PHILADELPHIA — Sean Hagan was at Cavanaugh’s Rittenhouse watching the game and doing “tea-offs” with other customers to see who could slam bottles of Twisted Tea Light the fastest when the Phillies won the National League Championship Series Sunday.
Like many, Hagan was overcome with excitement at the win and ran out onto the streets to join the celebration.
“My friend bailed on me, she was too drunk,” he said. “I mean, I should have followed her lead, but Broad Street was calling my name.”
Once there, Hagan, a 29-year-old union carpenter from South Philly, scaled a street light pole at the corner of Broad and Sansom, where he stayed for at least a half hour. While atop the pole, Hagan caught at least seven beers thrown to him from the crowd, which he then shotgunned as a ring of cops circled below.
“It couldn’t have happened without the crowd being so f—ing Philly,” he said. “What other city’s first thought when they see a guy on a pole would be to throw him a beer?”
Standing on the pole as the crowd cheered him on was “unreal,” Hagan said.
“Honestly, it was like the closest I’ll ever feel to being like Stone Cold Steve Austin,” he said. “If I could imagine what Stone Cold Steve Austin feels like when he has two beers in his hand chugging them in front of a crowd, that’s what I felt like.”
But Hagan didn’t realize how drunk he was getting and after the crowds were pushed back, police had to call the fire department to bring in a ladder and get to him down.
“I kind of felt like a cat, honestly,” he said. “I hear people talking sh—, ‘This dude had to use a ladder to get down.’ Yeah, you would too if you drank as much as I did.”
Hagan was taken into custody and placed in a police van along with one of the men who was apprehended for throwing a beer at him. He said he was kept there for about an hour, given a disorderly conduct citation, and released.
“I still went to work the next day, I was a little late, but better late than never,” he said. “My foreman was like ‘I seen a guy with a man bun on a pole shotgunning beers. I thought that was you, and when you came in late, I knew it was you.’”
But Hagan’s troubles were far from over. On Wednesday, police submitted an affidavit for his arrest charging him with riot, conspiracy, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and failure to disperse, which was approved by the District Attorney’s Office, said D.A. spokesperson Jane Roh.
Hagan said he turned himself in and spent Wednesday night in a holding cell at police headquarters. A judge threatened to keep him incarcerated through the World Series, he said, but he was released Thursday afternoon. A 6ABC reporter and camera crew were waiting for him outside.
“Damn, this is wild!” Hagan said by phone shortly after his release. “I’ll be a martyr if that’s what’s going to happen.”
It’s not the first time Hagan’s overzealous fandom has gotten him in trouble with the law. In 2010, when he was 17, Hagan was arrested for running onto the field at Citizens Bank Park in a red full-body spandex suit. He was sentenced to 90 days house arrest and seven months probation. He was also expelled from Northeast Catholic High School and permanently banned from Citizens Bank Park. (He later graduated from George Washington High School in Somerton.)
“I’ve always been a little different, a little wild. People call me crazy, but that’s Philly,” Hagan said. “We’re wild, we’re crazy, but as long as we go to work the next morning, we’re good.”
Sunday night was also not the first time Hagan, whose nickname is “Shrimp,” had climbed that particular pole at Broad and Sansom Streets.
“That pole I’m pretty familiar with because it was the same pole I climbed when the Eagles won the Super Bowl,” he said. “They should just name that Shrimp’s Pole.”
Hagan said since he was a kid, he’s always climbed whatever was in front him — trees, poles, buildings.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” he said. “I see a repeated pattern now that I think about it.”
While he said he has zero regrets about Sunday (”I’m not one to live with regrets”), Hagan does not recommend others follow his example. He acknowledges that climbing poles is extremely dangerous and said even “being as seasoned as I am” he still needed help getting down.
“I felt like I could have conducted myself definitely a little bit better,” he said. “But the f—ing Phillies won the NLCS championship! C’mon!”
As videos of Hagan atop the pole spread across social media, people called him “chaotic amazing,” “a folk hero,” and “a true American patriot.”
“He’s the mayor now,” one Twitter user wrote.
Hagan said he does hope to be mayor of Philadelphia one day.
“I do feel like I could do a better job,” he said. “If I can climb up a pole, I can climb into the people’s hearts for a vote. Let’s see what happens. Stay tuned.”
It’s unclear if his current criminal charges will dampen his political aspirations.
