By Zaki, PhillyGameday.com
According to published reports, Phillies fans should be flogged, drawn and quartered for their behavior at Wednesday’s World Series ring ceremony.
Players and coaches were showered with cheers as they came out to accept their prizes for a job well done, but as ex-Phillies pitcher Adam Eaton’s name was called, several thousand fans morphed back into “typical Philly fan” mode and booed the World Series hero, almost to suggest that he was somehow undeserving of the priceless, over-sized ring.
Eaton signed a three-year $24.51 million deal with the Phillies before the 2007 season and posted a 14-18 record and 6.10 ERA over two seasons for the eventual World Series Champions before being released two months ago. In his 19 starts with the Phillies during their 2008 World Series run, the team was 8-11 before Eaton was sent to the minors where he posted an 0-5 record with a 7.02 ERA in seven games.
UPDATE: Adam Eaton never appeared in the World Series as previously reported, or any postseason game for that matter. Our depiction of Eaton as a World Series hero was grossly inaccurate, so it might actually seem appropriate to boo someone that was paid tens of millions of dollars to entertain a crowd, fell unimaginably short of those expectations and was given a ring to commemorate a World Series win that he almost prevented from ever happening in the first place.
Oh yeah, the Phillies finally won their first game of the year 12-11 over the Braves on Wednesday.
Thanks for printing the update. While I don’t condone the PHils fans booing Eaton, I understand their frustration w/him last year. I wish they just would have stayed silent instead of booing. But, Phillies fans demand the best, and Eaton just didn’t pull his weight last year. I’m glad he got his ring, he was part of the champion team.
Thanks for the comment Karen.
It’s not so much that I’m condoning the booing…it’s just that I think he was far less classy than the worst of the Phillies fans for showing up to a ceremony he knew he had no business going to.
He was a physical member of the 2008 World Champion Phillies, but he stunk…and the team was 8-11 when he started, meaning he hurt the team more than he helped.
The Phils won DESPITE having him on the team…not BECAUSE he was on the team. In that sense, he doesn’t deserve the ring he received since they had to overcome his horrible performance to win it. He knew it he wasn’t deserving and yet he showed up anyway. At the very least, he could have just accepted it through the mail like Taguchi and Gordon.
I know why they booed him, but why did they boo Carlos Ruiz?
Why did they boo Carlos Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiz?
I haven’t the slightest cluuuuuuuuuue.
They weren’t booing him, they were chanting “Chooch”, his nickname! (That’s a problem with any nickname that has the “oo” sound in it.)
I think his question was tongue in cheek…I think…
As a Phillies fan I can say we don’t dislike Ruiz, everybody calls him by his nick name chooch, people used to think we bood Greg Luzinski because we used to call out “bulllllll” Now Adam Eaton on the other hand, I don’t agree with booing most of the time but in his case I give an exception. The bum made 21 million over 3 yrs was average on his rare best day. Last year he was sent to the minors to work things out but instead of doing that he went 0-5, he was left off the playoff roster but had the nerve to sit in the dug in uniformout and spray champaign around after every series win as if he contributed. I say he had nerve enen showing up for that ring let alone accepting it. The man lacks integrity and a sense of honor.
Amen to that, Bill.