The Phillies' Big Balls Celebration Is Here To Save The Next Generation Of Philly Fans
It was just a few weeks ago that Phillies fans were giving Trea Turner a standing ovation just to help him break out of his funk he was in for most of the season. A standing ovation just for walking out to the plate. Typically those are reserved after doing something special, like Bryce's inside-the-park home run last night. But Phillies fans saw a guy who was down on his luck, was trying to find his game but just couldn't get anything going. So instead of booing the shit out of the guy like you'd expect a Philly crowd to do when someone underperforms, they decided to pick the guy up when he was feeling down. And it worked.
Now I don't have any issues at all with the standing ovation. It was the right call for the right player. What I am concerned about, however, is the precedent that it sets. I don't want this young generation of Philly fans going too soft on us here. There still needs to be an edge to Philly fans. And the Big Balls celebration is the perfect thing to keep that edge sharp.
Major League II. Sam Cassell. JT Realmuto. I don't care who you attribute the celebration to, all I care about is that it's swept through the entire Phillies dugout. And once the fans see the fellas breaking it out every night at CBP? Well even the little ones want to get in on the action.
Hell yeah. Dudes rock.
We're just a week or so away from school starting up in the area. There's not a single 2nd grade class that isn't going to have a group of rowdy boys breaking out the big balls celebration every day at recess. There was a time when every kid in America was doing the D-Generation X "Suck It". Those days made us into who we are today. The same can be said for the Phillies big balls celebration. They may not fully understand it yet, but there's going to be a day when they will.
I've had my faith restored in this next generation of Philly fans. Especially when they'll have plenty of opportunities to break out the celebration when Kyle Schwarber is launching nukes like this to close out summer vacation.
