In 1991 or '92, I went to a game with my parents and two of my cousins at the Vet. It was Phils v. Cards. We sat in the right field seats, 10 or 20 rows up from the wall. There was a fairly good crowd on hand, and the vintage Phillies fans were in attendance, of course yelling smack at the Cards' rightfielder whenever he came out on defense.
For a couple of innings, one guy in particular, probably hopped up on liquid courage, kept a steady stream of trashtalking going.
"Hey, Jose-- you're a bum!"
"Hey, Jose-- nice strikeout!"
"Hey, Jose-- go back to Saint Louie!"
This went on for a couple of innings. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Then, in the middle of the game, I guess the guy got flustered that Jose wasn't acknowledging his taunts, and-- I'm actually chuckling out loud already as I think back-- this fan busts out with:
"Hey, Jose-- what's your last name?"
(Note: I was an avid baseball fan at my young age and I knew very well that the player's first name was Felix and his last name was emblazoned on the back of his jersey, facing our section's direction most of the time.)
But without missing a beat, another guy from a few rows back hears the trashtalker's question and replies out loud with (again, I'm laughing)...
"Hey! Isn't that Jose Snyder?!"
I heard this and I was practically crying! Right along with everybody else! The timing was perfect and the name was right out of a movie. It reminded me of the movie Naked Gun, when the fan yells out, "Hey, it's Enrico Pallazzo!"
So anyway, the rest of the game, what do we hear from the taunting fan?
"Hey Snyder-- you suck!"
That's vintage Vet Stadium verbiage folks.
No comments:
Post a Comment