NY reporter with death wish travels to Philly and taunts Phillies fans

You can say one thing about New York Daily News writer Kevin Deutsch: he’s brave. Oh yeah, he’s also completely insane with little or no regard for his physical well being.
I have no idea what possessed him to do it (maybe he has a secret desire to get vomited on?), but Deutsch thought it would be an interesting sociological experiment to travel to Philadelphia, dress up in Mets gear and talk smack to Phillies fans by taunting them with the fact that the Mets are currently in first place in the NL East and hold a game-and-a-half lead over their beloved team.
Yeah, things got a little hairy.

Deutsch’s experiment occurred during yesterday’s game between the Mets and the Phillies. Another thing not working in the New Yorker’s favor, as far as his health and safety were concerned: the Mets pounded the Phillies 9-1, so the residents of the City of Brotherly Love were likely even surlier than their customary level of cantankerousness.
But before attending the game, Deutsch upped the ante and engaged in a little gloating near the Rocky statue, a monument near and dear to many Philadelphians.
From Deutsch’s account of the day’s events in the Daily News:

That’s where I did a first-place victory jig in my Mets jersey and cap before the first pitch.

“No Mets fans allowed near Rocky,” said Steve Pace, 47, of South Philly, who refused to acknowledge the Mets were in first place. “Impossible. Just go home.”

When I started a chant of “Phillies suck” just feet from the famous LOVE sculpture, I got anything but love from the Phillies faithful. The locals surrounding me looked like they might choke on their cheese steaks.

Upon arrival at Citizens Bank Park, Deutsch began yelling “LET’S GO METS!” and “FIRST PLACE METS!” at the top of his lungs. Not surprisingly, Deutsch’s taunts were met with some resistance.

At the ballpark, fans only got meaner. They screamed. They cursed. They called my mother’s reputation into question. “Go back to New York before we send you back in a trunk,” shouted Leon Fratelli, 29, a Phillies diehard who grimaced at the sight of my orange and blue get-up. “You can get hurt here doin’ a Mets chant.”

So, true to my Mets roots, I chanted even louder.

“These New Yorkers never shut up!” Fratelli whined. When a Phillies security guard wearing a Phillies World Series Ring took a half swing at me mid-Mets chant, I knew this was truly hostile territory.

“I’m not protecting you as long as you have that jersey on,” he said. Once I took my seat, Phils fans seemed to lose their mojo as the Mets piled on run after run.

Yikes. He is lucky he got out of there alive. His dance with death (or at least extreme bodily harm) reminds me of that scene in Fight Club when Tyler Durden tells that clerk he’s going to die, only to let him go and as the poor guy is running away, says “Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you and I have ever tasted.”
That’s how Kevin Deutsch should be feeling today.
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News reporter taunts Phillies fans with Mets win [New York Daily News]
They teach them young in Philly [Hardball Talk]
It’s always classy in Philadelphia [Out of Bounds]