GQ Ranks Philly Fans The Worst but GQ Wins For Worst Reporting

Ho Hum. Old news.

But the least GQ writer Adam Winer could do is get the reporting right.

From the story:

Over the years, Philadelphia fans have booed Santa Claus, their own star players, and most absurdly, the recipient of America's very first hand transplant, whose crime was dribbling in a ceremonial first pitch—thrown with his freshly transplanted hand. Boooo!

But New Jersey's Matt Scott didn't throw a dribbler and wasn't he booed.

Here's the Sports Illustrated story about Matt's toss. No mention of the "dribbling" or booing. And here's a video of the event which occurred in 1999. (Go to the 56 second mark!)



See any dribbling? Hear any booing?

When it comes to reporting at America's top Metrosexual Men's Magazines, GQ ranks far down the list.

UPDATE: The only place I could find a mention of Scott allegedly dribbling his pitch and being booed for it was on a 2005 Cincinnati Bengals message board. (You gotta scroll down.)

A guy name "David" wrote:

•In 1999, fans jeered Dallas Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin as he lay on the field for 20 minutes, suffering from a neck injury that ended his career.
•That same year, fans threw D batteries at St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew, who held out for a year after the Phillies drafted him and eventually signed with the Cards instead.
•Matthew Scott, the only person in the United States to have received a hand transplant, was asked by the Phillies to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the team's home opener in 1999. The pitch, from his transplanted hand, dribbled over the plate. The fans booed.
•Eagles fans famously blasted Santa Claus with a shower of snowballs at halftime of a game as St. Nick circled helplessly around the field before stadium officials rescued him. Snowballs with batteries

Is it possible Winer lifted a lot of his information about how terrible Philly fans are from this particular post?

I'll email him and see if he responds.

UPDATE II: I couldn't find an email address for Winer. But I just sent this note to GQ's publicity department.

To Whom It May Concern:

I enjoyed Adam Winer's piece on America's worst fans. But being from the Philadelphia area I am quite curious. Where did Mr. Winer get his information about the hand-transplant recipient being booed for dribbling his honorary first pitch at a Phillies game?

Contemporaneous accounts (and a video of the event) conflict with Mr. Winer's reporting.

I am local newspaper columnist and would appreciate any information you can provide that would clear up the disparity.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Thanks and Cheers,

Gil Spencer
Columnist
Daily Times

p.s. I did quite like Mr. Winer's assessment of Duke fans.

Maybe Scott flubbed a first pitch attempt that wasn't captured on video or otherwise reported and Winer has a scoop. We'll see.

UPDATE III: No word from GQ or Mr. Winer but the A.V. Club Philadelphia blog has a good post today about this. (Out of vanity I checked the time of their post. Spencerblog beat it by 5.5 hours. Booyah!)