October 18, 2022
The Phillies' surprise run in the MLB playoffs continues Tuesday night at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres, another team that unexpectedly clawed its way to the doorstep of the World Series.
There may not be two more diametrically opposed fan bases than Philadelphia and San Diego. We all know Philly is notorious for its raucous intensity and deranged obsession, making sports a way of life here. But in San Diego? The city lost the NFL's Chargers to Los Angeles a few years ago, leaving its sports fans with only the Padres — a team that's never won a championship.
The video below may not be representative of Padres fans as a whole — and for their sake, I really hope not — but damn, this is so incredibly lame that we should be grateful for it. Naturally, it's gone viral on social media.
Phillies +100 🔒pic.twitter.com/W82Q4vM97C
— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) October 18, 2022
Was this rehearsed? And who is worse here, the guy leading the jingle or the five swaying "that's what's in!" henchmen?
Apparently, these guys appeared on "Good Morning San Diego" specifically to perform this, and the reporter with them said, "This has social media written all over it."
Reporter says “this has social media written all over it.”
— David Grzybowski (@DavidGrzyTV) October 18, 2022
Here’s the full video from Good Morning San Diego! 😂 pic.twitter.com/JfQvdOnUM3
Let's review the lyrics:
Philly goin' down, to yellow and brown — that's what's in!
Padres on the loose, let's go goose — that's what's in!
Bryce gonna lose, and Manny's gonna cruise — that's what's in!
Give Philly no slack, and send them back — that's what's in!
The goose reference, for those who may be unaware, is about an actual goose that invaded Dodger Stadium during the Padres' previous playoff series against the Dodgers. It's not about former Padres pitcher and Hall of Famer Goose Gossage.
Best seat in the house 🤣pic.twitter.com/nXD433GVxV
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) October 13, 2022
Granted, the goose on the field was a great moment for Padres fans to latch onto as part of the team's run. To sully it with this kind of display is unfortunate.
Then we have the reference to baseball's 2018-19 free agency sweepstakes for Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, who was infamously locked out of Citizens Bank Park during a recruitment visit before he signed with the Padres. It's pretty cool that these two teams can feel vindicated for splurging on the big ticket players that offseason. Harper won the National League MVP award last year and Machado is in the conversation this year. A National League Championship Series appearance, even after shaky regular seasons, makes signings like these look very smart.
Anyway, compare the lyrics of this Padres song to Jason Kelce's, "No one likes us, we don't care" jingle and the differences in style could not be more clear. That's a song people sing and quote to this day. Most Padres fans would probably find repeating the song above to be a painful experience.
The real question is, what are these Padres fans going for with the refrain, "That's what's in?" Is it supposed to be some kind of cool cat San Diego dialect, like jawn in Philly? Usually, something is said to be "in" when a trend reaches a critical mass and will soon become passé. Maybe in this context, it's meant to mean "That's the word on the street/about town."
Then you have other Padres fans using 2Pac's "California Love" to make a baseball jingle, which is only slightly less bad than the video above.
I regret to inform you that there is more Padres fan music pic.twitter.com/NnHCC65XHn
— John Foley (@2008Philz) October 18, 2022
These Padres fans seem like nice enough people. Their enthusiasm is a good thing. Sports are better when people care. This is far preferable to the vapid arrogance of Cowboys fans and the whininess of Mets fans. The Padres deserve as much credit for coming this far as the Phillies do. Let these fans be happy and gloat, if that's what they're trying to do here.
But man, the Phillies really cannot afford to lose to a team whose fans do stuff like this. It's not worse than that Eagles fan who ate horse poop, but give the guy a break. At least that team had just won it all, and everything was glowing. The Phils can go to the World Series and get swept into oblivion if need be — just please don't lose to the Padres, or this song will haunt Philadelphia.
