January 28, 2009

Best Fan Day Ever: When Philly fan Lionel Rodia suffered some bad fortune, he decided to push what luck he had left.

posted by Mr Bismarck to baseball at 11:41 PM - 19 comments

Holy shit, that's awesome! :) Great story, thanks for the link.

posted by hincandenza at 11:54 PM on January 28, 2009

Yep, great story, Mr. Bis! Every fan's dream.

posted by BoKnows at 11:59 PM on January 28, 2009

There was this time when I ran onto the field when Manchester United were playing. But all I got was Stewart Houston telling me to fuck off.

posted by owlhouse at 12:47 AM on January 29, 2009

The best part of this story is that he has proof of it on tape!

posted by dviking at 01:14 AM on January 29, 2009

They must have the worst security in the world!

posted by Jackjeckyl at 03:24 AM on January 29, 2009

Cool story, and I would have loved for it to have happened to me. But I agree with the above comment: Horrible security! We are duped into believing how tight security is at these events and this average shmuck can get anywhere in the stadium, on the field, in the clubhouse. But at least stadium security probably kept a few cans of beer out of the stadium.

posted by dyams at 06:32 AM on January 29, 2009

Crazy amazing. Cramazing.

Of course, it helps that it looks like a fairly generic middle-aged white male. So all the players and clubhouse staff would probably assume he's from the front office, and vice versa.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 09:03 AM on January 29, 2009

Incredible story. Next season he should try to get an at-bat.

posted by rcade at 09:33 AM on January 29, 2009

Absolutely amazing, but who were those guys in the locker room with Lionel?

Thanks for the link, Mr. B.

posted by Howard_T at 01:09 PM on January 29, 2009

Heh- subtle reference Howard_T, but I love that joke!

posted by hincandenza at 01:40 PM on January 29, 2009

Fantastic story. Thanks for the post Mr. B.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 02:14 PM on January 29, 2009

So all the players and clubhouse staff would probably assume he's from the front office, and vice versa.

The front office staff would assume he's a player?

I thought Metafilter didn't want the sports stuff.

posted by BoKnows at 03:32 PM on January 29, 2009

Its funny, I saw this on Metafilter and came over here to see if it was posted here also. I knew that fellow sports fans would see this guy as a colorful, fun figure who'd done something we all sort of wish we could have done. Over at metafilter, the first response was something like "he's a jackass." Metafilter Philistines! My only complaint about this story (and I wrote this at Metafilter) is that stories like this make it harder for guys like Lionel to do the sorts of things we want to see them doing. I would love to see him at a Flyers celebration, for example, but security is going to be looking for him now. Here's hoping that, when security does see him, they decide he's good luck and let him through anyways.

BoKnows: there's still time for them to delete it.

posted by Joey Michaels at 03:37 PM on January 29, 2009

I thought Metafilter didn't want the sports stuff. That use to be true, but that's slowly changed. Metafilter's decided to be the catch-all for anything much more than in the past. They've gone from niche to 'let's see how big we can get' (not that there's anything wrong with that). Posts left today would have been deleted much more quickly in the past. But you still have the old guard that thinks Metafilter is for the geeks that got beat up by jocks in high school, so there's always a little resistance.

posted by justgary at 04:21 PM on January 29, 2009

Indeed, most of the responses to this story at Metafilter smack of "hur hur sports fans are assholes."

Althought maybe I'm just being oversensitive. :D

posted by Joey Michaels at 06:10 PM on January 29, 2009

No, I totally agree, JM. They may as well start a new website for sports fans that can really appreciate what Lionel accomplished in Philly. Oh, wait.

posted by BoKnows at 06:16 PM on January 29, 2009

That's awesome, I love party crashers!
I've been some and had some and am all for it.
Thanks for the link

posted by bobfoot at 12:03 AM on January 30, 2009

... stories like this make it harder for guys like Lionel to do the sorts of things we want to see them doing.

I wonder if that's true. I was at the Magic-Cavs game last night in nice lower-level seats, and there's an incredible number of league and team execs and various hangers-on at a big sporting event who have access to move around.

posted by rcade at 09:36 AM on January 30, 2009

Good story. Due to my irrational dislike of Rick Reilly I wish someone else had written it. And Lionel, wherever you are, I'm jealous.

posted by apoch at 01:46 PM on January 30, 2009

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