Jonathon Papelbon: Philly Fans > Boston Fans

He's been in a Phillies uniform for less than year, in Spring Training a mere few weeks, and he's never taken the mound in regular season game for the Phightin's, and yet he already has a grasp on the city's phans. Thursday on a Philly radio station Jonathon Papelbon had an interesting comparison to make between his former fans and his current ones. The enigmatic closer caused a stir when he claimed "Philly fans tend to know the game a little better" than Red Sox fans.

This little quip could work on a variety of levels:
1. A jab to the ribs of a city that cast out one of its once beloved characters.
2. A preemptive strike to prevent some boos come May and June.
3. A sincere statement of Jonathon's intellectual analysis of both fan bases.

Whichever of the three seems most plausible, two things are certain. One, Red Sox fans will continue to hurl epithets at their ex-closer and dream of an October match up. And two, Phillies fans will nod in unison, saying someone finally gets us; any victory against Boston, no matter how small, is a victory worth celebrating.


Is Papelbon right?

Having grown up as a Phillies fan, an intelligent Phillies fan mind you, and going to school with what seems like hundreds of students from "just outside Boston" or other places in New England, I like to think I have some insight into Papelbon's comparison.

Red Sox fans tend towards habitual hypocrisy. Their success over the last decade has been well documented; two world series, eight playoff appearances, and the end of the "Curse of the Bambino." Yet hundreds of millions of dollars in salary later, Sox fans still see themselves as good guys to the Yankees' evil empire. In New England, "Woe is perpetually me."

Red Sox "nation" is not unlike the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire (Professor Ambrose). They misnomer contents them as they try to convince the rest of the world that we're missing out. Still, Red Sox fans challenge you to empathize with them. "Try being a Sox fan," I hear far too often in the Spring and Summer. With all of their success, including the fourth most championships of all time, how hard could it be?

Papelbon dismisses the fan base as "hysterical." They are hysterical in that their emotions blind them from their own success. For eighty-six years they bequeathed a curse, but failed to remind their sons and daughters that they dominated Major League Baseball for its first twenty years of existence. Now they've created a farce: a fan base that's loyal only because it's the cool thing to do, hysterical because they need to prove how passionate they are, massive because Johnny Damon, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez drove a band wagon through the country in the peak of the Yankee hating era. The results have watered down the quality of the fan base. Certainly "intelligent" fans still exist in Boston. The problem is they are grossly outnumbered by these baseball neophytes.

 Interestingly, Philadelphia faces the same problem. Philly fans may appear more intelligent to Papelbon because the fan base isn't quite at "nation" status just yet. They've long suffered through losing season after losing season, through Curt Schilling and Scott Rolen wanting to get the hell out, through JD Drew refusing to sign there. After ten thousand losses, the Phillies finely whet their palate with repeated success winning back to back pennants in 2008-9, and five straight East Division titles dating back to 2007. B.W.S. (Before World Series) Philly fans cheered their baseball club only because it represented their city. Not because they were good, or because they found baseball entertaining (they don't), but because when Philly is on the national stage they want the city to be behind it. In many ways they still cheer for the same reasons, only now they want to be a part of the fun when they get to shove the championship into other cities' faces, most notably New York and Boston. The second cousins have come to the family reunion in droves. That is to say, these fans want to say they have a tie to the team, regardless of whether or not they've been there for the past twenty years.

I guess what I'm getting at, is it's difficult to judge either fan base at this point because both have been so diluted by success. What is intelligence to Jonathon Papelbon? He explains the Philly fans might know the game better because of "being in the National League;" they really appreciate a good sacrifice bunt in other words.

My advice to Papelbon: wait until you blow your first save before you judge intelligence. In Boston, the Red Sox clubhouse was famous for "booze"- while in Philly, he'll need some of that to deal with the "boo's."

Dillon Friday