It’s the phone-tossing incident heard ’round the world! Well maybe not the world, but in the Delaware Valley.

If you missed it last night, a Mets fan and Phillies fan got into a kerfuffle at Citizens Bank Park, and the Phils fan took the Mets fan’s phone and threw it into left field, then tried to flee the scene, up the stairs and onto the concourse.

Here’s the short version:

The Mets fan in question got in touch with Crossing Broad to share his side of the story, so we were happy to oblige.* He’s from New Jersey originally, but lives in the Philadelphia region and went to college here, so he’s a legit expat Mets fan and not a poser. Here’s what he told us in a brief Q/A format:

Crossing Broad: We’re talking on the phone. I would assume this means you got your phone back.

Mets fan: I did get my phone back. I would like to thank the hard working grounds crew at Citizens Bank Park, and security, for going out of their way to clean up the mess after this disrespectful thing. I really appreciate the grounds crew for that.

Crossing Broad: So what happened?

Mets fan: I’ll admit I was a little rowdy at that game. I wasn’t initially acting as rowdy as I was. But throughout the game I was standing up and cheering for my team, like any good fan would. The guy who threw my phone, he was giving me a lot of shit. In the video, I specifically was going to film him, just because he was heckling me. We were heckling back and forth and it was all in good fun for me. Then I went up to him and he threw my phone on the field.

Crossing Broad: Do you think he did that in response to being frustrated throughout the game or was it a direct reaction to you walking up the steps and filming him on the way out? Did that put him over the top?

Mets fan: I’ll admit that I would be pissed off, too, if someone was putting their phone in my face like that, but me and this guy had some heckling going back and forth the whole game, and I just wanted a good cap on the content, to show who the victor was.

Crossing Broad: What happened after the video stops? The last thing we saw is him walking up the stairs, it looks like he’s trying to leave, then another piece of video that shows another guy yelling at you. What happened after that? Did security get involved? How did this thing wrap up?

Mets fan: After he threw the phone on the field, he runs up onto the concourse, like you see in the video. Then the woman you see in the video, who stands in the aisle between innings, I told her it was my phone and I need it back, and she talked to another employee, who radioed somebody on the field, somebody on the grounds crew I assume. And then somebody on the grounds crew brought my phone back. But I was talking to the guy who had his face painted after that, and we were cool. I was like ‘yeah man, I was just having fun.’ I went overboard, but the phone being thrown was also overboard.

Crossing Broad: Is it much ado about nothing?

Mets fan: What do you mean?

Crossing Broad: Just two guys jawing at each other?

Mets fan: Exactly.

Crossing Broad: From a sampling of Phillies fans, it seems like a lot thought the phone throwing was stupid, because if you were at a Sixers or Eagles game you wouldn’t throw anything on the field in general. You know what I mean?

Mets fan: Right.

Crossing Broad: But a lot of them thought you deserved it, so I don’t know. When you look back at it in hindsight, what do you make of the response?

Mets fan: I (wouldn’t) say I deserved it, because nobody deserves to have a device thrown like that. I wouldn’t say I was extremely surprised, and as for the other part of the question…

Crossing Broad: I would say it like this – Philly fans are aware that the national media feels a certain way about Philadelphia in general. So it’s about providing ammunition, right? And throwing this guy’s phone on the field gives people something to latch on to. And then the media says we’re a bunch of neanderthals or whatever. So it’s one of those things where it’s like, ‘hey, let’s not do this because it’s juvenile, too.‘ I think the overwhelming reaction here was that the phone throwing was juvenile, but you shoving the phone in the guy’s face was also juvenile. So it seemed like this was a juvenile wash at the end of the day.

Mets fan: I think that’s a perfectly accurate description. Like if I saw this guy in public, I wouldn’t be like “fuck you man!” I would laugh about it and I would hope he would, too. It was a fun night for me.

*If phone thrower wants to share his version of the story, just holla. The Wooderboys podcast will have more on all of this sometime tonight.