Yesterday I was able to go to the Phillies Brewers Game 1 of the NLDS. We had standing room tickets, which were $80 for two of them. The game started at 3 pm and we got there around 1. It was a crazy scene down at the stadium, people were tailgating everywhere, there was a huge rally with Phillies ball girls, announcers, and of course the Phille Phanatic. We stopped by the rally for a minute and then it was onto McFaddens for some drinks.
Since we had standing room tickets, we thought we would go in a little early to find a good place. We ended up right behind Ashburn Alley in center field. It was a really good spot, dead on to home plate. There were a bunch of people around us who were all just as excited and nervous as we were. Their were two first pitches thrown out yesterday. The first was Richard Bowes, the parter of fallen Philadelphia Police Officer Patrick McDonald. It was a very touching moment. Bowes was also shot but survived. The second first pitch was thrown by Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams. Obviously wild thing threw it well over the catchers head, he then gave his jersey to Bowes. For those of you who don’t know, Mitch Williams gave up the Homer to Joe Carter to lose the 1993 world series to the Blue Jays. He has since comeback to the city and now does Phillies Post Game Live on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.
There was some cold rain during the game, but it couldn’t take anything away from this amazing day. When the game started and Cole struck out the first batter the crowd of over 49,000 went nuts. No one was really sure how Cole Hamels would respond to this type of game, but he really proved to be the ace of the staff, taking a perfect game into the fifth. His performance reminded of the last time a playoff game was won in philly.
8 innings and 9 k’s later it was time for Brad Lidge to come in and shutdown this 3-0 game. It was a very shaky ninth, with one run in and two men in scoring position Lidge beared down and struck out Corey Hart to end the ballgame. After that it really felt like the Phils had won more than a game one of the NLDS, the fans were going absolutely nuts. Jumping, hugging, waving their “fightin phils” rally towels. What a game and what a day.
I’ll post some pictures from the day later.
