I Hate Pseudo-Fans

I miss the days when you could go to Phillies games and the people in stands actually knew the game. I went to Saturday night's game and heard some crazy things coming from the row behind me. If these fans are the trade-off for having a good team, I'll take it.

1. What I heard
   Do you think Werth left because he was upset? Was he sad?
   
   The real story
   Werth left the Phillies by way of a 7-year $126million free agent contract with the Washington Nationals.
   
   
2. What I heard
   Woman: Why were they booing Ibanez?
   Man: Because he grounds into a lot of double plays.
   
   The real story
   The crowd was chanting “RRRRAAAUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLL”; there were no boos.
   
   
3. What I heard
   Did you see the homeruns?
   
   The real story
   The person had missed the A’s scoring two runs. There was one homerun; the other run was scored via a walk and a pair of singles.
   
   
4. What I heard
   Man: I saw Victorino’s bonehead play.
   Woman: Yeah, what happened with that? Was it an error?
   Man: They don’t call that an error, but they probably should. He was trying to be a hot dog.
   
   The real story
   Coco Crisp was on second base. Connor Jackson flied out to Victorino in centerfield. Crisp faked as if he was going to tag up and run to third, so Victorino prepared to fire the ball there. Crisp stopped running and Victorino relaxed his arm. Crisp broke for third and made it easily as Victorino’s soft throw got there very late. This is not being a hot dog. This was one veteran player deking another. Victorino had a brain fart and got faked out. Nothing hot dog about it.
   
   
5. What I heard (Ibanez grounded out to third)
   At least he tried to go the other way.
   
   The real story
   First of all, Ibanez’s power is mostly to right, but he is not generally a pull hitter. He hits it to all fields. More importantly, what does trying to go the other way have to do with anything? He wasn’t a right handed batter with a man on second. Trevor Cahill wasn’t feeding him sinkers or breaking balls away. Ibanez was seeing a steady diet of fastballs that he couldn’t catch up to. When you can’t catch up to a pitch, it goes the other way. That’s what happened here.
   
   
6. What I heard
   What have these guys done for us lately?
   
   The real story
   The Phillies have the best record in the Major Leagues.
   
   
7. What I heard
   They need to shake this team up, get rid of some pieces. Trade Victorino.
   
   The real story
   The Phillies have the best record in the Major Leagues and, at the time, had won 11 of their last 14 games. They also lead the National League with a +63 run differential. The Braves, who are second in this category, are +39.