Top Ten Noise Nation Moments

Over three years we had a lot of good memories. These 10 are among my favorites and still make me chuckle when I think back…

10. When Wawa sponsored the OINK sign. – Yeah, I miss the Oink… I really do but for a company to recognize us like that is great. We wondered if anyone was watching.. and there was!

9. The Horns. – Love em or Hate em.. we had a good time with them. One game in particular the Pigs were behind late in the game. Surprised right? The Pigs came to bat and we started blaring on the horns. The opposing team’s pitcher walked the first batter. We got louder. He walked the second batter. We got even louder. The pitcher balked moving runners to 2nd and 3rd. We went crazy. The manager came out to the mound and the pitcher was furious. He was waving his arms and pointing at us and complaining to the manager and umpire. That pitcher was pulled and the Pigs rallied for the win. I like to think we had an impact.

8. The smoke screen – On a damp windless summer night this past season the button on our smoke machine got stuck. (Also compliments of Wawa) The smoke made a quick line down to the field and formed a cloud over the opposing team’s center fielder who started waving his arms and yelling up to us. He was laughing and later in the inning Ironpig centerfielder Chris Duffy came out looking confused at us. We had a lot of fun with that.

Photo by George Kordalski

7. Bubba Bell – Yeah, an opposing player. Bubba recognized us at the All Star game autograph session and we promised not to hassle him as he was on our team for that day. Bubba came out to a great Noise Nation cheer and during the game we yelled for a strikeout… “Give me a K!” and everyone yelled “K!” except Bubba. We yelled down “Bubba! You didn’t give us a K” and he turned around and yelled “K”. The rest of the game he helped us out with the K.

6. Matt Joyce – Another opposing team Noise Nation favorite. Matt came to town and was a lot of fun. He danced around, gave out autographs freely and although he didn’t sign “his” K… we had a lot of fun with him.

5. The All Star game home run derby. It rained. It rained a lot the whole time. We all took cover under the K sign and had a great time. My umbrella exploded and we watched home run after home run fly into our area. The incredible boo that followed the late appearance of the magician was possibly the loudest I’ve ever heard the fans at Coca Cola Park. We had fun.. but we were wet and wanted to go home.

4. John Rodriguez Dancing – Scranton’s John Rodriguez had a lot of fun with us. See video below:

3. John Rodriguez Moonwalk – I had to give J-Rod more than one spot here on my list. Great times. Here he does the moonwalk for us. Quite difficult in cleats on grass:

2. Philly Force – We had so much fun at the now defunct softball team part of the National Pro Fastpitch league. We cheered, they joined in. After their last game they asked for our autographs.. took photos of us and invited us out to their afterparty. Details of the party shall be deemed inappropriate for this blog 🙂

1. Drew Stubbs – Stubbs was playing for the Louisville Bats in centerfield. Early in the first game of four we started our traditional LEFT RIGHT LEFT chant and it annoyed Stubbs. He was not having it. During the game he struck out and another tradition is to try to get the centerfielder to sign “his” K if they strike out. Stubbs adamently refused. Before the next game one of our younger members went to ask him again.. “Pweeese Drew.. sign your K.” (Ok we’re bad, I know) He got even madder. One of his teammates signed the K happily and that night Stubbs went 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts. On the third game we made some room and created a K sign specifically for Stubbs.. with all 5 of his K’s from the series attached. It is considered the ultimate taunt to have a player’s team mates laughing at them.. and his team mates were besides themselves in laughter. He left the field that day upset and unimpressed.

Should have signed the K..

I know some of these things sound immature and juvenile.. but we do try to act as good as we can. We enforce a family environment policy in our area of right-center field and cursing and other insults are off limits. We sure do have a good time.

These are my top 10… what are yours?