Respect: Jordan Walker had the perfect response to Phillies fans after beating Kyle Schwarber in the Home Run Derby
Jordan Walker walked into Citizens Bank Park on Monday night as the opponent standing between Kyle Schwarber and a Home Run Derby title at his own ballpark, which means the 24-year-old Cardinals outfielder spent the entire evening getting booed by 43,000 Philadelphians who wanted Schwarber to win the thing at home more than they wanted their next breath.
Jordan Walker won anyway and then stood at the podium afterward and said “my thought was Philly’s brutal, obviously, but I think it’s pretty special because they love their players and that’s what you want from your home crowd, honestly I’ve never heard people cheer so loud for Schwarber and Harper” which is the most mature and respectful response a visiting player has ever given about being booed in Philadelphia.
The kid understood in real time that the hostility wasn’t personal but rather the natural byproduct of a fanbase that cares about its guys so deeply that anyone standing between their players and a trophy is going to hear about it for as long as they’re holding a bat.
Jordan Walker on Phillies fans:
Shoutout Jordan Walker
Honestly, how could you respect a home crowd that doesn’t boo opposing players when two of your guys are competing in the same event? Am I going crazy here? If Schwarber and Harper are in the Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park and the crowd is politely clapping for the competition like it’s a golf tournament at Augusta, something is fundamentally broken about the fanbase.
The city would have lost whatever edge makes it the most feared road environment in professional sports. The boos are the point because the boos are how 43,000 people communicate to their players that the building is behind them and to the opposing player that he’s going to have to earn every single swing against the full weight of a stadium that wants him to fail.
Jordan Walker getting booed relentlessly during the Derby isn’t Philadelphia being classless, it’s Philadelphia being Philadelphia, and the fact that Walker recognized the difference between hostility and passion immediately rather than needing someone to explain it to him tells you the kid understands sports culture at a level that most 23-year-olds haven’t reached yet.
Phillies fans were booing EVERYONE not named Harper or Schwarber
Jordan Walker – Smooth
At least Jordan Walker gets it. I respect that.
Hopefully he also understood why the crowd was booing those kids in the outfield who couldn’t catch the baseball because that’s the other side of the Philadelphia coin that visiting players and national media never fully appreciate, which is that the standard applies to everyone inside the stadium regardless of age, affiliation, or amateur status.
You’re at Citizens Bank Park during the Home Run Derby and a ball comes to you and you drop it? You’re getting booed because the expectation is that if you’re going to stand in the outfield at the Phillies’ ballpark during the biggest event of All-Star week you better show up ready to catch the damn baseball or the crowd is going to let you know you failed in the most direct way possible.
That’s not cruelty, that’s accountability, and every single person in that stadium on Monday night understood the assignment whether they were a professional hitter at the plate or a teenager with a glove in the outfield.
Everyone gets it. Either show up, perform, and rep Philly or you’re going to get booed.
Walker Earned the Trophy and the Respect
I would have loved to see Schwarber win the Derby at home because the man leads the majors with 32 homers and watching him launch balls into the upper deck at Citizens Bank Park in front of the home crowd with the Derby title on the line would have been one of the signature moments of All-Star week.
Walker earned it by stepping into the most hostile environment a Derby participant has ever faced and performing under pressure that would have rattled most players into swinging out of their shoes and missing everything, and the fact that he came out the other side with the trophy and a genuine appreciation for why the crowd was booing him rather than resentment about it tells you the kid has ice in his veins and a maturity level that most 23-year-olds in professional sports haven’t developed yet.
Jordan Walker’s quote about how “people don’t boo nobodies” is the kind of line that every visiting player who comes to Philadelphia should internalize before stepping onto the field because the boos at Citizens Bank Park and the Linc aren’t about disrespecting the opponent. It’s the crowd expressing how badly they want their own guys to win, and the intensity of the boos is directly proportional to how much the fanbase cares about the outcome.
Walker getting booed relentlessly during the Derby is actually a compliment to his talent because the crowd wouldn’t have bothered booing a guy they didn’t view as a legitimate threat to beat Schwarber, and the fact that the boos got louder as Walker kept hitting homers tells you the crowd recognized he was the real deal and responded with the only weapon available to fans in the stands, which is volume.
Philadelphia is passionate. You don’t get the kind of atmosphere that made Jordan Walker say he’d “never heard people cheer so loud” for Schwarber and Harper without also getting the kind of hostility that makes visiting players feel like they’re competing against 43,000 additional opponents every time they step into the batter’s box.
Jordan Walker understood that distinction immediately and his willingness to acknowledge the passion behind the boos rather than complaining about them is the reason every Phillies fan I’ve seen online has been giving the kid credit and wishing him well even though he just beat Schwarber in the Derby at the Phillies’ own park.
Congratulations to Jordan Walker. The kid is a beast, he handled Philly with class, and he earned the trophy by performing when 43,000 people were actively rooting for him to fail. That takes a different kind of mentality and Jordan Walker clearly has it.
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