Has Philadelphia Gotten Soft? Anthony Gargano Discusses With Ken Rosenthal

Recently, Ken Rosenthal made some waves in Philadelphia. After Phillies fans gave Trea Turner a rousing ovation, despite his struggles, there have been some accusations we as a fanbase have gotten softer. Would a player getting paid what Turner does have gotten that kind of ovation while struggling as much as he was a decade or more ago? Probably not. So it is fair to say we have changed a bit. But Ken Rosenthal wrote a piece saying Philadelphia has gotten softer.  Here is an excerpt from his piece

A lot of locals did not take it too well. It should be said, he did not mean it as a insult. He was saying that Philly has evolved and become gentler, for the better. But we don't necessarily take well to being called soft, even if it is meant as a compliment. And many fans also took issue with some stories he shared about what he claims Philly used to be like.

So Anthony Gargano invited Ken onto his show, to discuss the piece. Has Philly evolved? We know it is not the Philly Ken Rosenthal remembers, but does Anthony Gargano agree with him? Is soft the right word to use? Anthony and Ken discussed the piece, the state of Philadelphia fandom, the ovation we gave Trea Turner and more. But they also got into this Phillies team in general, and the run they have been on recently to get to the top Wild Card spot.

Trea Turner is thanking Philadelphia in a big way. New billboards have popped up in the Philadelphia area that features a photo of shortstop Trea Turner with the text "Thank you, Philly."

This gesture is not small, nor is it meaningless. The billboard seen above popped up on a digital billboard at the base of the Walt Whitman Bridge, just a short distance from Citizens Bank Park.

Trea Turner, in case you didn't know, plays shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies. On December 8, 2022, Turner signed an 11-year contract worth $300 million with the Phillies. Prior to that, Turner played for the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers. His notable achievements from his time with those teams include Rookie of the Year Runner-Up, World Series Champion, and NL Stolen Bases Leader.

When Turner was signed to the Phillies, fans had hope that he was the secret sauce that would get us to the World Series again (and possibly win this time). After all, Trea had proven himself invaluable to the MLB and any team he found himself on.

At the beginning of the season, Trea represented the USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He hit a game-winning grand slam during a quarterfinal game against Venezuela.

But, when the regular season began, Trea didn't seem himself. And this wasn't just a few off-games. No. We, as a city, had to make a decision on how we would treat Trea, who was obviously struggling each and every game.

Turner is currently batting.238/.291/.377 with 11 homers and 39 RBI in 109 games. It's the lowest batting average of his career since 2015 when he was first called up by the Washington Nationals for 27 games. Not only that, but he has been struggling defensively as well. As you can see in the video above, that ball should have been in Trea's glove. Instead, he missed it entirely. And that was not the first time something like that happened this season.

When you sign a guy on a multi-million-dollar, multi-year contract, you want him to do well. You want him to win games. Unfortunately, Trea was not doing that. Trea has had an absolute nightmare of a season, and it was getting hard to sympathize.

This is just, straight-up, a hard watch. You don't ever want to see a person at their lowest like this. Phillies fans saw this and immediately felt that they needed to send some good energy to Trea. Him taking accountability in the way he did was admirable, but also so very sad. After this game, Trea even got moved down in the batting lineup. It was not looking good.

Fans really felt for the guy. They stood as Trea stepped up to bat in the bottom of the 2nd inning, cheering riotously for him. The Phillies went on to lose the game, but it was a win for Turner's morale (and ours, too).

It may have been because of fans sending good vibes. It may have been because Trea Turner was mad at himself and determined to do something about it. Whatever it was, it made magic. In game 2 against the Kansas City Royals Trea hit an absolute moonshot to deep left field, answering the call. The three-run home run helped push them over the edge for the win.

Trea Turner has had a really rough start in Philly. Instead of jeering and turning our backs on the struggling shortstop, we attempted to lift him up. In many ways, it worked. Trea went on to approve messaging that would pop up on billboards in the Philadelphia area, thanking fans for their support.

Philadelphia is known as a largely negative sports city. It seems we've turned over a new leaf, though. Maybe it's because our teams are pretty good right now. Maybe it's something in the water. Whatever it is, it's great that we've learned that positivity wins over anything else. Giving Trea a standing ovation was no small gesture. It gave him the drive to perform for us. He saw what we did for him and how it affected his game in a positive way. There's something to learn here about the power of positivity. If we extend grace to our fellow Philadelphians, things work out in our favor. Something to think about.