James Clark, a staff writer for the Press of Atlantic City, took in Freddy Adu's Union debut at PPL Park on Saturday night and like most passionate Philly sports fans he and his buddies showed their support for the club in the form of some witty criticism.
After Carlos Valdes' brain fart and subsequent Dallas goal to put them up 1-0, one of Clark's buddies cracked a line about how you'd expect to see that kind of goal against Union keeper Chris Seitz last season. Yep. Pretty much.
But that's when "a blonde,
twentysomething woman turn around from the seats directly in front
of us and defend former Union keeper Seitz ... now a back-up on FC
Dallas' roster ... with a passion."
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Ahh, you hate to see the fiancee of the guy you're ripping on sitting directly in front of you. Next to Brek Shea's ladyfriend to boot. I'm sure there were a few cracks about Shea's hair too. It's certainly much easier to make fun of than his game.
For as many sporting events as authors and readers of this site go to, I'm a bit surprised you don't hear about these sorts of encounters more often.
It's only happened to me once.
A handful of years ago, I found myself in a suite at Citizens Bank Park, along for the ride of a company sponsored outing of baseball and beers.
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The guy on the mound was Jon Lieber, who we were programmed to believe was the ace of the Phillies staff that year (at least he started opening day in 2005 and 2006). Lieber's lasting legacy as a Phillie may have been that giant frickin' truck he rode to spring training rather than anything he did on the hill.
Anyway, Lieber was having a rough go of it on that particular day at the bank, and I let out some standard criticism for those within earshot to hear. It wasn't anything particularly mean or offensive, perhaps something about the guy being overpaid and sucking on that day. Both pretty hard to argue with. I instantly felt some eyeballs in the suite to our left locking in on me in an uncomfortable fashion. I looked over and noticed a suite full of nice looking family people all wearing Jon Lieber jerseys.
Boy did I feel like a dick.
My urge to go snack on some soft pretzels and enjoy the view of the TV inside of the suite instantly skyrocketed.
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Have you ever ripped on an athlete ever to have Mrs. Iverson turn around in the seat in front of you to let you have it? There has to be more tales of this out there.
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>>As Adu made his Union debut on the field Saturday, there was even more drama in the stands [Press of AC]