Six For Six

The Phillies’ Pat Burrell had just hit a pop-up to Atlanta’s short stop, Yunel Escobar, for the second out in the bottom of the first. “That’s it,” said the lady behind us at Citizen’s Bank Park. “They just lost another game.”

The lady, a Phillies’ fan, was mistaken. She didn’t know Alta and I were in the park. She also didn’t know the home team always wins when we’re there, at least on this trip. Atlanta didn’t get the message either, because they lost for the second straight time we’ve seen them on the road. Actually, we think Chipper Jones did know we were there because he sat out Thursday night’s game claiming to have a groin injury.

Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels pitched his first career shutout en route to a 5-0 win over the Braves. He had a lot of help in the form of three homers, including one by the Phillies’ slumping clean-up hitter, first baseman Ryan Howard.

Citizen’s Bank Park (CB from now on) is one of the top parks we’ve seen on this road trip. It’s also the only one of the six that isn’t in the downtown area. Our hotel is downtown and it was a six-stop ride on the SEPTA train to the park, making it a couple of miles at least from downtown. But it has a pretty view looking over I-76 to the skyline. All of the city’s sports venues are in the same area.

Every time a Phillies player hits a home run at CB a neon Liberty Bell in right field lights up. The bell swings back and forth. Alta thinks the neon bell was hokey, but it was a change from the fireworks we’ve witnessed before.

As we were leaving the park, we talked to one of the Phillies fans. When we told him what we were doing, and how all the home teams won every time, he wanted to know where we were going next. He probably wanted to bet on the game. We told him we don’t know. We’ve been to all but 7 of the MLB Parks – both Florida teams, both Texas teams, the LA Dodgers (I’ve been there but Alta hasn’t), Milwaukee and Minnesota. Kind of a tough road trip to put together at one time. Who knows?

Foodstuff: Alta’s doctor back in Denver, learning we were going to see the Phillies, had told her we had to eat a “Schmitter’s” sandwich at CB Park. The sandwich was invented by McNally’s Tavern in the Chestnut Hill area, has been served for years at the ball parks and has even been to the Super Bowl. It’s made of thinly sliced steak, grilled salami, cheese, minimal fried onions, miniscule tomatoes, a “special sauce” that tastes like 1,000 Island dressing, served on a Kaiser roll. I prefer it to the Pittsburgher with French fries on it but I wouldn’t go out of my way for either one (although we did for the first one).