PHILADELPHIA — Daniel Murphy stood in the batter’s box with one out in the ninth inning of a tie game between the Mets and Phillies, when an unusual chant started in the stands at Citizens Bank Park.
“USA! . . . USA! . . .”
Shortly after news broke that Osama bin Laden had been killed, word spread throughout the stadium and the chant was repeated occasionally over the next six innings as the game lasted until well after midnight before the Mets finally beat the Phillies, 2-1 in 14 innings.
“I had no idea what was going on,” said Murphy, who ended up striking out. “I just thought they were super-patriotic. I heard the chanting, but I didn’t know what it was about. It’s one of those things. . . . I won’t forget it.”
Manager Terry Collins said he thought the game should have been stopped so both teams could have gone on the field and clapped or another rendition of “God Bless America” could be played.
It even made fans put aside their allegiances, at least temporarily.
“The whole country is excited about Osama being dead,” said Jim Schreiber, a 30-year-old from Middletown, N.J., who was wearing an Ike Davis jersey.
Standing next to him was Mike Pond, 32, of Philadelphia, sporting a Raul Ibanez jersey.
“Normally, we would be screaming at each other and I’d be all over him about his Davis jersey,” Pond said. “But this we can agree on.”
No message was made on the public address system or on the scoreboard, but none was necessary as fans got the news on their smart phones and PDAs. Turns out, the city that once booed Santa Claus isn’t always negative.
Pedro Beato, who pitched three scoreless innings, was still in the bullpen when the chanting began.
“I just heard chanting,” said Beato, who moved to Queens from the Dominican Republic as a teenager and was a freshman at Xaverian HS in Brooklyn on 9/11 and could see some of the smoke from the World Trade Center from the Bay Ridge school. “It means mission accomplished and hopefully this war is over and bin Laden is dead. It’s about time.”
dan.martin@nypost.com