knowing the home crowd is ready to pounce? It's not easy. It's why Yankees fans were stupid to boo A-Rod into oblivion two years ago, turning his physical battle into a mental one that had him throwing baseballs away and batting eighth in the lineup.
Boo, Philly fans. Get loud. Spend a fortune to get into the ballpark and then do everything in your power to help your team lose. Brilliant.
"There are definitely guys who come back to the clubhouse and you see the expression on their face," Rollins told local reporters. "It's like, 'Man, I've got to try to do something.' And they're halfway defeated before they get up there."
You keep booing, Philly fans. Go ahead and boo Jimmy Rollins for speaking the truth.
You were just booing what you don't understand.
You were booing a show of guts.
