Last night, I was back at Citizens Bank Park—and in my regular section—to watch the Phillies’ first game of the season against the Giants. There’s no news in the Man Trap Department™ to report, I’m afraid: I went to the game with my best female friend. She pretended to be a tall, athletic, goofily charming stallion, though, and that helped. (If she reads this, there’ll be hell to pay for saying that, believe me.)
The Phillies played well. Very well. Super-stud Chase Utley started the game off with a homer in the bottom of the first, and the Phillies were ahead, 4-1, by the bottom of the fourth. Somehow or other, though, things gradually almost got out of hand. In the top of the seventh, former Phillie Aaron Rowand (who, happily enough, got a big ovation from the fans at his first at-bat) hit a three-run homer to tie things up. Meanwhile, what began as a beautiful spring evening was turning into an outright cold night.
And, of all things, my section suffered from what had to be one of the loudest fans in the ballpark. She YELLED out to every batter. She WHISTLED—so loudly that my friend pulled out ear plugs. And Annoying Fan delivered a running, running, running commentary on EVERYTHING. It was like sitting next to Ethel Merman on steroids. Whew. At one point, when she wondered where everyone else in her row had gone, the group of fans around me (we bonded a little bit) lost it. We laughed and laughed, especially after someone yelled back that he envied the missing fans….
Anyway, the game was still tied, 4-4, at the end of nine innings. My friend and I wondered how much of the cold, and the LOUD fan, we could tolerate. And then Rowand hit another homer for the Giants in the top of the 10th, making it seem like the game was headed for the worst possible ending. But hunky Pat Burrell came to our aid—with a bottom-of-the-tenth, game-winning homer. It couldn’t have been more exciting. The Phillies had two outs when Burrell launched a fastball over the left field wall. Walk-off home run.
Sweet.
Update (5/5/08): I just added the video, which I found at The700Level, one of my favorite Philly sports blogs. (See, it’s right there in the blogroll.) There, you can also find video documenting the warm welcome we gave Aaron Rowand. The video is gone. Goodbye, Redlasso.