A Phillies tale with fans: “That Bum Nixon,” Labor Day, 2003
By Rick Soisson
His fellows considered this enormously amusing
To my left, Dr. Stone said, “We should watch this guy.” To my right, The Big Guy just shook his head. The Big Guy was a quiet guy.
In any event, despite Nixon’s mid-game success – a double and a single, both to right, driving in two – the guy in front of us continued his abuse. No matter what he did, Trot Nixon was “A BUM!” This fan was convinced of that.
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Beer does that. All the guys two seats ahead were beginning to sway dangerously on their multiple trips to the concession stand and men’s room. At one point, the Nixon critic seemed ready to pitch hip-first into the row ahead of his when he stood up. One of his buddies grabbed him.
The Big Guy spoke: “Good job.”
Meanwhile, a lull in scoring for a couple of innings left the Phillies ahead, 9-7, entering the ninth inning.
Since this game involved neither the Phillies of the 1980 nor 2007-11, the Red Sox naturally scored twice in that inning. The game was tied. Two rows down, the boys all gulped on the second drinks from their last beer run, two innings earlier.
Then, the Red Sox loaded the bases. Our pals below us were beside themselves. And angry.
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And Trot Nixon was coming to bat.
“Nixon, you’re a BUM!!!” screamed the game-long critic. His pals took up the insult.
“A BUM!”
“[Expletive] BUM!”
“You’re. A. BUM!!!!!”
Nixon proceeded to embed a pitch in the concrete face of the second deck, above and well behind several rows in the lower right-field seats. A grand slam.
Dr. Stone turned to me and said, “He probably meant Richard Nixon.”
Next. The Alex Gordon question. dark
Thus, World Series champion Trot Nixon has been, for quite a while now, “that bum Nixon” in my circle.