Ballpark: Citizens Bank Park

On Saturday, June 1, my friend Danny and I went to the Phillies vs. Brewers game at Citizens Bank Park. Citizens Bank Park in located in South Philadelphia Sports Complex. This sport complex consists of Citizens Bank Park (Phillies), Lincoln Financial Field (Eagles), and the Wells Fargo Center (76ers and Flyers) as well as a building that houses several sports bars. Although all three arenas share the same parking lot, Danny and I took the subway right to the sports complex.

Citizens Bank Park is one of the many newer ballparks that I would characterize as "retro". The stadium is made primarily of brick, downtown Philadelphia provides a backdrop beyond centerfield, and steel lighting banks tower over the field. The concourses are wide and filled with many local speciality foods including two cheesesteaks from two different local favorites (John Luke's and Campo's) and a place that serves crab fries (fries with seasoning that is typically used on crabs). Danny and I split the crab fries and each had a ice cream cone since it was so hot out. There is also the a huge play place down the first base line that looks like it a McDonald's play place on steroids. A cool aspect of the stadium is the hall of fame and bullpen areas in centerfield. The hall of fame contains a timeline history of the organization and plaques for numerous stars throughout the years. Next to the hall of fame are the staggered stacked bullpens. The Phillies chose the bottom bullpen, leaving the visitors the top bullpen and at the mercy of some of hecklers who hang out above the bullpens.

Our seats were in the top deck next to the large steel structure of the Liberty Bell in right center. The Liberty Bell was hinged and rocked back and forth whenever the Philies hit a home run. The seats were high up but close horizontally to the field. This proved to be a problem because the seats were not steep enough and we could not see any part of deep right field. Aside from having a limited view of right field, we had a good overhead view of the rest of the ballpark.

The Phillies put themselves in a 2-0 hole in the second inning. The game really wasn't too exciting in the middle innings, but the Brewers held a 3-2 lead in the top of the 8th inning. Jonathan Lucroy homered to left field to give the Brewers a two run lead. As it turned out, the Brewers would need that run to hold on for the win. Francisco Rodriguez (K-Rod) came into the game in the bottom of the 9th to save the game for the Brewers. The first batter hit a home run to right (we couldn't see the ball clear the fence from our seats) that brought the ballpark to life. Jimmy Rollins then provided a pinch hit single but was lifted for pitcher Kyle Kendrick as a pinch runner (since Rollins was dealing with a leg injury).  After a sacrifice bunt, Kendrick was picked off second base as the tying run. The base running blunder proved costly as the next batter double to right, a hit that would have tied the game if Kendrick hadn't been picked off! K-Rod was eventually able to get out of the inning and preserve the 4-3 win for the Brew-Crew.

My take-away from Citizens Bank Park is that it is a classic "retro" ballpark with a huge capacity. The Liberty Bell steel structure in right center provides a defining characteristic of the ballpark to differentiate it from a generic ballpark built in a retro style. A few things bothered me about ballpark: (1) the limited view from our seats and (2) the fans around me cheered every time a Phillie made contact with ball, even if it was a weak ground ball.

East Coast Trip: Day 7 and Day 8

I took a 9 AM train out of Manhattan back to Greenwich, CT so I could pickup my car. I then drove across the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey and then into Pennsylvania. My friend from high school, Danny, was recently relocated from a Philadelphia suburb to upstate New York. His apartment lease in Philadelphia ended on June 4, so he came back to pack up his remaining personal items and furniture. In exchange for letting me stay at his apartment and showing me around Philadelphia, I helped him clean his apartment and load his furniture into a U-Haul truck. When I finally arrived in Philadelphia on Friday (Day 7) afternoon, we went together and picked up the U-Haul. We packed and loaded a majority of his furniture and personal belongings on Friday, taking a break halfway through to eat at a brewery downtown West Chester, PA.

On Saturday (Day 8), we took the train into Philadelphia. We then went through the Reading Terminal Market, a large indoor building containing numerous food counters and vendors. We then walked a coupled of blocks over to Independence Mall to get tickets for a tour of Independence Hall. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before our scheduled tour time, we walked to Penn's Landing and to Thadeus Kosciuszuko National Memorial before returning to see the Liberty Bell back at Independence Mall. It was pretty neat to see the Liberty Bell in person because it such an iconic symbol of the city and early America. We then had a tour of Independence Hall, which felt like a miniature history lesson (with props) on the American Revolution.

We then took the bus across town to a more modern iconic image of Philadelphia: the steps of the art museum. I was one of several people who ran up the steps of the museum and raised my hands in the air like Rocky. We then walked back towards the subway and got cheesesteaks sandwiches from a corner restaurant. There are a couple of well-known cheesesteak restaurants in Philadelphia but Danny explained to me that locals almost never go to the most famous places because the lines are always long. While some people consider it blasphemy, others think that all cheesesteaks are about the same. Regardless, I enjoyed the cheesesteak and it reminded me of one of my favorite Ann Arbor eateries, Mr. Spots.

We then took the subway down to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phillies vs. Brewers.  My experience at Citizens Bank Park will come soon in a separate post. After the game, we took the subway to downtown Philadelphia and transfered to the commuter train. The commuter train was packed with high-schoolers. Apparently all of the high-schoolers came from tailgating at a Luke Bryan concert downtown. It was a very awkward situation because many of the kids were belligerent. When we finally got back to Danny's apartment, we finished loaded his car and the U-Haul. We then cleaned the apartment and went to bed after a long day.