On Sunday morning - I was awakened early in New York City by my cellphone. The night before was spent on an overnight train through Germany to catch our Brussels plane home - and Saturday night was a gala wedding of my friend Gary's daughter. The phone call was from my son - Keith - he is an economist for the federal government in DC.
Keith said that that my old team - The Phillies - was playing his favorite team - the St. Louis Cardinals at 6 PM. Since both of us had not seen the two new Philadelphia stadiums - we decided to meet in Philly - enjoy the day and each other's company. When your 28 year old son says he wants to spend a day with you - you do everything possible to make it happen.
Lulu was still smarting from the wedding - as I bolted from our hotel room on Broadway - I only had on shorts - a tee shirt - and sandals. I picked up the basic 3 - my wallet - camera - and cell phone. I was off and running to Penn Station. The train to Philly was $68 each way - but Lulu was back in the room searching the net for deals. She found a Chinese bus that took the trip for $15 each way - $35 round trip. I decided to try it.
At Penn Station - I found the bus outside. It looked fine - so I hopped on. At noon - I was in Philadelphia - sitting with Keith in the car. We had lunch at the famous Melrose Diner in South Philly. Thenw e went to see the Liberty Bell - Independence Hall - the Seaport - an art exhibit in the old Second National Bank. It was hot but breezy - so we stopped at the City Tavern and sample several of the colonial ales.
Then we drove to the ball park. The park hold 44,000 - much smaller than the old days. I think they build them smaller to raise ticket prices - anyway it was sold out - so I had to turn to the street for tickets. Regular prices are $15 to $60 each. The scalpers were circling me - but I would nto budge - I was not paying more than $10 a ticket. Finally abotu half hour before game time - a guy offered me two $24 tickets for $10 each - I took them.
There is a giant food court - plaza - out in left field - we headed there right away. We settled on some nice pulled pork barbacue form Greg Luzinski's Bull Pen - and checked out our seats.
The Phillies fans enjoy their reputation as being knowledgeable but miserable fans. The have only won one world series in 100 years - and have the reputation as the losing-est team in all of pro sports. The 6PM starting time - the possible 10,000th loss - and ESPN game of the week coverage had them in rare high form.
We sat down to a pair of twins that looked like WWF wrestlers. They seemed to have a little routine they go through in the season tickets seats. They were playful- then sinister - then dirty - then apologetic. A harbinger of things to come was when one of the twins just took a full 32 ounce beer and poured it on the top of the other guys bald head. He looked at me for a reaction - I just stared him in the eye and said, "That guy just wasted $8.00." We were friends for life.
The score was pretty bad - 2 to nothing - 4 to nothing - then 4 homers by the Cards. Here is the kicker - a long fly ball is coming right toward me - I could see me being pasted in the eye or the crowd trampling me. With my one-eyed vision - I am not that good at depth preception. Anyway - the balls falls short - thank goodness - and bounced into the lap of this pretty 18 year old girl. She is excited beyond believe. Looking closer - you could see had cancer - she lost her hair to treatment and fuzz was growing back. She had a "Make a Wish" tee shirt on. She was so excited she was crying. Then disaster. The crowd started chanting on national TV - for her to throw the ball back on the field - because you do not keep and oppossing team's homer balls. She refused. The crowd starting booing this young girl. But she would not relent. This all played out on national TV and the Phillies were embarrassed.
The ushers came over and asked her to put the ball in her bag - still the fans booed. Finally - they brought her all sorts of souvenirs to try to make up for it on national TV - the boos got worse. Then in typical Philly "losing" fashion - they escorted her out under guard protection.
What would one expect in the City of Brotherly Love. As I left the park park - with bars of the "Theme from the Movie Philadelphia" playing in my head - I enjoyed my homecoming.
In 1978 to 1980 - Lulu and I owned a tour bus. We used to take tours to Philadelphia in the bus - taking my students - friends - and locals - on trips to ball games and historic places. Or prized possessions were 20 season box seats behind the Phillie dugout - every Sunday - a "give away" game of bats - hats - balls - bags. We thought we owned this city.
My son dropped me off at the 30th St Station - I got the biggest hug - I caught the 9:15 train to Penn Station in Manhattan - and like Cinderella was I was back in Manhattan before I turned into a pumpkin.
It is ironic - my first game to a big league game was in 1956. I took the train from my hometown in the coal regions to see the Phillies lose to Wille Mays and the New York Giants at Connie Mack Stadium. My 8 year old body was more interested in the chocolate milk in little glass bottles that they loaded onto the train in Valley Forge on the way home. It was so good - they borught it on the train just for us little league players. Almost every kids in town was on that train - a day in Philly - the smells of the ball park - almost heaven.
But this day was different - I was with my son - I was a Florida resident - a trailing spouse following my wife - Lulu - all over the globe. But some things never change - the Phillies lost number 10,000 - and I was there - with my son.
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