6/22/2009 - Citizens Bank Park - MLB Ballpark #5

2009 Game #3 - Baltimore Orioles at Philadelphia Phillies
Final Score: Orioles 2, Phillies 1
Hot Dog - 4/5

Since we left NYC so early on a Sunday morning, there was no traffic to speak of.  Also, we have totally bought into the EZ-Pass way of life.  When you don’t actually need to fork over the cash for a $10 bridge toll it doesn’t hurt as much.

Once we made it into Philadelphia, we met up with Mom and Kevin at their hotel.  They had been in Virginia for the last week, and were heading home.  When we realized that before the trip, we decided to all meet up in Philly for the game.  Across the street from the hotel is an apparently very popular diner, where we went for breakfast.  Well, for us it was more like lunch since our breakfasts had actually been a mini-box of cereal, a granola bar, and some honey roasted peanuts…a true Breakfast of Champions.  Anyway, back to the diner.  I (mistakenly as it turned out) pointed out that they served scrapple there.  (All I know about scrapple is that Kevin O’Connor was scared by it on an episode of This Old House.)  So anyway, Rich decided that he wanted to have some scrapple.  Picture this: a toasted slice of meatloaf.  And not good meatloaf, either (though I am convinced that such a thing does not actually exist).  I was grossed out, but Rich bravely cut into the scrapple.  Then he plopped a piece onto my plate.  Ack!  It was mostly salty, and the rest was just eh.  I wouldn’t eat it, given the choice in the future.*

Following the Scrapple Adventure, we were off to Citizens Bank Park to see the Phillies take on the Orioles.  The staff there was much more open to allowing fans down to field level to take pictures before the game.  Also, Rich and I went on a hunt to find a pin for our collection.  We decided that our souvenirs of the trip would be a pin from each park, preferably featuring the park as opposed to the team that plays in the park.  After checking the smaller shops in the park, we didn’t find anything about the park, so we went to the team’s mega-store.  We had to wait in line to get in, so we had been trying to avoid it.  In the store, there were still no pins about the park.  At this point, we were resigned to just picking a Phillies one, but then Rich found one for Citizens Bank Park: it was on the Pin Trading Board!  The Phillies have a pin trading board, where you take a pin, and leave a pin. (They do something similar in Disney these days, too.)  On the board, just waiting for us, was the Citizens Bank Park we had been dreaming of!  Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the idea.  So we bought another pin, and traded.  Score!

The park itself was quite nice, and the game was yet another pitchers’ duel.  I saw my first major league managerial ejection, as Charlie Manuel (of the Phillies) was tossed in the 8th.  The Phillies ended up losing, which puts our record for home team victories at 0-3.  Hopefully that improves.  On the other hand, we went to our second consecutive Free Hat game!  Yesterday, the Mets were handing out freebies to everyone, while today the Phillies were giving patriotic bucket hats to the menfolk in honor of Fathers’ Day.  One thing we also noticed at today’s game was that the stadium was very quiet.  Not that the fans weren’t hootin’ and hollerin’ but rather that there was almost no music or “CHARGE!” blaring over the loudspeakers.  I thought it was nice.  Let the boys just play!  At the end of the losing game, the tune was “Take It Easy” by the Eagles (an excellent song, I might add).

As of the end of the game today, our trip was 10% over in terms of scheduled baseball games.  Only 27 more to go!

*Today’s Adventures in the World of Scrapple was sponsored in part by Brian C. and Chris P.

-Karyn