Ah yes, 2 batteries were thrown at J.D. Drew. When the PA said to stop, it stopped. The reason why one or two fans were upset enough to throw them is simple. It was because he refused to sign with the Phillies because of "Principle" (he wanted too much money). He waited a year, and re-entered the draft to play for the Cardinals). Some Philly fans took this as he didn't want them either. The first game, he sat out with an injury (although the Philly Phanatic tried to lure him out with bags of money). The second game he decided to play, and first a battery was thrown, then a second. He wasn't exactly pelted by hundreds of batteries by everone in the stands.
BTW, here's the complete story of the snow balls at Santa.
First off, I want to say that it happened such a long time ago, that most people who bring it up probably don't even know when it happened.
In order to understand what happened that day, you have to know what happened before that. Eagles owner Jerry Wolman had signed coach Joe Kuharich (official name: dumbest coach in Notre Dame history) to a 15 year, $900,000 extension. Kuharich publicly siad "Now I know how Sutter felt when he discovered all that gold", before going on to a 23-34-1 record over the remaining seasons. Sutter traded their future hall of fame quarterback Sunny Jergensen for QB Snead. Jergensen went on to lead the decade in touchdowns. Snead led in interceptions.
This season, the Eagles record was 2-11. It was 0-11, but they won 2 games. Normally this would be a good thing, but all it did was prevent the Eagles from getting the #1 draft pick (and getting future Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson).
In the game, the Eagles were loosing by halftime. The stadium was filled with snow and mud. The halftime show involved a giant float for Santa to ride in. Unfortunately, it got stuck in the mud, so Santa would have to walk. This would have been bad, but it got worse. Santa didn't even show up!
Luckily, a 5'9, 170 pound man had worn a Santa suit in the hopes of catching the camera. He was described as having looked awful, and, if he wasn't drunk, definately looked like he was. As he walked onto the field, he was met with boos. Then a snowball was thrown near him. Then tens of snowballs, then hundreds. Understanding the Philadelphia frustration against the lousy Eagles ownership, he thought it was funny. Judging from the amount of snowballs that hit their target, some Eagles fans were probably more accurate throwers than Snead.
The Eagles lost, and very little people heard about it (One Philadelphia article mentioned it at the end as an afterthought). That was, until Howard Cossel had his program about highlights around the league. When he got to Philly, instead of showing anything about the game, decided to devote it entirely to the incident at halftime (along with some comments of his own about Philly fans).
Topic: E-A-G-L-E-S (Read 16458 times)