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Out of Left Field |
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Fans like the Philly brand
make baseball fun again
of TheColumnists.com
The Philadelphia Phillies are in last place in the eastern division of the National League but first in the hearts of a zany collection of cutups in the left field stands who have shown great creativity in taking to their hearts various Phillie players.
This all started with the Wolf Pack in June 1999, a group that took off from pitcher Randy Wolf’s name to show up at the ball park in wolf masks when Wolf was pitching. They howl and do a choreographed shuffle to celebrate strikeouts by Wolf. They come across as skylarking high school and college kids as they cavort in the left field stands at Veterans Stadium.
The Wolf Pack inspired similar hi jinks. The Duck Pond group wearing duck masks celebrates pitcher Brandon Duckworth’s strikeouts with duck calls. The Adams Family honoring pitcher Terry Adams wears Phillies batting helmets with no shirts and spell out the word “Adams” on their chests and “Family” on their backs.
There is also relief pitcher Jose Mesa’s Mesa’s Faces; outfielder Pat Burrell’s Burrell’s Bunch; and the Giambi Zombies of infielder-outfielder Jeremy Giambi. And four delightful nutballs appear bare-chested with the letters W-A-L-K on their chests, each letter moving front and center as the opposing pitcher throws ball one, ball two etc., hoping to coax a walk for a Phillie batter.
The groups are an inspiration because they produce the fun and frolic that is often missing at big league ball parks these days. They tell the world that just because their team is poor, they can still have a grand old time at the ball park. This is quite a contrast from the ball parks where fans are all too quick to boo errant efforts by the home team.
It is significant that the pioneer Wolf Pack has a no alcohol, no-cursing policy. This is noteworthy because in many ball parks beered-up fans get raucous, spew profanities and make attending a ball game something less than pleasurable for far too many of their neighbors.
There must be something about losing ball clubs that brings out the wit and revelry in fans. The original Mets of 1962 still hold the record for the worst won-and-lost record in baseball history, but the fans of New York, starved for National League baseball, delighted in them. The days with those Mets--“the Amazing Mets” Casey Stengel called them--are still remembered fondly as the time when the fans were ahead of the players.
Much was made of 17-year-old Ed Kranepool when he was brought uip to the Mets during their first season. A fan responded to the hype by displaying a banner that read, “Is Ed Kranepool Over the Hill?” I recall that the Mets had a pitcher named Butterball Botz at spring training that year who didn’t make it to the Opening Day roster. When, on Opening Day at the Polo Grounds, the Mets’ starting pitcher quickly fell behind, I heard a fan behind the press box shout, “Bring Back Butterball Botz.”
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When the Mets moved from the Polo Grounds to the then-new Shea Stadium, they tried to ban banners. After fan Karl Ehrhardt had his banner confiscated by security chief Matt Burns, negative reaction in Newsday made the Mets rescind the rule. A few days later Ehrhardt and a pal showed up again with the message, “We Scribble, While Matt Burns.” Ehrhardt went on to become the celebrated “Sign Man” flashing appropriately apt signs as the action developed on the field. Ehrhardt admitted at one point that “it is easier to come up with signs when the team is going badly.”
The largest group of Phillie phunsters these days is the Padilla Flotilla, a rhymed takeoff on the name of Nicaraguan pitcher Vincente Padilla. Adapting the fleet concept, the Flotillas, who have been known to cut high school for Padilla-pitched games, wear sombreros, hand out tortilla chips and row with homemade “K” oars after a strikeout.
The Wolf Pack hasn’t missed a Randy Wolf start in three years. It is still going strong despite the tragic loss in a car accident of Thomas Wood, one of eight Wood brothers and four cousins who have powered the Wolf Pack since its inception. Wolf attended the Wood funeral and tipped his hat to the group during his next start. At the end of each season he signs the Wolf Pack banner as it is retired.
Wolf said, “These guys have been there since I first got here. They are great guys. I wish we could have met under better circumstances originally, but I think they know how much I appreciate them and the support they have given me over the years.”
The Wolf Pack, the Padilla
Flotilla and the rest are a delightful new breed, a far cry from
the worn stereotype about Philadelphia sports fans. They help
put the lie to the old line, “Philadelphia fans would boo
Santa Claus on Christmas morning.”
© 2002 by Stan Isaacs.
The Stan Isaacs caricature is © 2001 by Jim Hummel.
The other illustrations are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection,
1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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