Phillies fans behind enemy lines
Nov. 1—Grady Weinheimer couldn't tell exactly what had happened.
It was the top of the 10th inning of game one of the World Series, and Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto had ripped a drive deep to right field. From his seats high atop Houston's Minute Maid Park, down the left field line, he wasn't able to make out if the ball had sailed over the outfield fence to give Phillies a one-run lead.
"The ball bounced back out onto the field," he said. "So I couldn't tell what was happening."
The fans in the stadium weren't cheering, he said. But that didn't really help matters, since they were overwhelmingly rooting for the home team.
So Grady looked at the players on the field, at how the Astros were reacting.
"After I saw the distraught look of the players on the field, I could definitely tell it was a homer at that point," he said of the round-tripper that led the Phillies to a 1-0 series lead.
Grady and his wife, Emily, were ecstatic. Everyone else around them was not.
That's just what it's like to be a Phillies fan behind enemy lines.
The 26-year-old Grady is a Berks County native, having grown up in the Wilson School District. He's also a lifelong Phillies fan.
Three years ago, a job opportunity lured him away from southeastern Pennsylvania. He and Emily, a native of the Pittsburgh area, found themselves relocated to Houston, where she had also found a job.
That made keeping tabs on the Phillies a bit difficult.
"We can only watch the nationally-televised games," he said. "I mostly follow them through looking at box scores. That's how I keep in touch with them."
Grady and Emily got married in October in Pittsburgh. They were on their honeymoon in California while the Phillies were battling the San Diego Padres in the National League Championship Series for a birth in the World Series.
"We were monitoring it while we were out there," Grady said. "We saw there was a chance the World Series could be the Phillies and the Astros. That was really cool to me."
The couple had just returned home from the trip when the Phillies clinched the series, thanks to a dramatic eighth-inning home run from Bryce Harper in game five. Later that day, the Astros completed a sweep of the New York Yankees.
That meant the Phils and the Astros would, indeed, be facing off. And it gave Grady and Emily — who had jumped on the Phillies bandwagon, in part because she shares a birthday with Harper — a chance to see their team play on baseball's biggest stage.
They picked up two tickets on the secondary market — Grady said tickets in Houston were far cheaper than ones in Philadelphia — and started to prepare.
"I was scrambling after we bought the tickets to find some gear, I couldn't find anything," Grady said. "I did bring down a few shirts with me. And I have two hats that say '2008 World Series champions,' so Emily and I each wore one. I wanted to make sure to remind the Astros that it wasn't that long ago that the Phillies were good, too."
Grady said that he and Emily received a pretty warm welcome at Minute Maid Park. The Astros fans, he explained, are a little different than fans in Philadelphia.
"There's a little bit of Southern hospitality there," he said. "They're not as brutal as Phillies fans."
But that doesn't mean they don't care about their team.
"They do have a good amount of passion," Grady said. "The fans actually do pay attention and have a lot of knowledge about what's going on. They're not just there to hang out."
That was evident by the noise level inside the stadium, Grady said. The first few innings of game one were rough as the Phillies fell behind by five runs.
"I had been to like five games there before, and I'd never heard it that loud," he said. "It was a packed house, and the stakes are high. It was kind of painful for our eardrums."
Standing out in the crowd
Grady and Emily didn't have many friendly faces to turn to, with next to no fellow Phillies fans sitting anywhere near them.
"When good things happened for the Phillies it was pretty much just our own voices we were hearing," Grady said, adding that the sole other fan in Phillies garb in their section was a woman who turned out to have been born in Reading Hospital.
Through the early struggles — which included a pair of Astros homeruns that electrified the home crowd — Grady stood stoically with his arms crossed. He said he refused to get too down, knowing how this iteration of the Phillies often makes dramatic comebacks.
And then, the tide began to shift.
The Phillies cut into the lead. Then, an inning later they tied it.
"I celebrated loudly for all the good things that happened because I didn't know if that was going to be the only good thing to happen," Grady said.
As Grady and Emily grew more and more energized, the Astros fans grew more and more quiet. But they didn't seem to give up hope.
"They didn't seem panicked," Grady said. "They still had confidence in their team."
Grady, Emily, and the smattering of other Phillies fans would ultimately see their team prevail, thanks to Realmuto's clutch performance.
"We got the last laugh," Grady said. "It was really the perfect World Series game to go to, we really lucked out."
Grady added that getting to watch the Phillies win — after getting married and enjoying a honeymoon — capped off a pretty amazing October for him.
"I'm cherishing this month," he said.
Grady said he hopes his good run continues into November. He has tickets to see the Philadelphia Eagles when they come to Houston on Thursday to face off against the Texans.
For that game, he said, he plans to wear an Eagles jersey and a Phillies hat. And, much like he did during game one of the World Series, he's going to cheer his heart out for the visiting team.
"I know I have to hold up the reputation of being a tough Philly sports fan, so I'm doing that," he said. "I'm not going to be disrespectful, though."
Three decades cheering from afar
Joe Williams knows what it's been like for Grady to cheer for his beloved Phillies from far away.
He's been doing it for three decades.
Joe grew up a devout Phils fan in Aston Township, Delaware County. He moved to Houston about 30 years ago to pursue a job in the energy industry, like many others who have moved to the city.
He and some friends bought season tickets for the Astros, first at the Astrodome and later in the stadium now known as Minute Maid Park.
"We were there for some of their best years," Joe said, admitting that he developed an affinity for the Astros. "But it got to be too much of a hassle to go to every game, so I gave up the tickets."
But he didn't give up his love of baseball. He also, despite enjoying watching the Astros, didn't give up on the Phillies.
"I certainly would rather see them beat the Astros than the other way around," he said.
Joe said that technology has made it pretty easy to follow the Phillies despite living 1,500 miles away. And, the sports fans down in Houston are fairly welcoming to fans of other baseball teams.
"It's easy, I'm always walking around the neighborhood wearing a Phillies hat or shirt," he said. "People might kid you about it a bit, but they're nice about it."
Joe said Astros fans are simply wired differently than Phillies fans.
"It's a little more low-key than in Philly," he said with a laugh. "You don't see people climbing light poles or running into the street and taking the streets over."
Still, Joe said, Astros fans make their allegiance known. He said he sees tons of people proudly sporting the team's gear.
Joe said that if the series returns to Houston for a game six he plans to try to get a ticket. If he finds one, he'll certainly be wearing his Phillies gear — maybe even his Phillies Hawaiian shirt, which is always a crowd-pleaser.
And if the Phillies pull off the upset and win the World Series, he said he'll be "very happy" about it. How will the Astros fans feel in that situation?
"I think people will be disappointed," he said. "But it won't be like the end of the world for them. If a Philly team loses when it's expected to win it's like the end of the world. I think we take it more seriously."
