Phillies - Let's Play Ball

Let me take you to the ball game on a perfect spring evening, the quintessential American pass time.  Here we are arriving at Citizens Bank Park it's about seven in the evening.  This stadium was completed in 2001 and replaced the old Vet or Veterans Stadium.  In fact they built two new stadiums in this area instead of having one, the other is for American football Lincoln Financial Field.

So on a Tuesday afternoon a week ago a gentlemen from an adjacent office comes in and asks if anyone would like free tickets for the game tonight as he can't use them.  So since I was able to go that very evening and was pretty sure Mr. B and the Boy could too, I accepted them.  Mr B and I worked out that we had not been to a baseball game in over thirty years and shame on us the Boy had never been.

I love the warmth in the above photo, and can say that I was impressed with the stadium, I love the red brick, CBP has a retro but modern feel about it.  I was happy to go just to see the new stadium, I knew the old Vet Stadium very well, as for many years I attended Conventions there.  It always reminded me of the Coliseum in Rome, being totally round and very concrete looking.  One of the first things I noticed is that you do not have to climb up to it, I know that sounds crazy but the old Vet had these long ramps you had to climb to get up into the main concourse of the stadium. where as with CBP the parking lot seems so much closer and you walk in from ground level.  The old Vet had all these giant metal statues around it, I wonder what they did with those?

I can say that CBP has such a warmth to it, far more audience interactive, for instance you have tables at which you can sit and eat or have a beer and watch the game, not just from your seats, and there are so many more concession areas, of course they make more money this way, but it felt like going to a ball game in the thirties, it's that kind of stadium from the past.

Of course with modern technology you have these wonderful screens telling you about the players, we saw the Philadelphia Phillies verses the Toronto Blue Jays, the Blue Jays won, oh well!  Music plays and builds up the hype.  All new to us.

We bought the Boy the obligatory hot dog at $7.00 a piece, well it was his first game.

The Philadelphia cracked Liberty Bell iconic symbol of American Independence.

Here is the Phillies mascot, the Phillie Phanatic

 

The Phillies are in white and red, the Blue Jays in grey and blue, I must say the white and red stands out more and that sums up my knowledge of baseball, no I know the gist of how it's played.

We had a lovely evening out together as a family and all the better as it was so unexpected.

Christy