I skipped the last Phillies game in my season ticket package because it was darn cold and I needed to pack for my trip to Santa Fe. So…despite tonight’s forecast for thunderstorms, I headed out to the ballpark to see the Phils take on the Rockies. I owed it to the Phillies, you know?
The Phillies took a seven-run lead in the first two innings, as the skies darkened significantly. In the stands, there was tension. We wondered whether we’d get through four-and-a-half innings so the Phillies would get the win and not a rain-out. After the Rockies’ third out in the top of the fourth, Phils starter Kyle Kendrick got a huge ovation. Relief!
It actually didn’t start to rain—significantly, anyway—until the eighth inning. Quickly enough, it was pouring. I took shelter near, um, an ice cream vendor for awhile. But during the bottom of the eighth, when the lightning started and when the tarps came out, I headed home. I’ve only ditched a game early a couple of times in my life, but it looked like this rain was going to last a long time.
Just as I was getting home, the game finished. The Rockies closed in some, mostly due to Tom Gordon’s poor “relief” pitching and what scorekeepers call “defensive indifference” (i.e., when a team is so far ahead that it’s willing to concede runs to get outs). But I’ll take a 7-4 win any day.
The most puzzling part of the evening was a freebie handed out by the Phillies. It’s a ballcap, a pretty bland, white ballcap, one with the cheapest possible plastic clasp. It reads: FIGHTINS Philadelphia Phillies.
FIGHTINS?
The hell? When the Phillies employee handed me the cap as I entered the stadium, I shot him a look, I guess. “I don’t know what it means,” he shrugged. Several hours later, I still don’t have a clue. Not Fightin’ Phillies. FIGHTINS Phillies. Hmm, it’s pretty preposterous.
FIGHTINS?
Someone…anyone, enlighten me.
Update #1 (5/28/08): The 700 Level has some great pictures from last night’s games. Cool clouds, huh?
Update #2 (5/28/08): I’ve been informed that Fightins is a legitimate, if little-used, nickname of the Phils. Hmm, ok. A Google search for Fightins returns only about 6,000 hits (versus, say, about 3 million for—randomly, I know—“rhinitis”), but most of them seem to be actual references to the Phillies. The term has even appeared—again, if rarely—in the inquirer and Daily News. Some of these references add an odd apostrophe (Fightins’), but that’s another battle, I suppose. Oh, and also: There’s even a new Phillies-oriented blog called The Fightins’. So, ok, I surrender. I’ve been a Phillies fan for a long time, and I ain’t never heard anybody call ’em The Fightins, but apparently it was time I did. It still doesn’t make any sense, though.