Former Phillies player claims fans “more brutal” than Yankees fans

Former MLB infielder Trevor Plouffe says Phillies fans are “more brutal” than Yankees fans

The bold baseball take of the day belongs to former, short-lived Philadelphia Phillies infielder, Trevor Plouffe, who claims Phillies fans are more brutal than New York Yankees fans.

The context for this claim was the potential landing spot of Japanese star Seiya Suzuki, who was posted by the Hiroshima Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball league before the lockout but did not choose an MLB team before the lockout began. The standout outfielder is coming off a 38-homer season in which he hit .317/.433/.636 with a 1.069 OPS over 134 games.

Plouffe’s Phillies comments began complimentary before veering into him using the words “brutal” and “tough” twice each:

"Chris Rose: What’s the most fun landing spot for him?Trevor Plouffe: I think somewhere like the Yankees might be the most fun. My first answer to this was the Phillies.Rose: That’s what mine was.Plouffe: I think that it kinda works, but I don’t want that for him. I don’t want him to go and play in Philadelphia.Rose: Why, because of the pressure cooker?Plouffe: Kind of. I feel badly talking crap about the Phillies like this. I actually think they are a pretty good organization. I think that Philadelphia would be tough to come over to. That’s like your first taste of being in America … playing in the states … doing that … and you’re playing in Philadelphia. And if you have a bad first couple of weeks, they’re gonna turn on you right away. That’s tough.Rose: Hold on, you just said the Yankees. How is that any different?Plouffe: Because you really know that’s going to happen in New York. First, I actually think that New York fans are not as brutal as Philadelphia fans. I think New York, if he comes over, they’d give him a couple weeks to a month before they really started getting on him. Where as Philly, I think that happens, like, first series.Rose: Remember, Giancarlo Stanton had that five-strikeout game very early in his New York tenure. I think those were boos.Plouffe: New York just needs to see one homer. They just need to see [a little of] whatever you promised and they can ride with you a little bit. I think Philly is more brutal than New York."

While Plouffe did spend time playing in Philadelphia, it was brief. Of his seven games played in a Phillies uniform in 2018, only four of them were in Philadelphia. That’s a pretty small sample size, especially considering he only started one of those games.

In fact, in Plouffe’s entire 830-game career, those four games are the only ones he played in Philadelphia. The rest were spent with smaller-market teams whose fanbases are decidedly less… intense than Phillies and Yankees fans.

But Plouffe’s playing career also ended years ago, and the Phillies organization is vastly different now. Dave Dombrowski is the president of baseball operations, Matt Klentak is gone, Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler are here, and the team just completed its first winning season since 2011. They are building something intriguing; the Phillies’ time is coming.

Meanwhile, the situation in the Bronx has gotten markedly worse since Plouffe’s playing days. In fact, mere days after Plouffe played the final game of his big-league career, the Yankees and Red Sox faced off in the 2018 ALDS. When the series turned to the Bronx for Game 3, Yankees fans loudly booed their own expensive star, Giancarlo Stanton, but gave Sox pitcher David Price, whom the Yanks had lit up in Game 2 at Fenway, a standing ovation. Booing their own players is a common Yankees fan occurrence.

The Yankees have not won the AL pennant or a World Series championship since 2009, the year after the Phillies last won their own. Each time New York reaches the postseason lately (every season since 2017), they are somewhat easily dispatched by their opponents, leading to growing discontent among their own passionate and vocal fanbase.

Then, there’s this poll:

Wanting to protect a star player entering unfamiliar territory is noble. But no matter which team Suzuki signs with, the hefty contract he’s projected to command will put him under a microscope, and he knows that. So, while Plouffe might be looking out for Suzuki’s best interests, he doesn’t need to badmouth fans to do so.