Murder at the ballpark
David Sale was 22 years old. He was from the Philadelphia suburb of Lansdale. He was at Citizens Bank Park with some friends for a bachelor party on Saturday afternoon. As the Phillies finished off the St. Louis Cardinals, David was beaten to death in the parking lot by a group of strangers, including a 35-year-old man and a 45-year-old man.
There had been a confrontation in McFadden’s bar, which is attatched to the stadium. It spilled out into the parking lot.
The murder came on the same day that anonymous fans pointed lasers at Cardinals batters, causing a delay in the game. Nationally, and even locally, the two unrelated events are being linked as an example of negative Philadelphia fandom.
A fan was killed at an Angels game earlier this year, but Philadelphia, because of its reputation and because of characterizations based on preconceived notions by lazy journalists, is being ripped today for having the angriest fans in the country. As if a crime committed in the parking lot had anything to do with the Phillies game.
It was a murder over spilled beer. People here are horrified.
Philadelphia fans booed Santa Claus 40 years ago, and the Vet used to have a judge and a jail in the basement, so the fans here are viewed as the worst of the lot. I’m not saying Philly’s harsh reputation isn’t warranted, but I’ve been to Yankees games in the Bronx and Giants games in North Jersey, and I’ve been to Boston and Chicago. Those fans aren’t any nicer than Philadelphia fans. Those cities have the same sort of drunken, low-life trash that we have here — basement jail or not.
Let’s not generalize what happened in the stadium parking lot as representative of Philly fans, because it had nothing to do with sports. It represented a larger problem of violence, which exists in Philadelphia and other big cities, and it was a tragedy.
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