Phillies' Phanatic & Friends Give Mets Fan a Golden Shower

| Print Post This | Like (0) | Comments (0)

You don't expect to see a monkey peeing on a person at a baseball game — even in Philly. But that was just part of what took place yesterday, which was one of the more surreal sports experiences of my life.

It's not so much that the Mets-Phillies game lasted seven hours, or that a monsoon turned Citizen's Bank Park into a concrete slip-n-slide, or even that a drunk fan ran on the field, taking refuge for several minutes inside the tarp tube before security could coax him out. No, it was more that between innings, the team's mascot, the Philly Phanatic, and his plush friends Reggy the Purple Party Dude and Spanky the Nine-Foot Monkey silly-stringed a villainous-looking "Mets fan" on top of the Phillies' dugout.

The bizarre act carried with it all the subtlety of "Birth of a Nation" and all the innocence of Teletubbies. As children looked on in glee, the Purple Party Dude, the pear-shaped green mascot, and the cuddly ape corralled the marauding Met. As he attempted to attack them, they deftly threw him to the ground, sprayed him with silly string, and then appeared to urinate on his prone body. As if to rub it in, literally, the Phanatic then rubbed his hindquarters against the man's mustachioed face.

Parents scoffed and children cheered with joy while Mets fans looked on in horror, no doubt wishing they hadn't drunk that last beer. From then on, any Orange and Blue spotted near a urinal was greeted with a jovial "watch out here comes the monkey!" Truly family fun for all.

Now, despite my Philly Phan loyalty and the accompanying hatred of the New York Metropolitans, I can't help but wonder whether Sunday's display went too far. There is a fine line between sports fanaticism and mob-fascism, but the sports stadium is supposed to be an outlet to express those base urges without the ugly consequences. True, the public, broad daylight golden shower was an act, but did it cross that line?

Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post