One Big mood swing: Passion has been building for
Drew, McGwire
Daily News Staff Report
Philadelphia Daily News
Even for Philadelphia's never-bashful fans, the first
few minutes of tonight's Phillies-Cardinals game at
the Vet could provide a Hall of Fame psychodrama.
At 7:35 p.m. - if the tender lad's tender right hand
is feeling better and the lineup follows recent
patterns - here are some words no one will be able to
hear: "Leading off for St. Louis, No. 8, centerfielder
J.D. Drew." Then the rollercoaster ride begins for
Phillies fans who will come to bury Drew and praise
his teammate, Mark McGwire.
McGwire hasn't visited the Vet since early last year,
long before he bashed a record 70 home runs. Phillies
fans, who have been cheering from afar, are likely to
award Big Mac with standing "O."
If the big redhead hits a home run, the cheers will be
almost as loud as, say, a J.D. Drew strikeout.
"How quickly the emotions turn around," said sports
psychologist Dr. Joel Fish. "It'll be rare if not
historic to have those polar opposites separated by
just one batter."
As far as the Phillies are concerned, officially, it's
mostly "Drew who?"
"I'm sure he's going to get a vocal barrage and we
certainly hope it's nothing beyond that," said
Phillies spokesman Larry Shenk.
Drew comes to town for the first time since being
picked by the Phils in 1997 and then spurning them,
eventually signing with St. Louis. No one enters the
Vet more behind the eight-ball than the Cardinals' No.
8, who has been encouraged to wear his batting helmet
while playing centerfield during the series.
Vet sources report that some of the enthusiastic fans
in centerfield and in the lower boxes at field's edge
will be plainclothes city cops, and they'll be ready
to rumble at the drop of a beer cup.
As if the fans need any urging, WIP-AM's sports
talkmeisters have been recruiting a special heckle
brigade. (The last time they did that the target was
new Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb).
Expect colorful signs draped around the outfield
railings. Shenk says the Phillies don't have a formal
sign policy, except they can't be obscene.Last year,
it was McGwire who required extra security. But a
quirk in the schedule kept the Cards out of
Philadelphia after the first quarter of the season,
and his early season appearances drew an average of
only 21,000. His final Vet game was a three-homer show
May 19, 1998. Since then he's hit 94 dingers and
Phillies fans have been cheering from afar for the
sensitive New Age tandem of McGwire and the Cubs'
Sammy Sosa.
Drew, on the other hand, reaches something really
primal in the fans' psyche.
"J.D. Drew has really become the poster boy in
Philadelphia for greed in sports," said Fish, director
of the Center for Sports Psychology in Center City.
"He really shoves it in our face that sports is a
business."
For some, Fish suggests darkly, it goes deeper.
"When you couple that with the fact that he rejected
us, it was felt very personally, like being dumped by
a boyfriend or girlfriend," he said.
Philly fans have turned booing into an art form,
although it's often aimed at the home team - the wife
of a slumping Flyers defenseman was once hooted down
at a fashion show, and Phillies reliever Mitch
Williams had his house egged after surrendering a '93
World Series-losing home run.
Peanut vendor Cheryl Spielvogel said she's seen the
boos rain down on chesty umpire Joe West, smug ex-Met
Darryl Strawberry and a few others, but "I don't know
anyone that's really hated like J.D. Drew. He kind of
snubbed the whole city, not just the fans.
"I'll betcha he stays out of the series," said the
foghorn-voiced Spielvogel, a veteran observer of more
than fans' appetites.
copyright Philadelphia Daily News
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