Atlanta Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia might have a challenger for what opposing players gets the most boos when they visit Citizens Bank Park in 2024.
Ben Verlander of FOX Sports recently asked Cincinnati Reds second baseman/DH Jonathan India what his least favorite stadium to play at is. The former NL Rookie of the Year picked Citizens Bank Park, and didn’t do so as a way to praise how difficult the environment is for opponents in Philadelphia.
“Least favorite is probably Philly,” India said. “I mean those fans, man, they get crazy. I mean, they’re tough. It’s always cold there too when we play there. But I think it’s more the fans that get to me than the stadium. The stadium is cool. But I don’t know, something about it, they’re just disrespectful to some of our players, and we’ve had problems there. But Philly is Philly, you know? You gotta play well there.”
Obviously, if anything that crossed the line was said in terms of being hateful or offensive, no one should condone that. But without India providing much in the way of specifics, we don’t know if this was run of the mill trash talk, or something truly problematic.
India has only been in the league for three seasons, and while the Reds appear to be legitimate playoff contenders in 2024, they are 227-259 since the start of the 2021 season. It’s not as though they have played in many, if any, games with playoff implications at Citizens Bank Park in recent years.
Cincinnati has a ton of young talent with India, Elly De La Cruz, Hunter Greene, Spencer Steer, Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, but their current roster isn’t exactly full of household names that would draw an especially negative response from Phillies fans.
Former NL MVP Joey Votto — now with the Toronto Blue Jays — was teammates with India for the past three seasons, and did play in the postseason against the Phillies in the 2010 NLDS. Could he have had a bad experience at Citizens Bank Park? Maybe, but Votto has always seemed to enjoy being a heel in his visits to Philadelphia, which he explained back in May of 2016, one of the many times he messed with Phillies fans by denying to give a souvenir to a fan.
“I have so much fun coming here because they are such an energized bunch and they get on you if you’re not doing your job,” Votto said. They get on you if you’re on the other team….if you give them hard time. So, it’s a really fun group here.”
Maybe it’s Reds manager David Bell — who played for the Phillies from 2003 to 2006 and wasn’t an especially popular player — who soured India on the crowds at Citizens Bank Park. Who knows.
The most likely scenario is that India was just making a generalization, rather than having a specific example of inappropriate conduct from Phillies fans towards Reds players. And there’s a good chance that when the Reds visit Citizens Bank Park from April 1-3, he’ll get a much worse reaction than he ever has previously.
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