Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Philadelphia

GAME 4
Citizen's Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park, 2006
Date: Tuesday, July 4, 2006, 3:05 PM
San Diego Padres vs. Philadelphia Phillies
Citizens Bank Park
Philadelphia, PA
Major League Baseball, National League
Promotion: Dollar Dog Day, Kids Run the Bases


The Stadium & Fans:
Citizens Bank Park is excellent, if not quite up to PNC Park due to its lack of ambiance. The upper and lower deck are split by a central concourse that rings the field and gives you a good view even when you're walking around. At the back of the park, the "Ashburn Alley" area has specialty concessions, and big game areas for kids.

Most Phillies fans are, for lack of a better term, complete dicks. And I say this as a moderate to severe dick myself. Now, I ride Mets players that deserve it pretty hard sometimes, but the Phillies fans rode everybody all the damn time. Mercilessly. Even when they were doing well. If A-Rod gets upset at the way that Yankees fans treat him, he better get down on his dainty little knees and pray that he never gets traded to the Phillies, or he will be in the nut hatch in a week.

There were a group of supporters of Tom "Flash" Gordon (the Phillies closer) who came to the park dressed in super hero costumes. I'm not talking about Batman t-shirts. "The Followers of Flash" were all dressed head to toe in full superhero regalia and procured a section of the upper deck. When he appeared in the 8th, they made a suitable commotion.


Scorecard:
Phillies scorecard, 07-04-06
Padres vs. Phillies, 07/04/06. Phillies win, 6-5.
The scorecard was $5 with the Phillies program. It is a sturdy cardboard stock with big boxes. Very nice.


Miscellanea:
The game began with a taped July 4 message from George Bush, who was greeted with boos that were only surpassed when MLB Commissioner Bud Selig followed.

The game weather started out sunny and hot, but eventually there were storm clouds visible on the horizon, along with lightning. The clouds then made the temperature bearable for the next couple of innings, but eventually, there were a few rain drops. It was just a drizzle, and we mocked the people who ran up to the concourse at the first touch of rain.

Then hell broke loose. In the middle of a pop-up to the catcher, the sky completely opened up with amazingly cold rain, accompanied by a wind that made it fall horizontally. We went from warm to freezing in a minute. The storm blew through rather quickly (only an hour rain delay), and then the sun came out full force again, leaving us steaming in our seats.

During this rain delay, they put the Mets game on the jumbotron, and though the Mets had been loosing up to that point (as I had been following with great annoyance on the out-of-town scoreboard), they rallied to win as soon as I started watching.

After the rain delay, a bird took up residence on the field, first by home plate and then by the third base line. With visions of Randy Johnson in their head, the umpires tried unsuccessfully to shoo it away. The first base umpire eventually became its unofficial zookeeper. Everyone in the crowd seemed to pay especially close attention to fouls and plays down the first base line.


Travel & Other Non-Game Activities:
The trip from my hotel to Philly was only about a half hour. After the game, I spent some time with some tailgaters from Trenton, then headed on home up the NJ Turnpike. It was quite an interesting ride, as I basically took a tour of the fireworks displays of New Jersey on my way back home.


The Game:
This game presented a dilemma for me, as I didn't want the Phillies to win and potentially gain ground on the Mets, but also in no way in hell did I was Mike Piazza to have a win in my presence. Down early, the Phillies built a lead, had it whittled away, and then Gordon blew the save. The Phillies did come back and win it in the bottom of the ninth, 6-5.



2006 The East

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