The Josh Innes Show - Philly Fans Are Easy

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

I love Philly people. I wish it would have worked out differently for me there. That said, they are not a complicated bunch. Just tell them they are pretty and they'll love you. I saw a new book about Philly sports fans that confirm this belief... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Now, to be clear, I think part of the reason why I wasn't in Philadelphia longer, nor did I want to be in Philadelphia longer, is I am incapable of pandering to people. Like, I can to a degree, but it's one thing to pander to people who are not asking you to be pander or to pander to them. Philly people just constantly ask you to pander to them. It's this weird desperation these people have. They're this strange combination of, like, bombastic, like lack of self-awareness, cockiness, and self-loathing. I've never seen any specimen with that combination.

I've never seen that before my life, and maybe I'll never see it again. a group of people who love themselves so much and think so highly of themselves, yet hate themselves at the exact same time. Nothing against them. I love them. They're wonderful people. And I think if I would have played my cards right, maybe I'd still be there. And I'd be, like, if I were still there, I'd be the biggest radio personality there.

There's zero question. I would be like the dude because most of these guys aren't super relatable. Most of these guys aren't going out and drinking beers with people. They're just not relatable people. They're guys in an ivory tower. Most of these guys, while they have listeners and people will know them, they're not super relatable. I would have been the relatable guy, and I probably would have been out there crushing it and doing very well. But we know how that all went, and it is what it is.

And I'm truly, like, people, anytime I talk about Philly, there'll be someone on social media says I'm bitter and I couldn't hack it, which is not true. I'm not bitter at all. I didn't want to be there. I left for a job that paid me three times when I was getting paid at WIP once I got fired there. So, look, it is what it is, you know. But anyway, I bring this up because Philly people have this weird combination of arrogance and self-loathing that I've never seen in anybody before. But this book is called Ring the Bell. And this book is the ultimate example.

It's not even the ultimate. It's just another example of how easy it is to just, like, I've, like, I have never seen a town that has so many books written about sports that are basically the exact same book. And that's Philadelphia. Like, hey, I need to, I want to be an author. I want to write a book. What should I do? Well, are you in Philadelphia? No, move to Philadelphia and write a book about how great the fans are.

And then you'll sell a book. But this book is called Ring the Bell with Kevin Revy and Jack Fritz with a forward by Scott Franzky. It's called Ring the Bell, how the Philadelphia Phillies built baseball's best fan base. Like, I've never seen a group of people more obsessed with being told how great they are at being fans. than the St. Louis people. The St. Louis baseball people love to be told how great they're and they're the best fans in baseball. Then you go to games this summer and there's literally

14 people. But let's actually start there with attendance. Now attendance is not necessarily the greatest gauge of how great your fan base is because if your product sucks, people aren't going to go to the games, right? But when I was in Philadelphia, the Phillies were dreadful. And I can tell you there were days you could go to the ballpark and

shoot a cannon through there and not hit a person. So spare me. Save it when you tell me about how great the fans are. Like, I don't know. By the way, this is not me ripping this guy. Good for you for writing a book. I haven't written a book. You've written a book.

Good for you. But it's comical how easy it is to get the attention of these dwebs. All you have to do is be like, hey, how the Phillies. How can you write a book about that? How is it like, what is the story here? They're like, well, the Philadelphia Phillies built the best fan base in baseball. First of all, there is nobody on the planet who says that other than Philadelphia people. And everywhere you go, everyone thinks they have the best fans.

And every player, when they talk about their fans and every city says they have the best fans. So, like, you can't, there's no metric for it, but whatever. But the part that makes me laugh is just how easy it is. How easy it is to be like, well, we got the best fans in baseball. Here's a book about it. And then people will buy this shit. I say shit, not to say it's garbage. I'm sure you put a lot of effort into it.

And I'm not going to rip your book. I'm ripping the idea that you can just write this book, which has been written 400 times. And that people still gobble it up. Like, they're just obsessed with themselves. It is a fascinating bunch. Like, I lived in Houston. At no point. I don't even know that there's a book that exists that's, hey, Houston sports fans, the best.

Like, I don't even think with a straight face they can say that. There's not one person out there that can write a book that's about how great a sports fans the Houston, Texas sports fans are. I don't think it exists because nobody would have the audacity to write it because they realize it's preposterous. And nobody would read it. There's nobody in Houston that's that passionate about Houston sports that's like, we're the best fans in sports and we need to have a book about us. I don't believe one book like that exists. Like LSU, arguably the most passionate fans in football. small like the like per capita probably the the best football fans in the world

I don't recall ever reading a book about how great the fans are there might be references to it in other books but there aren't books that are specifically written for the sole purpose of pandering to a group of people to get them to buy your book it's fascinating now I'm not ripping the dudes that wrote this good for them they're capitalizing on on a demand and I guess there's a great demand for people in Philadelphia to be told how great they are. But last time, like last time I checked, when I was in Philadelphia for those three years, and I think it was part of three baseball seasons, people didn't go to the games because the team sucked. That was also a thing I enjoyed. I remember when the couple years ago when the

Phillies knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs, I guess that would have been 2002, and they knocked him out of the playoffs. They played that dumb three game, best two out of three series in St. Louis, and they won both of the games. And the Cardinals had game one, one. And then there was a meltdown in the ninth inning. And they gave up like six or seven runs in the ninth inning and lost, and people started leaving. And one of the big criticisms from Philly people was, oh, look, all the best fans of baseball are leaving early. Your ass would leave a six to one game in the ninth two.

