Fans To Celebrate Game 3 Of World Series By… Booing Jimmy Rollins?!

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ray “Romano” Ratto has a strong prediction for what will happen when the World Series heads back to Philadelphia: The fans will boo Jimmy Rollins like crazy! Wait, what?

Jimmy Rollins will hear from his good friends in Philadelphia on Saturday. Bank on it.

Ha, ha, bank on it! Get it? It’s a joke that’s just like the one Ellen made! You guys are even less funny than me after 8,000 posts.

Oh, there will be love in with the loathing; in Philly, there’s always a little of the corrective therapy about their booing. Sometimes very little. And it isn’t always about assessing complete blame, either. Sometimes, the portions are just a little uneven.

But Rollins, the starting shortstop who was born in Oakland and did his internship in Alameda, returns to Philly today carrying a grisly 0-for-10 into Game 3 of the World Series, tied at one game apiece after Tampa Bay’s 4-2 victory Thursday night.

Yes, yes, Jimmy Rollins sucks right now. But it’s Game 3 of the first World Series game in Philadelphia since the Great Flood. Unless he made three Rafael Furcal-like errors in each inning of Games 1 and 2, he won’t be booed. Maybe if he’s 0-for-3 and the Phillies are getting killed, but, eh, even then: It’s Game 3 of the World Series.

Eh, whatever. At least this column got off track after the first few graphs and didn’t mention throwing snowballs at Santa Claus. A first in sports column history!

City of Brotherly Love sure to let Rollins have it [SF Chronicle]

Welcome To South Philly, Billy

Well, well, well.

This week brings the Mets to Citizens Bank Park for the first time this year. The Phillies have swept three straight series, have won eight straight games, while the Mets are four games ahead of the Fightins in the NL East.

And the Mets have Billy Wagner as their closer. Wagner, you may remember, was the closer for the Phillies the past two seasons. He was also a wildly popular closer, as fans cheered him like crazy when he got out onto the field and everyone wanted to see him do well.

Oh, wait, maybe not!

“It started the very first time I was there,” he said with a grin. “Stepped on the mound, hadn’t thrown a pitch, hadn’t given anyone any reason to not like me. Right out of the gate. ‘We wish we had [Jose] Mesa.’

“I was like, ‘Whew, I’m going to be a hit in this town.’”

No. No no no. There’s no way that happened. Nobody in Philadelphia likes Jose Mesa. Come on, Billy, if you want to act like you weren’t a fan favorite, you’re going to have to come up with something more realistic than that.

By the way: Boo.

Wagner: I was never a fan fave [Daily News]