While no major American city has a sports history that’s as remarkably tortured as Cleveland’s, the city of Philadelphia is phoremost among the few that come close. Here at Cleveland Frowns, we believe that getting over our own curse is as simple as coming to terms (and getting rid of) the racist caricature, Chief Wahoo, that represents our baseball team (and something much worse). Burying Wahoo will be no easy task, for certain, but it seems to be something little compared to what it looks like the Philly fans must get over to break their own curse. To illustrate this point, we present the following piece by loyal reader and a friend who's been with Cleveland Frowns before anyone knew what being with us was, Dennis B., a Cleveland area native who was raised a Pittsburgh sports fan. Dennis went to Tuesday night’s Stanley Cup semifinals match in Philadelphia between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers, and has filed the following report: Fan-imosity: An Ugly Side of Sports – by Dennis B.
I’ve never been big hockey fan, but after attending my first professional hockey game this week, I’ll quickly admit that playoff hockey comes second to none in the sports world for intensity and atmosphere. I learned this first hand Tuesday night at Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Penguins and Flyers here in Philly. The atmosphere was as intense as I've ever experienced at a sporting event. Think fast paced action of the NBA combined with the sudden death scoring element of soccer, and the punch-your-face-in element of a street fight – and all of it on ice. The Flyers were down 0-2 in the series and a 3rd straight loss would have put the dagger in them. So let’s just say the crowd might have been a little more fired up than usual.
I grew up in Cleveland and was raised as a Pittsburgh sports fan so I’m a something of a lost sports soul living here in Philly. I had some idea of what I was getting into by representing Pittsburgh at last night’s game, but never expected it would be as bad as it was. I went to the game with three friends who are die-hard Penguins fans. Two of them were decked out in full gear while two of us simply wore Pittsburgh hats. We were harassed a whole lot which we expected and understand, to some extent. But when the harassment turns into physical confrontation and violence, it’s time for us to re-evaluate ourselves as fans of a game. (Read that last line again, this is all over a GAME.)
I'm no stranger to rowdy and hostile environments at sporting events (I’ve been to many Eagles, Phillies, Steelers, and Big Ten football games, among others), but have never been in a situation this bad. It was so bad that I decided to take off my hat halfway through the game to appear to be neutral. I told my friends (and they agreed) that pride could take a backseat to safety. We were seemingly outnumbered 20,000 to 4, and I saw no reason to be a hero in these circumstances. A few minutes later I was in the bathroom and watched as a fan in a Pens jersey had full beers thrown at his head while he was taking a leak. There were two 8 year olds in the men’s room at the time with their dad. I jokingly asked the dad if his kids heard this kind of awful language and saw things like this on the school bus. He shook his head in disbelief. Needless to say, I can’t imagine that this father, or others in similar situations, will bring his kids to another game. And what’s scary is that some of them do. Maybe that’s the problem. As I was walking back to my seat, about 10 ushers & cops in the arena went running past me towards the bathroom. I have an idea of what could have happened.
And here’s where it gets worse for our group. As we’re walking to our car after the game, the harassment continued, but in more dangerous form - full bottles and cans were continually fired at us in the parking lot. Even the die-hard Eagles fan who was in our group couldn't believe the hostility. (And Eagles fans are known to be the worst. After all, they booed Santa Claus one year at a home game in December) We were advised to pick up and carry beer bottles with us all the way to the car just in case something went down.
I understand and accept hard-core fans and home team pride, hell, I love those things, and I am those things. But I'll never understand resorting to physical violence and wanting to put someone in the hospital because they wear a different colored jersey. I realize that booze fuels a lot of this, but even buzzed friends can prevent friends from getting involved in this nonsense. I’m not pointing my finger just at Flyers or Philadelphia fans. It happens in every city to some extent. But it's a damn shame, especially for those of us who live in the city where it's most rampant. And after all that I’ve seen first hand at Philadelphia sporting events and elsewhere, I’m sure that it doesn’t get worse than it gets here. It’s also a shame that after this experience I’ll never find myself rooting for the Flyers, even though I came into the game as a relatively unbiased fan, and now call Philadelphia my home.
Of course, with all of that said, if the Pens look like a sucker bet in Game 4, there’s only one thing to do: pony up on the Flyers and root up, because, as Frownie up there knows well, bizness is bizness.
While no major American city has a sports history that’s as remarkably tortured as 
