For Game 6, fans take Rollins’ charge seriously

At Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night, fans were taking seriously Phillies' shortstop Jimmy Rollins' charge to them:

"Be out there," Rollins said. "Let 'em have it. Let. Them. Have. It. All of 'em. For real!"

High above right field, Jerry and Eric Bocich, father and son from Allentown, Pa., did their best.

"Saaaanchez, Sanchez," they taunted Giants pitcher Jonathan Sanchez, who gave up two runs in the first inning. "Let's go Phillies! Giants suck!"

Less than a half hour into Game 6 of the National League Championship Series, Jerry Bocich was already hoarse. When his voice gave out, he whistled and clapped as loud as he could.

"I'm a die-hard fan," Jerry Bocich said. "I live for this."

His son said Rollins' words certainly amped up his energy level.

"Jimmy helped us," said Eric Bocich. "Motivation."

Already frenzied, the crowd grew even more animated after a Sanchez pitch plunked Chase Utley, who flipped a baseball back to the mound. Both benches cleared.

"Get 'em! Yeah!" one fan screamed, clearly yearning to be out there on the field himself. Instead, he just shouted louder.

Fan Dan Aiken was jubilant when Sanchez exited the game after just two innings.

"I know the fans chased Sanchez," said Aiken, of Haverford.

The biggest target of lifelong fan Lori Clark's venom? Pat Burrell, whom she once gave a standing ovation upon the ex-Phil's return to Philadelphia in a San Francisco Giants uniform.

No more.

"Booooooo," Clark, 54, of Hulmeville, Bucks County, said. "Because of his mouth to Doc. Uh-uh. No way, pal."

Burrell drew Phillies fans' ire when, during National League Championship Series Game 5, he glared at pitcher Roy Halladay and had some choice, explicit words for him.

Clark stood in the right field bleachers, waving a sign she'd made: "No Fat Lady Tonight!" She's been a Phillies fan as long as she can remember - so long that her first memories of Phillies game involve her parents jamming pennies into the cracks of seats at Connie Mack Stadium because Clark was too little to keep her seat weighted down.

She's attended countless games in her life, but this one felt especially important, Clark said.

"I'm so glad they brought it home to Philly," she said. "We're here to carry them."

Charlie Schriver, a fan from West Deptford, was devoting most of his energy to taunting Burrell.

"We loved Pat when he was here," Schiver said. "He rode the Clydesdales in the parade in '08, and I shouted to him from a tree on Broad Street. But you know what? F him if he says anything to us."

In Ashburn Alley, friends Jack Dautrich and Matthew Soderberg, 11, of Wayne, were in the spirit. "Ross Ain't Boss," Dautrich's sign read, a nod to the Giants' Cody Ross, who's swinging a hot bat. "Choke: Official Soda of the Giants," read Soderberg's.

"We were going to write, 'Buster Poser,'" said Soderberg, whose dad, Jeff Soderberg, won a lottery that allowed him to buy tickets for the boys' first playoff game. Ultimately, the friends decided not to target Buster Posey, the Giants' catcher.

There was no doubt in the boys' mind that their screams, claps and fist pumps will affect the game's outcome.

"They hear us screaming," Dautrich said. "And it gives them more motivation."

You could call Martha Tumavitch a serious fan, from her diamond "P" necklace to her cream-colored shirt and pants, embroidered with balls and bats.

Tumavitch, 57, of Scranton, cancelled her vacation to attend every Phillies playoff game she could get tickets to.

"It's worth the money," Tumavitch said. "We live and die with the team. They're our life."

She gets worked up just talking about the hated Giants and her beloved Phillies.

"No forgiveness! No mercy!" Tumavitch shouted.

A few feet away, a group of Giants fans were dealing with a not-so-warm Philadelphia welcome.

"It's a lot of verbal abuse, a lot of 'Go home,'" said Rebecca Poizner, 19, who flew in from the Bay Area for the game.

You could say that it's a different world from AT&T Park, the Giants' home field.

"It's a lot more laid back there," said Mike O'Grady, 24, also from the Bay Area. So laid back, O'Grady said, that he got tossed out of the stadium on opening day this year - for saying something that Phillies fans wouldn't bat an eye at.

"I said, 'You guys suck,' and security threw me out," said O'Grady. "They said, 'You can't use that word."

So while O'Grady wasn't welcoming the ribbing Phils' fans were dishing out, he was ready.

"I had a 7-year-old kid yell at me already," O'Grady said, laughing. "He said, 'We'll see who's crying at the end of the game!"

Contact staff writer Kristen Graham at 215-854-5146 or kgraham@phillynews.com.