The Phillie Phanatic has garnered a reputation for being one of the biggest jerks in all of sports, at least among the world of mascots. This isn’t a dig — the Phanatic’s job is to get Phillies fans fired up during games and is really, really good at doing it at the expense of the opposing team.
The latest example of this came on Saturday when the New York Yankees traveled down to the City of Brotherly Love. At one point, the Phanatic placed a Yankees helmet on the ground while Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” played and proceeded to smash it to a bunch of little pieces.
At this point, the camera cut to Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who had a look on his face that made it seem like he was prepared to go fight a mascot.
Giancarlo Stanton is NOT happy about the Phanatic's antics 🤣 pic.twitter.com/x3qmkhbuK7
— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) June 12, 2021
Now, as a Yankees fan and a former intern in the Phillies minor league system who had to follow the Phanatic around for a game, I am uniquely positioned to find a middle ground here. Giancarlo, please don’t fight the mascot. Phanatic, please do not destroy a Yankees helmet, in large part because having to clean that up is probably a pain in the neck. Now please, hug it out, fellas.