By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff

Jonathan Papelbon took a break from trying to unlock the potential of cold fusion to conduct a radio interview in Philadelphia.

During the interview, he dropped this nugget:

"The difference, I would say, between Boston and Philadelphia, is that, you know, I think that the Boston fans are a little bit more hysterical when it comes to the game of baseball. I'd say the Philly fans, I think they tend to know the game a little bit better, being in the National League, the way the game is played."

So being a fan of a National League team makes you smarter? It must be all those tricky double switches. And having the pitcher bunt, that's practically advanced trigonometry. It's confusing just to think about.

This guy must be the head genius in Philly. Or maybe it was the National Merit Scholar who intentionally puked on the 11-year-old girl.

Papelbon and Philly. Sounds like a perfect match.

But, wait, there's more. Here's Papelbon on how he approached free agency:

“The Red Sox didn’t really come at me the way I was expecting them to come at me in the off-season. And I told my agent that the first team that shows me interest and shows me loyalty, I’m going to show that right back to them, and that was Philadelphia."

Other than apparently Papelbon, was there anybody who thought the Red Sox were going to keep him? Anybody? Everybody knew his only motivation was a landmark contract and that the Sox weren't going to invest that much in a closer, knowing the tortured history of such deals.

The guy had every right to leave. But there is no reason to beat on Sox fans now. There aren't too many players in Boston, in any sport, who received the support he did.