As much theater as baseball

Went to the game today, my first game this year not wearing a coat. I didn't sit in my usual seats this time. I was up by the foul pole in right field in the second row of the second deck. In the first row was a fellow who came in a few minutes after my friend and me. He unfurled a banner with the 4 recent championship flags attached to a curtain rod, suspended it over the front of the deck, and tied it to the railing with string.

This all seemed completely routine until the fifth inning, when one of the strings broke, causing one end of the banner to swing down. Somebody somewhere must have seen this because while the guy was retying it, a security guard shows up and tells him to take the banner down. They guy explains what happened and that he was a season ticket holder and had been hanging that banner every day for 3 years. The security guard said "they" said he couldn't have the banner up. The guy says something to the effect that it was f---ing ridiculous and that he always had the banner up but he would take it down now and bring it again to the next game. He never raised his voice, sounded annoyed but was never abusive and when the guy told him to stop cursing he did.

Then the guard, Matt, I think was his name, said that the guy was being ejected from the stadium for cursing at him. I'm amazed the guy didn't just explode then. He had done absolutely nothing to warrant getting ejected. He used a curse word once but he directly didn't curse the guy out and he stopped when asked. It was a power tripping security guy. As they left I calmly and quietly told the security guard that he was out of line and that ejecting the guy was uncalled for and that I didn't appreciate his standing right in front of me and making me miss 5 minutes of a close game. He looked at me and I could tell he was trying to decide between 3 options: (1) Ignore me, (2) eject me as well, and (3) taser me. Fortunately for everyone he chose option 1 and led the guy out.

For me, anyway, this reflects very badly on the Phillies. It's one thing to hire big strong guys to be security guards. To hire big strong guys with authority issues is another thing altogether. I came away thinking they need to hire less insecure security guys. I would have said that to Matt too, but I really didn't want to be tased. But I am going to write a letter to the Phillies.