Fans sign up to hate on Chase
Ashleigh Cul pepper, a 22-year-old Manhattanite transplanted from North Carolina, held aloft the sign that represented how so many felt about the Dodgers’ Chase Utley Monday at Citi Field for Game 3. “Chase Utley (Loves) Isis.” The sign, which actually used a “heart” drawing for loves, was confiscated by Citi Field security after she got inside Monday night. Culpepper was annoyed but gave a frank explanation.
“My guess is Isis doesn’t want to be associated with Chase Utley,” she said, calling him, “my least favorite player ever.”
Utley was withheld from the Dodgers starting lineup — for “baseball reasons” L.A. manager Don Mattingly said — but that didn’t stop the Mets faithful from displaying banners, wearing orange and generally expressing hate for Utley. There were signs: “Chase Ugly is Still Phillthy” “Retribution ,” complete with pictures of Ruben Tejada, the Mets’ shortstop whose leg was broken on Utley’s takeout slide in Game 2. Utley was suspended two games by MLB but is appealing the ban. So he was available to play Monday.
“I probably hate him at 10 on a scale of 10 — no, make it 11 out of 10,” said Phil Bornstein a season-ticket holder from Astoria, who attended the game with his son, Nick.
“I despise him more than anyone I’ve ever hated in 17 years of watching the game,” Nick said.
When the Dodgers reserves lined up for p re ga me introductions, the fans began to chant “Utley sucks.”
Then, as each Dodger was introduced and shown on the scoreboard, the crowd booed. But when it came toUtley, they REALLY booed, screamed, hooted and hollered. The scoreboard showed Utley for about 10 seconds — far longer than any other Dodger. Utley stared straight ahead, showing no emotion whatsoever. The crowd then broke into another chant of “Utley sucks.”
And in the fourth inning, the fans started a “We want Utley” chant.
Utley came out for batting practice when the park was basically empty and received little reaction from the crowd. What little there was, obviously, leaned toward the negative side, although a handful of Dodgers fans behind the L.A. dugout applauded.
But not everyone was totally anti-Utley.
“As a Mets fan, what he did was a hard-nose slide, a playoff slide, not the first time I’ve seen it,” said Dan McDowall, a youth baseball coach from Bloomfield, N.J. So you’re an Utley fan? “Oh, no I’ll boo him because he’s a Dodger and a Met killer from his Philly days,” McDowall said.
Carolyn Goodman of Mineola and T.J. Adams of Huntington Station, two high-school music teachers, came with faces painted blue and orange. “Still angry,” Adams said. “It was a cheap play,” said Goodman, a “huge” Mets fans who held the “Retribution” banner.