What have been the most contentious Washington-Philadelphia sports moments? We count them down.
6. Lannan breaks Utley’s hand, ejected — 2007
John Lannan made an infamous Major League debut against the Phillies in July 2007. The lefty plunked stars Chase Utley and Ryan Howard on back-to-back pitches, becoming the first big leaguer in 10 years to be ejected in his first big league game. While the latter plunking drew the ejection, the former did far more damage, breaking Utley’s hand and sidelining the All Star for a month. While the injury was certainly not intentional (the pitch in question came in an 0-2 count) that didn’t make Lannan anymore popular in Philly.
— Noah Frank
(AP Photo/George Widman)
AP Photo/George Widman
5. Baker ejected for blindsiding Foles — 2014
An early season match up saw DeSean Jackson playing his first game back in Philadelphia after being released by the Eagles, and he caught an 81-yard touchdown pass to tie the game in the third quarter. The game turned ugly in the fourth with about 10 minutes left, when Chris Baker blindsided Eagles quarterback Nick Foles on an apparent interception by Bashaud Breeland. The brawl spilled onto the sideline and led to Baker and Eagles left tackle Jason Peters being ejected. The Eagles won the game, 37-34.
— George Wallace
(Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images)
Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images
4. Werth fakes out Phillies fans — 2012
With the division nearly in hand and the Phillies long since eliminated, the Nationals played a midweek series at Citizens Bank Park. While the official attendance was announced at 41,440, it was less than half that in person, and the crowd was subdued early as Washington jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. But in the ninth inning, with the score narrowed to 5-4, Jayson Werth appeared ready to flip a ball to a kid in the stands when he instead pulled it back and tossed it into the dugout. The fans lost it, and further heckled Werth when he stepped to the plate, only to watch him slap a two-run single to center to seal the 8-4 victory and send the fans streaming to the exits.
After the game, Werth explained that a fan had grabbed a ball he had flipped into the stands earlier and thrown it back onto the field, hence his hesitancy. But the damage was done.
— Noah Frank
(Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images)
3. Hamels drills Harper, who steals home — 2012
The contention between the Nats and Phillies has been building since well before this early May night. After years of Phillies fans invading Nationals Park, the team restricted ticket sales for the three-game set to local fans only, setting off a firestorm in the media. After a Washington walk-off win Friday and a blowout Saturday, the stage was set for the nationally televised ESPN game Sunday night.
Coming off five straight division titles, Cole Hamels and the Phillies decided that 19-year-old Bryce Harper and the division-leading Nationals needed to be taught a lesson in … something. Hamels intentionally drilled Harper in the back on the first pitch of his first at-bat against the lefty, only to watch the youngster embarrass him by swiping home later in the inning on a pickoff throw. A footnote to this game was Jayson Werth’s broken wrist, which sidelined him for much of the season.
— Noah Frank
(Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images)
It’s early yet, and if the injuries to both Dmitri Orlov and Brooks Orpik — who was crushed into the boards by Ryan White earlier in the game — prove to be costly, this could potentially move even higher up the list. But between the on-ice attempt to injure and the fan meltdown in littering the ice on two separate occasions, this one had everything.
— Noah Frank
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
1. The “Body Bag” game — 1990
It started as a highly anticipated Monday Night Football match up between division rivals and ended up going down as one of the ugliest games ever played between the two teams. The 5-3 Redskins were in Philadelphia to face the 4-4 Eagles on November 12, 1990 in what became known as the “Body Bag” game. The name came from the fact that the Eagles knocked nine Redskins players out of the game with injuries, including both quarterbacks, which led to an Eagle player yelling, “Do you guys need any more body bags?” Kick returner Brian Mitchell finished the game at quarterback for the Redskins. The Eagles won the game 28-14.
Both teams finished the season 10-6 and met in the Wild Card round of the playoffs with the Redskins winning 20-6 in Philadelphia. After the season, the NFL instituted the third quarterback rule, which would allow an NFL team to dress a third quarterback outside the 45-man game day roster.
— George Wallace
(AP Photo/Rusty Kennedy)
WASHINGTON — Resting fewer than 150 miles from one another along the Eastern Seaboard, Washington and Philadelphia are natural sports rivals. Their professional teams share a division in baseball, football, hockey and soccer, and a conference in basketball.
So it’s no surprise that, at times, tempers have boiled over both on the field and in the stands. We’ve taken a half dozen of the most memorable such occasions and ranked them, from least contentious to most.
Simply because these events happened in different sports doesn’t isolate them from one another. Because while the athletes may not cross over, the fans most certainly do. And the shared animosity between the two cities’ sports collectives bleeds from one season to the next. The rivalries are certainly more pronounced in certain sports, especially the three represented in our list.
The Wizards and Sixers have been downright civil in comparison, although if this Markieff Morris flagrant 2 in the teams’ final matchup this season is a sign of things to come, that may not be the case for long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrLVEC8WCUw
Flip through the games and let us know if we left any notable moments off the list.
