ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Understatement: Championship-starved Phillies fans overcame their anxieties and began to feel comfortable in Florida after the nail-biter win of World Series Game 1.
Fact: The never-demure Phanatics did everything but claim the deed to Tropicana Field. Wait. They did that, too.
"This is our house," shouted South Jersey native Rob Solomon to those outside the ballpark not wearing Phillies-red shirts to match his. "We are making this our home stadium this evening."
Years of trauma? The cynicism born of Mitch Williams' pitch and more than 10,000 other losses? Out the window, or at least lodged somewhere in the Tropicana dome's catwalks for most of yesterday.
Instead, the Tampa Bay area got a tall dose of the boisterousness Philly sports fans are legendary for.
"Let's-go-Phil-lies" chants overwhelmed Rays shouts before the game.
And an infamous episode in Philly sports history involving Santa Claus rose again.
"As soon as I got here, they started on me," said George Crottie, who dressed as a Rays-fan-tinged Kris Kringle: red velvet shorts and blue-painted white hair to go with the rest of the Santa getup.
He said he did it just to be different, but some think he had in mind provoking the fans. Which he did.
"They kept talking about snowballs," Crottie, whose day job is driving a truck, said.
Until the Rays scored first last night, the Philly brashness was omnipresent. Phillies partisans danced and taunted. Phanatics Scott Lipner and Dan Rapoport grinned about how many red shirts they'd seen in the stands. And Neil Solomon and son Rob loudly predicted a Phillies series win to everyone within earshot.
Crottie and other locals, however, took it in stride.
Phillies fans weren't booed en masse, or even in the parking lot.
"They're a little boisterous, but it's all good," said Vince Soto, of Leesburg, Fla., who was so at peace that he came to the park alongside a Phils fan - friend Matt Kleckner, a Lewisburg, Pa., native. That's lion-with-lamb stuff other places, but not here.
"Two underdogs going at it, that's our big thing," Soto said.
Yo, Tampa Bay area, there's a title on the line.
Some of you are properly up for this - witness the haircuts and "Ph- Philly" T-shirts and . . . well, that's about it.
Heck, there are a good number of shirts being worn in this region decorated in both Rays blue and Phillies red.
Now is that any kind of way to run a rivalry?
"It's kind of a learning curve for us," St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker conceded on the phone. "We've never been here before."
Granted and duly noted. However, Herb Hall should know better. He's from Wilmington, Del., and is such a Fightin's partisan that during a bout of amnesia a decade ago he didn't know his own name but could perfectly recite the 1956 Phils' starting lineup.
So what in the name of Harvey Haddix was he doing at the beer stand with a Phillies shirt and a Mohawk haircut colored like a political graph - half red and half blue? "I like both teams," he shrugged, having gone native since transplanting to Safety Harbor a decade ago.
Maybe there's room for such things with this young Rays team. Or maybe the Rays Region has a thing or two left to learn about hard-core loyalties. No problem. Dan Farrell is right up the road to teach them.
He owns Lenny's Restaurant in Clearwater, walking distance from the Phillies' spring training facility. He is a Jersey transplant with a restaurant frequented by Phils in the spring and their minor-league aspirants in the summer.
So, he was asked, what gives around here?
"We haven't been a major-league city long enough for fans to get their ire up," he said.
But as the innings passed and the Fightin's found themselves scoreless through seven, Rays fans started cheering louder, and one red-wearing fan in right field mimed a choking motion.
But even after Ryan Howard hit directly into a shifted infield for the final out of a 4-2 loss, Phillies fans refused to buckle.
Watching from an upper-deck infield seat, Bruce Gurney predicted his Phillies are about to go on a streak.
"When we get to Philly," he said, "we'll win all three games."