Trea Tuner Turns the Tide
Trea Turner, the Philadelphia Phillies highly paid shortstop, struggled mightily to begin
his first season with the team. An unexpected gesture from the fans, ended up dramatically
changing his season trajectory.
Philadelphia sports fans have had a bad reputation in the sporting world for decades.
From allegedly throwing snowballs at Santa Claus in 1968, to throwing batteries on the field in
1999. Philly fans have been put into a negative light for years because of their passion,
relentlessness, and obsession with their teams.
Players will often be booed for poor performances or for a lack of effort, but that is
something that occurs in many places, not just Philadelphia. It can sometimes put a lot of stress
on players to perform and can lead to bad play from some athletes. Philadelphia fans realized
that it could be part of the reason for Turner’s struggles, so they decided to take another
approach after months of boos.
In December of 2022, the Phillies signed Turner to an 11 year, 300-million-dollar
contract to make him the fourth highest paid shortstop in baseball. The two-time all-star had a
career batting average over .300 and led all of Major League Baseball in batting average in
2021, hitting .328. He never had a batting average below .271 in 8 seasons, other than his first
year where he only played in 27 games. Turner had a career on-base plus slugging percentage
(OPS) of .836 prior to the 2023 campaign and never had a season lower than a .760 OPS aside
from his first season. For reference, the Major League average on-base plus slugging
percentage from 2015-2022, the length of Turner’s career before 2023, was .734. His .836
career OPS is tied for the fourth highest among shortstops in that period.
One of the essential parts of Turner’s game is his speed. Out of all active Major League
players heading into the 2023 season, he had the third most career stolen bases with 230 and
the most out of any shortstop. From 2018 to 2022, Turner had the fourth most homeruns out of
all shortstops with 99. A unique combination of speed, power, ability to hit for average at
arguably the most important position in baseball, and a large contract led to extremely high
expectations.
Turner did not meet those expectations for most of his first season in Philadelphia. In his
first 107 games, he had a .235 batting average, a .657 on-base plus slugging percentage with 10
homeruns and 115 strikeouts. That was by far his lowest batting average and OPS of his career.
He also had never struck out more than 130 times in a season, but with 115 strikeouts with 50
games left to play he was on pace to strikeout more than 170 times.
Turner was not only falling short of his own standard, he was simply not a good Major
League Baseball player for the first 107 games of the season. The frustrated Philadelphia fans
let Turner know, with boos raining down as they watched him struggle.
The season reached an all-time low for Turner on August 2 in Miami. The Phillies blew a
five to zero lead and lost in extra-innings to a playoff contending Marlins team. Turner played a
key role in that decision as he went 0-for-5 at the plate and made a costly error in the bottom
of the 11th inning that would have won the game, but instead allowed the Marlins to score and
eventually win. “I’m the reason why we lost that game,” Turner told reporters in the locker
room.
Turner was aware that he was not living up to expectations and knew that something
had to be done. “He hit until midnight, more than an hour after the game ended,” According to
Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.
Turner was doing all he could to turn his season around, but what would actually turn it
around came unexpectedly.
Alec Bohm, the Philadelphia Phillies third baseman, was caught saying “I f-ing hate this
place” after making a few errors in the field and receiving a sarcastic applause when he finally
made a play in the early part of the 2022 season. He owned up to it after the game, saying
“emotions got the best of me.”
The following game, the Philly fans gave Bohm a standing ovation when he came up to
pinch hit because of his accountability. At that moment he began to perform much better for
the rest of the season. Philadelphia fans tried to replicate that in 2023 with the struggling Trea
Turner.
“The real origin of [the Turner ovation] was what happened with Alec Bohm the year
before,” Jack Fritz, a host and producer at the most popular sports radio station in Philadelphia,
94.1 WIP, syas.
The standing ovation was something that had worked before, so the Phillies fans were
just looking for a good time to do it again. There had been some buzz around the idea for a few
weeks, according to Fritz and following the game in Miami on August 2, it was a perfect time to
try the ovation.
“He looked like he needed a pick me up”, Fritz says. “The movement… picked up steam
on Twitter, Tik-Tok, and on WIP.”
Fritz was one of the main people at 94.1 WIP promoting the idea on the radio to a large
audience. He was also one of the originators of the idea by tweeting “A standing O on Friday
would go a long way” on August 3. The tweet got over 440 thousand views, more than five
thousand likes and 613 reposts. Many people thought it was a good idea. “By Friday it seemed
like everybody got the message,” Fritz says.
On Friday August 4, the Phillies hosted the Kansas City Royals and in the second inning
when Turner came up to bat, seemingly the whole stadium was on their feet cheering for him.
The Phillies in the dugout joined the fans and showed their support for Turner. He did not get a
hit in that at-bat and the Phllies lost the game. However, Turner recorded a hit and a run batted
in later in the game. It was not an extraordinary game by any means, but it was a step in the
right direction.
The next day the standing ovations continued when Turner went up to bat. Finally, in
the sixth inning he hit a three-run home run to give the Phillies an 8-6 lead. Taylor Campagna, a
Phillies ball girl, was on the field working during this game and she described the atmosphere
when the home run was hit as “electric.”
“You couldn’t hear anything but screaming, yelling and clapping,” Campagna says. He
then went on to hit an RBI double in the eighth inning and it seemed like something clicked.
“Trea Turner reminded himself that he is Trea Turner,” says Fritz. “It was a big exhale
moment for him.”
Trea Turner was indeed Trea Turner again, as he immediately caught fire at the plate
following the ovations. For the rest of the month following the first standing ovation, Turner
recorded a batting average of .380, an OPS of 1.213 and almost doubled his season total in
homeruns in only 23 games with nine. From August 28 to September 12, Tuner had a stretch of
11 home runs in only 13 games as he continued his hot streak. In September he tallied a batting
average of .309, an OPS of .951 and seven home runs. A remarkable turnaround to his season
and it was a big boost for the Phillies team.
“You could tell the comradery between Trea and his teammates was clicking…everyone
was at the fence in the dugout,” Campagna said about the Phillies beginning to play better
because of the ovations.
The Phillies had a record of 59-50 on August 4th and were in second place in the wild
card standings. Following the standing ovations, the Phillies finished the season with a 31-22
record including setting a franchise record for the most home runs hit in a single month with 59
in August and had a comfortable lead in the first-place wild card spot.
“For the rest of the team it let them know, we’re behind you too,” fritz says. The
standing ovations helped the whole team play better and it was the perfect time with the
postseason right around the corner.
Philadelphia sports fans have been portrayed as horrible fans and were even voted the
worst sports fans in America by GQ Magazine in 2011. However, the events that took place last
summer and the direct positive impact it had on a player is something that could refute that
claim.
“It is more passion instead of anger,” Fritz says of Philly sports fan culture. The Phillies
ultimately saw some success in the postseason as they defeated the Marlins in the wild card
round and then knocked out the team with the best regular season record, the Atlanta Braves,
in the Divisional round. They then fell short, coming within one win from their second straight
World Series appearance. The season did not end the way Philadelphia fans hoped but it may
have changed the perception of them going forward.
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Baseball Reference. (2019). MLB Stats, Scores, History, & Records | Baseball-Reference.com.
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