Me and the Mrs. went to the game on Sunday for the first time of the season. I was sitting in the my Sunday season ticket seats with my wife, where I've sat for the past few years and was listening to some of the programming on WIP Sports Radio 610 AM before the start of the Phillies 'On Deck Show' which comes on prior to all of the Phillies games on 1210 AM. The topic of discussion on WIP was the troubles that have been happening at Citizen's Bank Park with some rowdy fans.
The show took call after call of fans talking about troubles or incidents that they have had going to watch a Phillies game at CBP. The recent news of a fan that supposedly 'threw up' on two fans seemed to be the spark that produced some flames on the radio this afternoon. We've all heard the story and saw the picture of the guy that was supposed to be involved with a shiny new black eye, I wonder how he got that? Here's a somewhat humorous article (if any humor can be derived out of this) from this recent post about it on www.thefightins.com :
Congratulations, Matthew Clemmens, you just locked up a spot in the Top 5 greatest Philadelphia fan moments of all-time. I’m not sure how you did it, although it probably had something to do with the detailed description of the maylay and the fact that an off-duty cop was involved, but you now rank right up there with throwing snowballs at Santa, booing Donovan McNabb on draft day, cheering Michael Irvin’s injury, and winging batteries at JD Drew.
Now for the rest of your life, you’ll be mentioned in hack articles about how unruly Philadelphia fans are.
I was actually frisked and patted down before I went into the stadium for the first time since I've been going to the stadium to watch a Phillies game on Sunday in either Veterans Stadium or Citizens Bank Park. A fan that has never done anything to anyone in the stadium. I didn't think this was necessary or proper, but as the attendant that was searching me said, 'these people are out of control.' He asked me then what he was feeling in my front pocket, 'a cellphone' I answered and he asked me to take it out of my pocket and show it to him. 'They have fake cell phones that they smuggle alcohol in if you can believe that', he said to me. I assured him it was only a properly working cell phone and he allowed me to go in to scan my ticket to get into the park after his impromptu patdown.
I didn't like the whole scenario about having to go through what the security attendant also told me, 'It will be like the airlines soon to get into here'. It's not something that I want to have to endure to see a ballgame. I've been paying good money to see the games and together with my wife, we generally have enjoyed going to the games. I did have my camera pack with me that I usually have and that was probably a good reason for the security attendant to search through that bag and then search me thoroughly. I was dressed in all of my Phillies gear and didn't particularly look like a hooligan out for trouble either.
The problem may not lie with the fans completely for situations that arise in stadiums like Citizens Bank Park. In all of the games that I've been to, well over 50 in three years, I've had maybe two or three beers total. I sat right behind a couple in their 30's that downed three or four beers each in about two hours time on Sunday. Not too bad if you think about it, but they had their young kids with them and I wondered how responsible they would be to drive after consuming the beers that I personally saw them each drink.
Vendors at the park are hard working, but pedal the fuel that feed many fights at Citizens Bank Park
The beer vendors are aggressive and unrelenting at Citizens Bank Park. They walk up and down each aisle several times an inning calling out 'beer' just as loud as they possibly can. They are in effect part of the problem that exists about the excessive consumption of alcohol at the stadium at times. The more you drink, the more they make. They have never refused a sale to anyone near me that has obviously drank too much and I've seen some people down a lot of beers at $7 a pop at the ballpark. They are like bees buzzing around the park pushing out all of the beer they can and up to and including the famous 'last call' where they try to sell as much as people will shell out to drink as after the 7th inning there are no more sales. If the Phillies are serious about curtailing problems at the ballpark, they would start ending sales of beer earlier in the game.
If you've ever been to a ballpark to watch a game, chances are that you've sat near someone you wish you didn't. The 'loud mouth' that just keeps yelling out jeers and comments to certain players, or the drunk and abusive type that also makes his or her self known. Try to report that person at the ballpark to warn the attendant that there is trouble is like an act of Congress, you say something about the suspected 'rowdy' or out of control fan and usually very little is done about it. That is another problem of reporting these type of problems just never gets the proper attention until things are out of control and by then, it's too late.
Now before the game, they run a promo on 'FAN WARNING' in all bold letters across the jumbotron screen in left field. It's changed from last year, in so much as now it is all in CAPITAL LETTERS and is very emphatic in it's words. Maybe the Phillies organization should start looking at their own practices within the ballpark in an attempt to find out why more and more troubles are happening at the ballpark.
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