Ozzie Guillen Thinks Philadelphia is a Nice Place
After the fans in Philadelphia gave Jim Thome a rather warm welcome back to the place he hit his 400th career home run, Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said he thought Philadelphia was a very nice place. He was impressed with both how the media and the fans treated Big Jim. Thome was delighted with the ovation,"It's something I'll always remember. It was very special, a lot of emotion inside."
Watch video of Jim Thome and Ozzie Guillen talk about the fans of Philadelphia.
Now why doesn't the national media take this little story, and send it all over ESPN: on PTI, on SportsCenter, on one of those morning wind bag shows with Skip Bayless. Philadelphia is NICE.
Just wanted to get that off my chest.
Kudos to "Killer K" who pitched a heck of a ball game in his major league career debut. Props are also in order for Aaron Rowand who, on his off day, hit a grand slam to blow this one open after coming in the game earlier as a pinch hitter. Jayson Werth even got in on the action with a tremendous diving grab to prevent a White Sox come back.
And Chase Utley of course. *cough* MVP *cough*
>>Jim Thome Gets Warm Welcome [The 700 Level]
>>Day off? Phillies Rowand has career day [Pittsburgh Tribune]
>>Kyle Kendrick > Freddy Garcia [Bugs&Cranks]
It's way easier to tell the "philly fans threw snowballs at Jesus" stories than to actually do any new reporting.
Don't look for any stories saying what nice people we are.
But you better believe the next time we trow a hot dog at someone, ESPN will be there with same moldy, tired yarns from yesteryear.
Posted by: Chris | Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 09:27 PM
takes one to know one.
ever hear that expression?
ozzie guillen is crazy, so he'd fit in perfect here.
Posted by: the Krisheim | Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 10:36 PM
Utley has got to be the front-runner for MVP right now. I realize it's only mid-June, but I can't think of someone else off the top of my head. And as for the bum rap all the major news outlets give us Philly fans, I realized a long time ago that people outside of Philadelphia just don't understand us. And therefore, I completely ignore whatever they do or say about us.
Posted by: DD | Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 11:20 PM
Utley deserves some MVP consideration... as does Fielder and Peavy.
Nice to see the "not so amazin's" and the bravos stumpling along too!
Posted by: Pol | Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 12:31 AM
skip bayless is the man!
Posted by: bryan b | Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 08:41 AM
You bring up a good point with the Philadelphia fans. Check out our show blog (with a Philly guy in John Marzano) and you will find that we applauded the Philly fans for their ovation of him when he was on-deck. Our comments came even a day earlier than when the big applause came!
We made it a point to compliment the fans as well on our show.
I could not agree more. If you are going to get on the fans for the negative, be sure to comment on the positive!
Vinny Micucci
Host, Leading Off
Posted by: Vinny Micucci | Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 01:36 PM
I'm a White Sox fan, and I've never been to Philadelphia...
But when Thome returned to Cleveland he was booed.
So: Philadelphia > Cleveland.
Stay classy.
Posted by: Steven Andrew Miller | Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 06:18 PM
Thome was booed in Cleveland for good reason, he went to Philly after the players union pressured him to take the contract.
It was a financial decision.
You can't blame the Cleveland fans for booing and you can't blame Thome for taking the cash
Posted by: Evil Jon | Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 09:28 PM