Still Better Than Being at Work
So, I had a last minute seat for Opening Day fall into my lap, secured the day off work and drove up I-95 today. Our seats were in section 431, row 16. For those who aren’t familiar with Citizen’s Bank Park, that’s the last row.
A few observations about our area of the park:
- We had a pretty good view from up there—as I expected; I’ve been to games in this park before. However, from the very top of the upper deck on the third-base side, you can’t quite see the left field corner. Sadly, there were several plays down there today, and we missed them all.
- All the college girls, apparantly, sit in the 400 level. And they dance. Now you know.
- Holy fucking shit it was windy up there. According to the National Weather Service, there were sustained winds of around 25 mph throughout the game at the Philadelphia airport, which is right next door. I don’t know what it was gusting to, although I think I heard ~35 on the radio. What I do know is that, during the Star Spangled Banner, we had to hold onto the fence behind our row to stay upright. Also, at a couple of points during the pregame, it looked like the military folks down on the field were perilously close to losing their grip on the giant flag in the outfield. While having the right-field bleachers draped in the stars and stripes might have looked cool, I’m sure it would’ve sucked ass for the people in those seats.
- Phillies fans can be obnoxious. I should have known this, having spent several years of my life as one, but there was a guy up there wearing an Expos jacket who got a lot of abuse. We only got a little, ourselves. I will say, though, that the Phillies fans shut up in a hurry when the first run on the board belonged to Washington.
- I laughed heartily when they announced over the loudspeaker that “The Phillies will not tolerate obscene language in the park.” I mean, really—this is Philadelphia. Get real.
Oh, right. I guess there was a game that happened, too.
I think this game was a pretty good analogue for what we can expect from this season: early hope (scored the first run), hanging around for a while (down 2-1), a pretty bad stretch (4-run fifth inning), a good period of quality play later in the season (3 runs late in the game) only to ultimately come up short.
It’s too bad ¡Livan! got drubbed, though. I’d been hoping—what with the off day tomorrow and all—that we could spend two days in first place.
The wind was silly! When I was sitting in my seats, it was bad enough, but when you walked out to the concourses, it was like a wind tunnel.
I’m not sure if the highlight of the day was watching those guys give everything they had to keep the flag from flying to Jersey, or watching the scoreboard operator consistenly put up the wrong players and wrong teams during the player intros. I got excited when I saw we had traded for Ivan Rodriguez!
— Chris 1285 days ago #
Attending was something of a last-minute decision for me—my friend David had two tickets and the person he was supposed to go with backed out at the end of last week.
Even though I’m not really a Phillies rooter anymore—although I hope they make the playoffs if the Nats don’t—you absolutely have to love the way the stands exploded when Kenny Lofton hit that home run. That’s what baseball is all about.
— John Y. 1285 days ago #
I HATE Kenny Lofton. Just hate him.
I was really impressed how the fans were in mid-season booing form. I just hope the Nats fans learn a thing or two for use when Castilla or Guzman are up!
— Chris 1285 days ago #