Stumbling across a piece of Phillies fan history

RJ White

RJ White has lived in Philadelphia for about two decades. In fact, he’s close enough to Citizens Bank that if his window is open on game days, he can hear when something good happens at the ballpark. Though he grew up in Michigan as a Tigers fan (and he’s glad they’re in different divisions), he does enjoy the Phillies.

Last week, White was browsing at his local thrift shop where he had previously acquired such treasures as a large framed photo of the cast of The Towering Inferno and an autographed Iris DeMent album, and he came across a home burned DVD with a handwritten label on the cover.

The label, a note from the label writer to his friend Nick, details that the DVD features fifteen minutes of footage from the writer’s appearances on television (as well as times announcers have mentioned him) and the time Richie Ashburn cursed on television at the end of a 12-inning game. White thought the DVD seemed interesting, so he brought it home, not really sure whether or not it would even work.

Turns out, the DVD held exactly what the label said it did – televised news clips featuring Phillies fan Jerry Horgan, who held season tickets for decades and would also follow the team to any Opening Day that happened to be on the road. Through his years of attendance, Horgan became a well-known staple at the park, and the announcers would mention his appearance in the crowd from time to time and also mention when Horgan would write in to correct a mistaken piece of trivia that had been previously broadcast.

A generally curious person, RJ White dug into Jerry Horgan’s story a bit more and found that there is a Facebook memorial page that was created for Horgan after he passed away in 2022, remembering Horgan’s decades of time spent in the 117 section of Citizen Bank park, sat behind the Phillies dugout.

About the experience of coming across this DVD, White says, “At first, it felt like kind of intruding on someone, but he seemed to do all this very publicly and did not seem like a particularly private guy. He really liked being, I think, associated with the Phillies in some small way.”

Having looked into Horgan’s story, White is impressed by Horgan’s dedication to the team. “It kind of amazes me to be a season holder from ‘75 until presumably toward the end of his life. That’s just so long and so many ups and downs and droughts, waiting for the Phillies. He wasn’t even from Philadelphia. He was from Wilmington, Delaware, so he had to drive up here. There was one clip I did post where he’s being interviewed, I think in Chicago for Opening Day, and he just says, Well, I love baseball. I love the Phillies, and that’s why I do this. I think that’s not bad.”

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