One way or another, Philadelphia sports fans generally get their way.
No one likes them, and they DO NOT care. But they do care about watching Jhoan Duran’s closer entrance.
Acquired at the trade deadline for some of the organization’s top prospects, Duran has instantly become a fan-favorite in the City of Brotherly Love. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the Phillies now have a closer who’s pumping 103 and striking out AL MVP candidates on three pitches. Or maybe it has to do with what’s arguably become one of the most electric 40 seconds in baseball.
But for all the allure around Duran’s grand entrance, Philadelphia sports fans not within the confines of Citizens Bank Park couldn’t see it. The full production is a sensory overload. The soundtrack blends Farruko’s “El Incomprendido” with “Hot” by Pitbull and Daddy Yankee, creating a custom remix that thunders through Citizens Bank Park. Meanwhile, the video boards light up with tarantula imagery, intended as a visual tribute to his “Durantula” moniker.
It’s theater at its finest.
“Thank you to the Twins for passing this on to the Phillies.”
“Yeah. This is beautiful.”
Tom McCarthy and John Kruk react to the scene as new Phillies closer Jhoan Duran takes the mound at Citizens Bank Park for the first time since getting traded. pic.twitter.com/WPFmfRRPQn
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 2, 2025
As Tom McCarthy and John Kruk noted during Duran’s first appearance at Citizens Bank Park, the Twins essentially gifted the Phillies one of baseball’s premier entertainment packages along with their closer. Minnesota even threw in everything it had for Duran’s remix, including the custom remix, according to The Athletic’s Matt Gelb.
But, NBC Sports Philadelphia hasn’t been showing Duran’s complete entrance during its broadcasts, instead cutting to commercial or showing other shots. Naturally, this sparked the kind of fan backlash that Philadelphia does better than anywhere else. They launched a petition that gathered over 700 verified signatures demanding the network televise Duran’s entire ensemble.
And NBC Sports Philadelphia listened. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Ron Tornoe, the network has devised a solution and plans to broadcast Duran’s full entrance live for the rest of the season during evening home games. That begins on Friday night.
In a statement to the Inquirer, the network acknowledged, “We’ve heard from passionate Phillies fans across the region,” and promised fans will now “get to experience this phenomenon live and in its entirety.”
The trend of filming closer entrances began with SNY’s John DeMarsico, who has brought a level of cinematography to baseball that has never been seen before. Edwin Díaz coming out to “Narco” by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet has a chokehold on the baseball community. It’s instantly become one of the coolest parts of the Mets experience and the most popular entrance in baseball, helped in no small part by getting the full television treatment every single time Díaz takes the mound.
And in showing Duran’s full entrance, NBC Sports Philadelphia has set up the fireballer to join the closers whose walk-ins have become must-see TV. In a sport that’s constantly trying to hook younger fans, the network figured out that sometimes the best move is just stepping back and letting the show sell itself.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.