Trusted Local News

A Few Idiots Shouldn't Define Any Fanbase

Oct 29, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts (50) makes a catch in foul terriotory against the New York Yankees in the first inning during game four of the 2024 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images Robert Deutsch

  • Sports

The New York Yankees avoided being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, as their bats came alive to lead them to an 11-4 victory in Game 4 on Tuesday night. 

However, the story of the game was a pair of fans down the right field line unsuccessfully trying to prevent Mookie Betts from making a first-inning catch off of a Gleyber Torres fly ball. This was rightfully called fan interference, as the duo literally pried the ball out of Betts’ glove. 

FOX’s Joe Davis — perhaps shocked by what he was seeing — joked that the fans should get “an A for effort:” 

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers caught up with the pair of fans, and seemed to be amused by his interaction: 

The dominant response from those with 215, 610 or 484 area codes was some variation of “Imagine if this happened in Philly.” To a degree, that response is fair. But it’s also a bit tired. 

Have there been examples historically of a few bad apples at Veterans Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field or Citizens Bank Park being used nationally to define entire fanbases in Philadelphia? Yes, and it’s fair to point out when it seems like Philly fans are being held to a higher standard than every other city in North America. 

With that said, it’s just dishonest to act like the overwhelming majority of responses last night weren’t in condemnation of the two fans: 

And don’t worry, there were plenty of people happy to use this incident as a way to define the entire Yankees fanbase:

You know what the answer is here? Condemn the actions of the idiots. But also point out how stupid it is to take a few fans and try to say that’s representative of more than 40,000 people in a stadium, or an entire city. Do you really think that the overwhelming majority of fans at Yankee Stadium supported the actions of those two last night? 

Whether it’s throwing snowballs at Santa, people throwing batteries at Veterans Stadium or a fan running on the field at Citizens Bank Park and ultimately getting tased, there has been some bad behavior from fans at Philadelphia sporting events. Should that define every person at that stadium or that roots for those teams? Of course not. 

So there’s an element here of being the change you want to see. It’s stupid when there have been incidents of fan misbehavior used to define all of Philadelphia. But if you used last night’s incident to try to dunk on Yankees fans, that’s just a continuation of the lowest common denominator sports conversation that you claim to hate when it’s directed at Philly fans. 

author

Tim Kelly

Tim Kelly is the Managing Editor for On Pattison. He's been on the Phillies beat since 2020. Kelly is also on Bleacher Report's MLB staff. Previously, Kelly has worked for Audacy Sports, SportsRadio 94 WIP, Just Baseball, FanSided, Locked On and Sports Illustrated/FanNation. Kelly is a graduate of Bloomsburg University with a major in Mass Communications and minor in Political Science.

STEWARTVILLE

Events

November

S M T W T F S
27 28 29 30 31 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

To Submit an Event Sign in first

Today's Events

No calendar events have been scheduled for today.