Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips is best known around these parts as the guy who called the St. Louis Cardinals bitches and then fought with them in a benches clearing brawl. Now he’ll be known for pulling off one of the coolest gestures we’ve seen.
Jimmy Traina shared with us the story of Phillips showing up to one of his twitter follower’s baseball games after the follower asked him to attend. Connor Echols tweeted to Phillips Thursday afternoon that he “should really come watch the 14u Cincy flames in West Chester tonight.” Phillips responded by asking what time and where, and Echols gave him the address. Amazingly enough, Phillips actually showed up for the game.
Phillips praised Connor’s performance and then laughed about how much trash the parents were talking. He stuck around afterwards to take pictures with the team, and you could tell he made their day.
The best part about this story is the natural authenticity of it. Phillips didn’t have a P.R. firm send out a press release to tell everyone he was going. He didn’t have a TV camera follow him so the story would make the news. He didn’t do it because he had a sponsor’s message to spread. Nope, all Phillips did was respond to a fan’s request on twitter, show up, and make it a special evening for the team. And guess what? The word still got around because the act was genuine.
After reading about this story, I will forever root for Brandon Phillips. It doesn’t get much better than the actions of Dat Dude BP, and hopefully other athletes can realize that some good can come from treating your fans well. After all, this isn’t the first time we had a similar story like this one.
