There’s an old song by famous musician Jim Croce called You Don’t Mess Around With Jim where Croce warns listeners that there are certain things you just shouldn’t do, with the lyrics, “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Jim.”
Is it too late to add, “You don’t cross a passionate, Philadelphia Phillies fanbase,” in there somewhere?”
Philadelphia has proven, time and time again, to be a hard-working, blue-collar city, and it is certainly no secret that the fans want their players to approach their “job” in the same respect: Play hard, have fun, but most importantly, win.
Players who have dared to go against that grain have often become something akin to target practice for those same passionate fans—be it with words, or in rare cases, actual, solid objects.
The bottom line being this: As long as you love the game and treat it with respect, these fans will respect you for it.
That sentiment doesn’t apply strictly to ball players. Throughout the game of baseball, from management to whole teams to members of the media, plenty of people have rubbed the Phillies, as a whole, in the wrong way.
This organization certainly is not short on villainous characters. Let’s take a look at just a few.