My visit to Citizens Bank Park

The year Ryan Howard won the MVP I lived just across the Delaware River in New Jersey and went to as many Phillies games as I could. The stadium is beautiful and the atmosphere is electric.

Although the fans deserve their reputation for being negative, angry, and mean-spirited, they generally reserve that for the players, usually their own players. For all I saw, fans of opposing teams were generally treated well and not harassed, even after a loss.

The only time I ever saw a fan get harassed was at the first game of the Giants series after all the steroid allegations came out in “Game of Shadows.” I was sitting by the right field foul pole and some fans were mocking a a guy in a Bonds jersey. However, the Bonds fan probably brought it on himself as he spent much of the game taunting all the Philly fans around him and yelling about how Bonds was the man.

That whole night was crazy, the Philly fans were in rare form launching taunts, profanity, homophobic slurs, and every other kind of offensive speech you can think of every time Bonds came into view. A chorus of boos followed Bonds around the stadium as he went from the visitor’s dugout to left field and even around the bases. But the worst stuff I have ever heard at a baseball game came from the mouths of a group of 12-14 year old kids when Bonds (and the chorus of boos) made the trek from left field to the right field corner (right underneath me) to check on Moises Alou after he injured his ankle.