Yinz Ain't Welcome Here

A Friday night game against the Pittsburgh Penguins meant that the Pens fans came out of the woodwork and overran the RBC Center (February 25, 2011). Sure, I was equipped with my Cheer If Your Team Sucks and Cheer If You Eat Boogers signs, but (fortunately) they came in handy only the one time that the Penguins scored. I decided I needed more ammunition and scribbled this sign on the back of another one during the first intermission. ("Yinz" is Pittsburghese for "y'all.")

It came in really handy when one Pens fan in the next section over stood up waving his towel, chanting something and trying to get all the other nearby Pens fans to join him.

"I got somethin fer you, buddy," I mumbled to myself and pulled out this sign. He was good-humored enough to laugh when he saw it (confirming my previous assertion that Pens fans are not as bad as Buffalo fans). He pointed it out to whomever he was with and chuckled, but he kept trying to rouse his fellow fans. So then I shot him with the Moron/Fool sign. He chuckled at that too.

Several minutes after that, a chick behind me tapped me on the shoulder. I am always afraid I have irritated someone behind me, even though I make sure never to hold signs up when puck is in play, or even when there is a fight or something interesting I think people might want to see. Or else when I get tapped, I think some opponent fan is going to say something snarky to me, so I was bracing.

But this chick, whom I've never spoken to before, apparently has regular seats there behind my regular seats. She told me she is normally there with her boyfriend, but he couldn't make it that night. She had texted him earlier, fretting over how many Penguins fans were invading our arena. When she tapped me on the shoulder, it was to show me her boyfriend's texted response, which was something to the effect of:

"Don't worry...sign girl will take care of them."

And I did, with the Yinz sign -- and some help from the Canes, who won the game 4-1.

The win and the text made me feel pretty awesome.