in yankee territory, phillies fans hold strong

Phillies fan Sonny Forriest, Jr. performs a pro-Phillies anthem outside Yankee Stadium in the Bronx Wednesday night.

In 1950, Victor Maggitti was a senior with perfect attendance at his West Philadelphia high school. Every Sunday, he went to the city’s Shibe Park to catch a ball game. When the Philadelphia Phillies made it to the World Series that year, Maggitti, a diehard Phillies fan, sent for tickets.

“To get to the World Series, believe it or not, all you had to do was write to the newspaper,” he said. But when the tickets arrived, his mom wouldn’t let him skip school for the game.

“Now, 60 years later, I’m going to every game to make up for it,” the Philadelphia resident said outside Yankee Stadium Wednesday night. Maggiti and his fiancée, a Manhattan-based New York Yankees fan, were there to watch Game One of the Major League Baseball World Series—the first since 1950 to bring the Yankees and the Phillies head-to-head.

“We got tickets for the first two games here and I have a suite at the Phillies,” Maggitti said, adding he also saw his team play in 2008 against the Tampa Bay Rays. “When they come to Philadelphia we’re going to wipe them out. Philadelphia fans are more loud—and we are rough.”

But in the Bronx before Wednesday’s game, most Phillies fans—their red gear splattered in a sea of blue pinstripes—were confident in Yankee territory. And after nine innings, the Phillies took the Yankees 6-1.

Dan Chervanick, who lives in New York but grew up in Philadelphia, called the Yankees-Phillies relationship “playful.”

“Nothing bad,” he said of Yankees fans before the game. “They were telling us to get off at the wrong subway stop.”

Dave Schwind, who traveled to New York from Philadelphia, got a ticket from a Yankees-loving friend.

“We hate each other to begin with, so this is just adding to it,” he joked. “I have to be kind of nice because he got the tickets.”

And Julie Develin, who grew up cheering for the Phillies in Pennsylvania, went to the game with her best friend, another Yankees supporter.

“The Yankee fans have been nice to me so far,” said Develin, who also has tickets for Saturday’s game in Philadelphia. “I was booed on the subway and that’s it.”

But she said she made sure to avoid the rain-soaked Yankees pep rally hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in Times Square Wednesday afternoon.

Phillies fans also steered clear of CupcakeStop, a roaming cupcake vendor parked at 47th Street and Third Avenue on Wednesday. As he handed out “A. Rod” cupcakes, Rob Fessenden said the truck sold 300 New York Yankees cupcakes by 1 p.m.

“The Yankee ones are going real fast today,” Fessenden said, adding no Phillies fans requested cupcakes.

But Phillies support was cooking a few blocks away, where Evan Stein prepared some Philadelphia-inspired treats at Shorty’s, his 42nd Street bar. Beginning at 4 p.m., Shorty’s staff served between 500 and 750 free Philly cheesesteaks as part of a promotion sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp.

“You just can’t duplicate Philly bread,” Stein said, adding the Zagat Survey, which rates New York restaurants, recently called the bar’s cheesesteaks the city’s best.

Shorty’s Manager Dan Sullivan, a staunch Yankees fan, admitted his love for cheesesteaks. Still, he didn’t plan to hide his Yankee pride.

“I will definitely be extra boisterous if the Yankees win,” said Sullivan, who was clad in Yankees pinstripes. “I have an easy exit.”

Back at Yankee Stadium, Phillies fan Sonny Forriest, Jr. prepared to listen to the game from outside as the pre-game ceremonies began. Although Forriest came to New York sporting a white Phillies jacket and a red ball cap, he and his friends didn’t have tickets.

“They say if you buy one from a scalper, you get locked up,” said Forriest, a handicapped veteran. “We’re just going to sit around and listen like everybody else.”

While ticket-holders trickled inside the stadium and those without gathered outside in Babe Ruth Plaza, Forriest pulled out a microphone and performed a pro-Phillies anthem.

“Love is just like a baseball game—three strikes you’re out,” he crooned as a pair of Yankees fans nearby shook their heads. “We’re gonna win the World Series.”