"We Really Want to Honor Just the Chicken" - New Mural Shows San Diego Mascot Kicking the Phillie Phanatic (UPDATE)
Get a load of this:
Phillies by 20 runs tonight.
New mural in San Diego has the San Diego Chicken kicking the Phillie Phanatic. pic.twitter.com/s3V4zYDKAi
— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) October 18, 2022
“We really want to honor just the chicken.”
Okay, that part made me laugh. More from ABC San Diego:
The mural shows the famed San Diego Chicken kicking down the Phillies mascot, the Phillie Phanatic. Comments on social media included, “Don’t anger the baseball gods, paint over this before first pitch tomorrow” or “Knock on wood, this is too early” and going so far as to say, “If we lose the series this is why.”
The artists said they’re die-hard Padres fans themselves, and they believe the mural was not intended to spark superstitions, but instead pay homage to the famous chicken.
I wanna hate San Diego, but don’t have a real reason. I have never met a Padres fan ever. Juan Soto used to play for the Nats? Manny Machado didn’t sign here? Dunno. I can’t get worked up about any of that. Plus, San Diego is a fantastic city. Everything they have is better than what we have here. Better weather, better tacos, better waterfront, better traffic, etc. Philly does have the carjacking advantage, and better sports fans, so there are some victories we can claim, but overall San Diego is just not a sports town we can hate for any real reason. This mural is a little annoying, but like they said, it’s less about disrespecting the Phanatic and more about honoring the chicken.
EDIT – they took it down! why?
The controversial @Padres San Diego Chicken mural beating up the #PhilliePhanatic is GONE from the side of Tivoli Bar & Grill.
It comes less than a day after it was put up and just hours before the #NLCS begins.
More to come on @KPBSnews #CaptureTheMoment #padres pic.twitter.com/t348OmLlpx
— Jacob Aere (@JacobAere) October 18, 2022