I've seen you do it. But go ahead and suck your own dicks if you want to. And that's basically all this is. Like, Philly people just love to suck their own dicks. And look, people like Jack Fritz in the sky who wrote the book with him, they're very smart. They've discovered, or they know because they're part of it, that these people will just read anything that blows them. And then they get it. So good for them.

Rock on. But I guarantee you there's a thousand versions of that same book, like, hey, why Philly fans are great by such and such? Why this fan base sucks and Philly fans are great by this person. And that's no knock. By the way, I really do love the Philly people. This is not me shitting. You might take offense to this, and if you're a Philly person that takes offense to this that listens to the podcast, my apologies.

I'm not trying to insult you. I'm just telling you what I view as reality. And what reality here is is I've never seen a group of people who are more desperate to be told they're pretty than Philly people. And people like the guys who wrote this book have cashed in on it. They're like, hey, they want to be told they're pretty? I'll tell you you're pretty. Come buy my book. I wish I had the ability to do that.

I admire that. I admire people who are able to see a situation worth exploiting, and then they exploit it. I wish I had that ability. And it's not because I'm super noble. I like you to know that. I'm not blowing myself saying, hey, I'm like this super noble guy that refuses to take advantage of dumb people. I just don't want to. Like, it doesn't interest me.

Like, to me, it's almost too easy. Like, it's a defeat. To me, I'd be defeated if I did that. I'm not noble. I'm not doing it because I'm like, oh, shook. I'm just, I don't want to take. I wish I could take advantage to these people. I'd love to.

I should have taken more advantage of it when I was there and exploited it. Like, let me tell you this. You roll into town and just pretend you're a fan of Philly Sports. Nine out of ten of those people will accept it. They're not going to go, wait a second. You've been here for five minutes. You've lived in 10 other places. You've worked on the radio in four other places.

Yet you love our teams. I buy it. Cool. Let's go. No one's going to step up and be like, this guy's a fraud. The only time they're going to say that is when you're saying something they disagree with. But if I would have rolled into town and been, you know, politicking and shit and said, you're the greatest fans ever.

And God damn it, I love you. And if they'd be like, I have this guy's one of us. It's just an observation. There's no need to be hostile and there's no need to be angry because I'm not shitting on you. I love you. I legitimately love the Philly people. And every day that I sit here and I do a radio show, I miss the passion. Not like the calls and all that shit, like the dip shits.

But like I miss the fact that you could walk. outside in Philadelphia and somehow everybody knew who you were because you worked on the fucking radio. That was something. That was cool. I like that. I miss that. Like I would give my left nut right now to have that again. I live in anonymity for the most part radio wise now. I did in Nashville. I did in St. Louis, other than the angry old fucks in St. Louis who wanted to behead me. And here in Detroit so far, total anonymity. There ain't a soul that knows who I am. There ain't a soul that calls the radio station. I mean, it is, I mean, ghost town for me. It is, as we're talking about, it is an undertaking. I miss, like, the whole, like, wow, everybody knows who you are.

People want to meet you. People, I told you, one of the greatest experiences ever. Went to a house show, wrestling event at Wells Fargo Center, now, whatever they call it. And I'm walking around. I make one loop around the concourse at the wrestling match. Did so many shots with people who just wanted to buy me alcohol that I didn't even stay for the event because I was already hammered by making a loop around. They are the best.

When they love you, they fucking love you. That is not a lie, and I'm not saying that to pander. There has been no better experience for being a radio, jamoke, and having fans than in Philadelphia. Zero. But they are obsessed with being told how pretty they are. And this book is an example of that. I've never seen it. Houston's not that way.

Like Houston people will get pissed if you talk shit about the teams. But Houston people never roll themselves out of bed believing they're the best sports fans in the world, because they're not. They know they show up late and leave early. They just, that's, they're transient people. They know that. Now, they'll bow up a little bit like if it's them versus someone and someone's like, you know, he's got good fans, Dallas, then maybe they'll bow up a little bit.

But they don't view themselves. Like they don't carry themselves. It's not like some badge of honor that, hey, we're the best sports fans in the world. But in Philadelphia it is. And if you write a book about it, people will buy it.