When his voice gave out, Jerry Bocich whistled. And clapped. And stomped his feet.
The Allentown, Pa. fan, 53, and his son, Eric, 22, took seriously Jimmy Rollins' charge to Phillies fans for Game 6 of the National League Championship Series.
"Be out there," Rollins said. "Let 'em have it. Let. Them. Have. It. All of 'em. For real!" In the stands at Citizens Bank Park, those words were gospel.
But in the end, even the most venomous boos weren't enough, as the Phils' bats fell quiet late, and the team lost 3-to-2 to the Giants, ending their season and sending San Francisco to the World Series.
When Juan Uribe homered off Ryan Madson in the 8th inning to give the Giants the lead, "it was like the air got sucked out of this place," said Brad Skiles, 42, a fan from Haddonfield. "It changed the mood of this game." His friend Matt Franklin, 43, of Avondale, nodded solemnly.
"It's tough to come back from that," Franklin said.
And in the end, impossible.
Skiles looked out at the field glumly.
"They're getting all the breaks," he said of the Giants. "Last year, that was us." Still, the sellout crowd gave it their all.
The biggest target of lifelong fan Lori Clark's venom? Pat Burrell, whom she once gave a standing ovation upon the ex-Phil's return to Philadelphia in a San Francisco Giants uniform.
No more.
"Booooooo," Clark, 54, of Hulmeville, Bucks County, said. "Because of his mouth to Doc. Uh-uh. No way, pal." Burrell drew Phillies fans' ire when, during Game 5, he glared at pitcher Roy Halladay and had some choice, explicit words for him.
Clark stood in the right field bleachers, waving a sign she had made: "No Fat Lady Tonight!"
She's been a Phillies fan as long as she can remember, so long that her first memories of a Phillies game involve her parents jamming pennies into the cracks of seats at Connie Mack Stadium because Clark was too little to keep her seat weighted down.
She's attended countless games in her life, but she knew this one was especially important, Clark said.
"I'm so glad they brought it home to Philly," she said.
In Ashburn Alley, friends Jack Dautrich and Matthew Soderberg, 11, of Wayne, tried their best. "Ross Ain't Boss," read Dautrich's sign, a nod to the Giants' Cody Ross, who swung a hot bat. "Choke: Official Soda of the Giants," read Soderberg's.
