"USA" An American Sports Fan's Cheer

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E...A...G..L...E...S... EAGLES !!!

It's a chant I have heard in the oddest of places since moving to the Philadelphia area some eight years ago.

It is the marching cry of the Philadelphia Eagles, the cities NFL home team. I hear the cheer around the wood shop, outside my office in late October. I hear it in Jim's Cheese Steaks on South Street. I hear it during summer concerts, at the Camden river front, along the Delaware.

And, alas, I hear it in Citizens Bank Ball Park, during home games for the Philadelphia Phillies.

These “out of context” cheers, misplaced and peculiar, have always made me smile. Yes, crazy, emphatic, drunken sports fans entertain me! The passion and vigor that brings on an EAGLE cheer, shows that the setting for the cry makes no difference.

Sure, the correct placement for such a cheer is Lincoln Financial Field, or "The Link" as Eagles fans call their home. But any substitute host will do to announce a crazy loud-mouth fan’s allegiance.

In my experience, it happens most frequently with the Philadelphia Eagles, but it also happens in other cities, and in other sports too. I remember being at a Yankee game in the late nineties, and in-between innings they showed the Kentucky derby on the Jumbo-tron. The crowed went nuts watching the exciting race. I remember Yankee right fielder Paul O’Neil being locked into the Jumbo-Tron, watching the derby results. But the Kentucky derby and Major League Baseball have virtually no similarities. This “out of context” horse race was just as misplaced and lost on me then, as an Eagles chant at a Phillies game, is lost on me today.

So when I was at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday night May 1st 2011, I immediately thought the chants of: “USA… USA… USA”, were of a sporting related / out of context nature.

It happens all the time, is what I figured!

ESPN’s Sunday night baseball program held the rights to the marquee matchup of the Baseball weekend between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. The final game of the three game set featured Cliff Lee for Philadelphia versus Chris Young for New York. The game represented the Mets last chance to salvage at least one game of the three game set.

The Old Man / TOM / Georgie / Old Man Geo / Geo The Lumber Jack / Pain In The Back Side/, first inquired about Phillies tickets on Thursday afternoon April 28th. I was on my way to a Yankee game that night, and was not too thrilled about the prospect of a Sunday night game, only three days later, especially since I was scheduled to be in New York over the weekend. Never the less, Georgie was hell bent on going, and so I humored him by looking up tickets on Stub-Hub. Lower level seating was economincal enough on Stub Hub for me to pull the trigger and order up two tickets.
TOM met me at my place in South Jersey around 5:30pm on Sunday, and by 5:50pm, we were entering the park.

The skies were overcast, the temperature had a slight chill, and the game was an offensive struggle. Neither team could get anything going with the bats. Fly ball after fly ball would carry to the warning track, before then falling into a fielders glove and go as a recorded out. 15 total fly ball outs had occurred before the 9th inning alone. Against typical occurrence, the South Philly evening air was simply not carrying the ball over the fence on this night. As the ninth inning approached, the game was deadlocked at 1-1. Ryan Howard had just tied the game with an RBI single.

It was just as the eighth inning was concluding, when suddenly, out of the blue, a small cluster of young fans seated several rows behind me, and along the right field line began an enormous cheer. A man keeping score in front of me began cheering too. He was wearing head phones and seemed to have just received some type of news. I assumed the news was sporting related, but I was a bit lost since the game I was at seemed to be the only live action in the world of sports at the moment. Raul Ibanez, engrossed in one of the worst slumps of his life, hand just grounded out to end the inning. So I knew the cheers had nothing to do with the Phillies.
Ryan Madson, the Phillies temporarily closer, came in to pitch the top of the ninth. At this point cries of “USA..USA..” were beginning to resonate behind me, and in the bleachers as well. Ryan Howard fielded a Jose Reyes ground ball at first base, and recorded the first out of the inning. Then fans all along the third base line, started going crazy! “USA … USA” was the proud mantra of the moment! Like so many times before in Philadelphia I figured it was some sports reference, which was just lost on me. TOM was trying to figure it out too. He asked me if there was a hockey game going on. I thought about it for a minute. And said no. I knew the Bruins were playing the Flyers, but series was idol, and still wouldn’t make sense. Next I jokingly said: “What are the Mets all Canadian?” It was around this time; I looked down and discovered several texts messages awaiting me on my phone. They confirmed what we all now know, and what half of the Citizens Bank Crowd had learned.
One of the world’s most evil and brutal tyrants had been brought to justice. A man personally responsible for the innocent murder of thousands of civilians had been killed. The “USA” chants were in joyous approval of the capture and execution of Osama Bin Landen.

What seemed to be misplaced “USA” cheers weren’t misplaced at all! With the entire world just a little more safe, the yin and the yang in balance, and a symbolic victory for our nation’s basic ideals, how could Met fans and Phillies fans not be united in our cries of “USA”.

I have never before discussed my politics on this blog. Since it’s creation in 2006, I have used it souly as an outlet for sports entertainment, opinions and commentary. I will continue that even today. My political opinions are extreme and often unbalanced. And so, I will continue to make a conscious effort to keep them from this site. However, that aside, one inning later, when they put the now famous fan on the Jumbo-Tron who was wearing the USA jersey, I got on my feet and began to cheer!

How fitting to be in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the home of the Eagle, our national bird, when the USA had one of its finest moments in the never ending war on terror.