The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even mom chimes in with boos, then fans rally behind Turner.
The low point of Trea Turner’s first season with the Phillies came Aug. 2, when the shortstop went 0-for-5 and couldn’t handle a sharp ground ball that would have been the final out in an eventual 9-8 loss to the Marlins.
“Obviously, I’m the reason why we lost that game,” a dejected Turner told reporters in the visitors’ clubhouse at LoanDepot Park in Miami. “Just frustrated.”
That night, and the struggles that marked Turner’s first four months with his new team, were distant memories when the Phillies won their first-round series against the Marlins, advancing to face the Braves in the National League Division Series. And Turner, who signed an 11-year, $300 million contract with the defending National League champions in December, continued a remarkable turnaround sparked by a standing ovation from the Phillies’ encouraging, supportive and understanding fan base. No, really.
Turner slumped mightily and was booed at home, including by his own mom, during the first half of the season. The morning after Turner took the blame for his team’s loss at Miami, and with his batting average down to .237, Jack Fritz, a radio producer for Philadelphia’s 94WIP, suggested a different approach when the Phillies returned to Citizens Bank Park to start a 10-game homestand the next day.
“Postgame interview was a tough watch, he’s in the cages until midnight,” Fritz posted on X, previously known as Twitter. “A standing O on Friday would go a long way IMO.”
Fritz mentioned the idea on air that afternoon, and expounded on it the next morning.
“Of course, people are going to ridicule it, ‘Oh, what’s that gonna do?’” Fritz said in a video posted on X. “Let me just say this: It can’t hurt, and what if it does work? . . . It’s a good moment for the ballpark, a good moment for the city. You see the crowd rise up, and it turns into a little bit of a moment. And even if Trea doesn’t start going off or whatever, think about also what it does for the rest of the team? They know that we got their back. Sometimes tough love is necessary. Sometimes brotherly love is necessary. Time for that for Trea. Stand with Trea.”
Fritz’s proposal was perfect sports talk radio fodder; a potential standing ovation for Turner was a hot topic on the station throughout the day, and opinions varied.
“I just don’t see a negative side to this,” said former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese, who co-hosts the afternoon drive “Marks and Reese Show” with Jon Marks. “I really don’t.”
The next caller — “Tom in
northeast Philly” — disagreed.
“I am completely shocked by this, fellas,” he said. “Listen, we’ve totally gotten soft since (the Eagles) won Super Bowl LII. This is ridiculous. Let’s cheer this guy tonight and give him a standing ovation? He’s played like crap the entire season. I’m going Sunday. If he plays like crap tonight and plays like crap tomorrow, I’m booing his (expletive) the whole game. This is absolutely ridiculous.” Brotherly love won out. When Turner stepped to the plate for his first at-bat in the second inning of the Phillies’ game against the Royals that night, he received a lengthy standing ovation. Turner went 1-for-4 in the Phillies’ 7-5 loss,
the start of a 10-game hitting streak that raised his average to .252. Afterward, he said the support reduced his mom to tears.
The next night, Turner hit a go-ahead three-run home run in a 9-6 Phillies win. He and the team expressed their gratitude for the reception with “Thank you, Philly” messages on 12 digital billboards in the greater Philadelphia area.
“When it happened, it was just kind of this surreal moment, I don’t think just for me, but for the entire club, because this team is a high character group and they care about each other, and they care about winning,” Phillies Manager Rob Thomson told 94WIP a week later. “When they see one of their
teammates struggling or getting booed, they wear it. When that ovation happened, I think it just gave everybody, including Trea obviously, energy, and made everybody feel great. And he’s responded.”
Turner was hitting .235 with 10 home runs, 34 RBI and 21 stolen bases in 107 games through Aug. 3. In 48 regular-season games after the standing ovation, he hit .337 with 16 home runs, 42 RBI and nine steals, to go along with a 1.037 on-baseplus slugging percentage, helping the Phillies secure the NL’s top wild card. After Philadelphia clinched a postseason berth, Turner called into WIP94.
“I owe you guys a thank you; I’ve heard that you guys were responsible, so I want to say thank you for you guys,” he said. “... I started playing a lot better, and it was thanks to you guys and the crowd.”
“If it did anything, I think it just took the pressure off,” Fritz told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Obviously, it didn’t have him start hitting. But I think it eased his tension, which was the whole message behind it.”
The 29-year-old Fritz added that Philadelphia sports fans, whose Santa Claus-booing, battery-throwing reputation precedes them, have “become more of an understanding fan base” in recent years, and he may be onto something.
Last April, fans at Citizens Bank Park erupted in sarcastic cheers after Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm, who had
already committed two errors, made a routine play in the second inning. Cameras showed Bohm telling teammate Didi Gregorius “I (expletive) hate this place.” After the game, Bohm said his emotions got the best of him, and apologized to the fans. Rather than boos, Bohm received a standing ovation when he entered the game as a pinch hitter the following night.
“I’d love to see Phillies fans respond to Turner tomorrow night at CBP the way they did after Bohm said ‘I (expletive) hate this place’ last year,” former sportswriter Mitch Rupert posted on X the morning after Turner’s miserable night in Miami. “Pick the guy up, who knows how it might help.”
With Turner at the plate during last week’s wild-card series, ESPN analyst David Cone gave Fritz his flowers for leading the effort to lift up the former Nationals star, who won a World Series with Washington in 2019.
“Whoever that radio producer was who came up with that idea to cheer this guy when he was struggling, he gets a ring,” Cone said. “Or something.”
Play-by-plan man Karl Ravech mentioned Fritz by name, and called the standing ovation a brilliant move. There’s no question it worked.
“That was a weird one, didn’t see that one coming,” Fritz said of the shout out after the game on his High Hopes podcast. “... It’s a weird one, but the Phils won, that’s all that matters.”