May 25, 2011: The Craziest Phillies Game I’ve Ever Been To

Posted by Stephen Gallo

I’m not breaking any new ground with this post, Michael Baumann over at Phillies Nation wrote a great post about his experience at last night's game earlier this morning. I did, however, want to share my own experiences from last night’s wild and raucous Phillies game. It’s a game that could define the season and whether that is overstating it or not, this game won’t leave our minds anytime soon.

This isn’t a game breakdown. Philliedelphia's own Danielle Wilson posted that recap here late last night. This is, however, a short story about my experience at last night’s Phillies and Reds marathon.

My three friends and I headed down to the ballpark and arrived around 6:45 last night, as we always do. After consuming my pregame cheese steak, I got comfortable in my beloved seat in section 420, row one and prepared to watch Roy Halladay pitch, which as we all know, means that we could witness greatness. First pitch was at 7:08 on a beautiful spring evening in front of yet another sell out crowd. What happened over the next six hours and 11 minutes was epic.

First off, I'd like to point out that I started in my normal seats in section 420. Seen here:

 
And in the tenth inning moved down to a little bit of a better view, seen here:

We all know how we got there. Phillies scored the first three, but the Reds scored the next four. In the bottom of the tenth, Ryan Howard hit a baseball that I’m pretty sure just landed. What’s even crazier?

– How about a position player, Wilson Valdez, pitching and getting the win?

– How about Carlos Ruiz’s awesome dive onto the rolled up tarp along the third base line to try and catch a foul ball in the 19^th inning?

– How about reliever Danys Baez getting just the 5^th at-bat of his ten season career?

– The few thousand fans that remained for the whole game was treated to a second 7^th inning stretch before the bottom of the 14^th.

– In extra innings, the Phillies played a different “Hype video” containing a clip from a movie before the home half of every inning. We saw Rocky (of course), Friday Night Lights, Rudy, Happy Gilmore and “300” to name a few.

– Once they used up the Septa Race and Bobble head race (which is awful now compared to the bobble head race of years past), and got past the smile cam, bongo cam, and “Do the robot” cam, the fans were treated to random camera shots of themselves in the middle of every inning, which honestly got a little old.

– Food and beverage was getting scarce. With most of the concession stands shut down after the regular nine innings, it was hard to find a bite to eat in the entire stadium. One woman in our section came back in the 18^th inning with a pretzel. She might as well have been holding the last morsel of food on Earth.

What’s almost as good as all that? The Phillies play again in less than an hour. Game time is at 1:00 and Clifton Lee is starting.

So as I sit here and enjoy my breakfast consisting of Mountain Dew, and try to make it until closing time at 5:00, I wonder what this team has in store for us today.