The Morning According to Us: Changes in Philly sports culture

The team SHOULD be booed more?

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Side topic: do you know anyone who confuses him and Jerry Manuel? Oddly, we do. Including some people who work at ESPN. Seriously?

We can't imagine anything more emasculating to a Philadelphia sports fan than saying, You're not mean enough. But there you have it: Charlie Manuel thinks the Phillies should be booed more.

The team is a half game out of first place, but the Phils are terrible at home (8-22), and Manuel is kind of freaked out by the fans' unending graciousness: Everyone still congratulating the Phillies, thanking them, for last year's Series win.

"I want the fans to start telling them they want to win this year, too," Manuel told the local press. "Maybe [the fans] should get on them a little bit."

You wouldn't think this to be wise encouragement. Forget for a moment Philly fans pelting Santa Claus with snowballs, or cheering the seeming paralysis of Michael Irvin. Those are the anecdotes worn smooth from the retelling. What people fail to remember are the day-in, day-out rageaholics. Like -- and we use this example only because it's the most recent -- the Mets fan pelted by a glass bottle simply for being a Mets fan at Citizens Bank Park.

Charlie, do you really want that anger turned on your team?

Yes, he does. Because something strange has happened in Philadelphia, and you see it in the response to Manuel's manifesto. Fans don't have the boorishness in them anymore. They're just sort of tepidly shrugging off the Phillies ineptitude. Take yesterday's Inquirer column from John Gonzalez: a lethargic evaluation of Manuel's call to arms. This is not the Gonzo we know. (Full disclosure: We've worked with Gonz at two different magazines and count him as a friend.) The Gonzo we know was once de-pantsed at a pick-up game at the Y and retaliated by grabbing a dumbbell, heading out to the de-pantser's car, and coming thisclose to throwing the weight through the window. That's the Philadelphia in Gonz. But now we have this guy, Gonzalez without the Gonzo, who writes: "Championships are a powerful opiate."

They must be, because last night the Phillies lost again at home. Ryan Howard came to the plate in the bottom of the eightth with two on and the Phils down by three. He struck out. If there were boos, we didn't hear them on the broadcast or on the highlights.

Philly: You've changed.

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