I had the Phillies game on, but I wasn’t paying much attention, partly because they were trailing again. Being predictably unpredictable.
The season is winding down fast and the team had just returned from a road trip on which they had underperformed.
Trea Turner homered and doubled to break his slump (Photo: AP)
And “underperformed” doesn’t begin to describe shortstop Trea Turner’s putrid performance. The Phillies paid $300 million for a guy who stopped hitting, even worse became a fumble machine on even routine grounders.
My pal and I had been discussing this dilemma, and I felt it was time for Turner to get to a sports psychologist. At 30, his physical skills are still there. His problems must be mental.
Gymnast champion Simone Biles quit the Olympics because of the “twisties,” a mental condition. (Welcome back, girlfriend.)
Tennis star Naomi Osaka quit the French Open citing concerns for mental health.
When golfers suddenly freak out, they call that the “yips” — unexplained failure to perform.
Turner seemed to have all that.
When he returned to the Bank, I fully expected Turner would get the infamous Boo Bird welcome from disappointed Philly fans. That’s what we are famous for, right? Booing Santa Claus. That was 1968, and the guy who played Santa admitted he stank and deserved it, but we’ve been hearing about it for more than 50 freaking years. And, yeah, we had booed our All Star and future Hall of Famer third baseman Mike Schmidt. So Turner could have expected the Bronx cheer, the raspberry.
Instead, as he approached the batters box, he was cheered.
The crowd stood and cheered. Cheered? In Philadelphia?
I checked the channel to see if it was Philadelphia.
It was.
I checked my aura to see if I had fallen into a different dimension.
I had not.
WTF?
Yes, the crowd cheered, and on that very special day, Turner broke the back of his personal hell, he got off the schneid and homered, doubled, and drove in four runs.
He’s been hitting well since. Did fans actually cheer him out of his slump?
Could be. Turner put up some billboards thanking the fans.
Phillies fans acting as Cheer Birds rather than Boo Birds got little coverage outside of Philadelphia, probably because it goes against the established narrative that we are nasty.
And we are.
When deserved, but not always.
Turner was soft-spoken about the fan support he got, but teammate Bryce Harper — who has been struggling, too, in the aftermath of surgery — was not. Harper praised the fans to the skies, said we always have their back, and that’s why he wants to die wearing a Phillies jersey.
Harper has been a sincere, loyal Philadelphian ever since he was sweet-talked into coming here by Phillies owner John Middleton and his wife, Leigh, who promised him and his wife, Kayla, the security of playing for one team for the rest of his career.
When Harper signed, local fans went insane, because we were getting an MVP who played hardball, the kind of do-anything-to-win player we love to see in red pinstripes.
The fans adopted him, he adopted the Phanatic, and began bowing to fans each game when he settled into the outfield.
He actually loves us, and we love him.
Harper knew it from the jump.
Now, Trea Turner knows he is loved, too.
The question is, have Philadelphia fans changed?
Have they learned that sometimes kindness is a better tactic than derision?
Maybe.
But they still will boo bad effort, such as when third baseman Alec Bohm made three errors in one game, and sarcastically cheered him for completing a routine play.
“I f—-ing hate this place,” he told second baseman Didi Gregorious.
Fans could read his lips.
Uh-oh. It went viral.
In a post-game interview with the Inquirer’s Alex Coffey, Bohm said his emotions got the best of him, and he apologized.
“And do I mean it? No. It’s a frustrating night for me…..[The fans] are great. I’m sorry to them. I don’t mean that.”
Bohm was quickly forgiven and is now hitting like hell when we need it.
My bottom line is this: If you cheer good plays, you are entitled to boo bad plays.
Cheering is always appreciated, and booing sometimes is necessary.
To show that we care.
It’s as old as Philly. Sort of an initiation, we love ya till we hate ya, then we love ya back into the fold. If you want out though, don’t expect to hear your name over the boo’s. Such is life in Philadelphia.
This is such a fun column, Stu!
Thanks, needed a break from the heavy stuff.
Who remembers Joe Kuharich, the stinky coach of the stinky Eagles back when? Kuharich was with his family at the Vet (I think it was the Vet) and was introduced to the crowd, who not only booed but threw snowballs. Gotta love this town!
Families — in sports and politics — should be exempt, UNLESS they put themselves in the spotlight.
The good karma started by the cheering of Trea Turner may have helped get him going. Now Schwarber and Harper seem to be getting their groove back. They call up Rojas who is playing like a 10 year veteran. And Lorenzen pitches a no- hitter in his second start. And the Wilson guy hits a homer in his first major league at bat after 7 years in the minors. Something’s happening here- could this be the year of the blue snow?
Or the black swan…
I’m very fortunate, living in Houston, TX, that T-Mobile thought to foot the bill for MLB.com for me this season. What a joy it’s been watching this team, the fans, and reliving the memories of the city that was home for the first 42 years of my life until 1994. Still a Philly and Penn State guy, all the way. Bring home another WS win this year.
Is this a harbinger? I hope so.
HOF Mike Schmidt (greatest Phillie EVER) once opined: “Philadelphia is the only city where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day”.
Memorable quote.
He was probably a DN reader! I was a regular reader of the DN. The baseball writer was Bill Conlin. I thought he was a good writer buy apparently he had some personal issues later.
On another note since one of your previous columns I now find myself using less commas.
That was about my mentor Gordon.
But I — and most journos – are using them more.