Phillies Nation

Fan Friday – Jacob

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, February 20, 2009 01:17 PM

This is the final installment of Fan Friday – thanks to everyone who sent in a story!

I was born and raised in West Philly. I am a die-hard Phillies fan.

Since I moved to North Carolina, my love for the Phillies has not changed.

I still attend a half dozen or so games. I even got a personalized North Carolina plate to support the team.

Phillies pride is here to stay.

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Fan Friday – Tim

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, February 13, 2009 01:19 PM

I have followed the team since before the 1993 season. Along the way, I have collected much merchandise. My pride and joy is my hat collection: all sizes, shapes, colors and types.

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Fan Friday Update – Sister Janice

Posted by Brian Michael, Sun, February 08, 2009 09:45 AM

Many of you may remember one of our more beloved Fan Friday participants, Sister Janice, from her post three weeks ago (if not, read it now).  I know one generous person from South Carolina in particular can recall the story.  Just over a week ago, this anonymous fan mailed Sister two free tickets to the April 20th game versus the Padres.  While not quite a Phillies miracle, it really goes to show the true nature of Phillies fans – good-hearted people that flat-out love the Phillies and consider fellow fans family.  If the anonymous ticket donor is reading this post, please know that Sister Janice was brought to tears by your gift and will certainly be attending the game.  For anyone else going to the game that day, be on the look out for one of the biggest Phillies fans around.

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Fan Friday – Jane

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, February 06, 2009 01:19 PM

As weird as it may seem, my life has always been defined as being a Phillies fan. That’s what I’m known for.

That’s how and part of the reason why I married my husband. We even had a Phillies-themed wedding.

The best story about my insane Phillies obsession comes from when I was 13 years old. I just had spinal surgery and was being watched closely in recovery by the nurses. The Phillies were playing the Dodgers in LA and Carlton was pitching. Even in my pain, I was listening to the game. I had a little ear piece attached to a small radio. No one could hear except for me. It was around 11 p.m. and pretty quiet on the girl’s ward. All of a sudden, Lefty hit a grand slam, and I started screaming! Well, all of the nurses came running and even called the doctor on call. Needless to say, they were not very happy when they realized my screams were caused by the Phillies! From then on, I was allowed to watch on a TV by the nurses’ desk so that they would know why I was screaming!

When I was released from the hospital, I had a full body cast, but my sister was able to draw Tug’s jersey on the back.

I have found that rooting for the Phillies is a wonderful way to unite people and a city that might otherwise have nothing in common. It is a great game, and the Phillies are not just someone to root for, they are a way of life.

Let’s Go Phillies!!

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Fan Friday – Jarrod

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, January 30, 2009 01:18 PM

I am without a doubt the biggest Phillies fan to ever draw breath, and I think my lifetime of accomplishments speaks for itself. I have written in Mike Schmidt for president in every presidential election since I was old enough to vote.

The 1980 World Championship means so much to me that I’m able to forgive Tug McGraw not only for playing for the Mets, but for fathering Tim McGraw. In fact, I’d likely forgive him for Pearl Harbor and the Irish Potato Blight. I have dressed as the Phanatic every Halloween since 1989. When a friend pointed out that it was getting a little small on me I called the CIA and had him arrested for being a terrorist. I once started a bar fight with Daryl Strawberry just because. As a teenager I attempted to break into the Vatican and repaint the saints on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the image of the Phillies championship team. I was discovered and kicked out of the Vatican before I was halfway through.

I used to be an astronaut, but I got kicked out of the space program when NASA discovered my plan to plant a Phillies pennant on Mars. Betsy Ross originally intended the U.S. flag to be beige, teal, and salmon, but I built a time machine, traveled back to 1777, and kicked her in the stomach until she saw reason and changed it to Phillies Red, White, and Blue.

I have devoted my life to the Phillies and I have only one regret; not selling my left kidney for World Series Tickets when I had the chance. Please Phillies Nation, help me keep my organs and fulfill my dream by voting me the biggest Phillies fan.

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Fan Friday – Sister Janice

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, January 23, 2009 01:14 PM

I am a Sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth, and I work at Holy Family University.

I believe I quality as a great Phillies fan, because from 2000 to 2007, I lived in Texas, and I guarantee that I was the only Phillies fan in that great state! I could not listen to the games, of course, but I subscribed to MLB.com and I watched every single game that was not blacked out for me (Houston games). The Sisters all knew when I was having my “holy hour.”

My office here at the University is decorated with Phillies photos, bobble heads, and everything else that my co-workers, who know how much I love the Phillies, have brought in for me. I have my red shirt ready to wear during the World Series games, and my rally towel to wave. I have to add that I really do storm heaven for them during their games!

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Fan Friday – Christina

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, January 16, 2009 01:17 PM

This past summer Dunkin Donuts held the Cole Hamels promotion where in every Dunkin Donuts they had a life size cut out him and a big poster with him and ice coffee. Cole Hamels is one of my favorite Phillies and I definitely wanted that cut out. Whenever I went into Dunkin Donuts, I always said to myself I need that cut out and poster. Now this is where my journey began.

By the end of July I began cracking jokes to the crazy people who worked there, like “Oh my I love him!! Can I have him?” The crazy people just looked at me like I was insane. They probably just did not understand me. Finally, after begging for my Cole the cashier gave in and told me that on Tuesday morning, he was giving Cole away to the first customer that came. Well, I was determined to be that first customer, so that Tuesday morning my boyfriend and I woke up at 4:30am and drove down to the Dunkin Donuts. As soon as we walked in the cashiers began laughing and slapping their heads and told us, “AHHH! We left it in the truck at home! Come back later today I will have it.” I was so mad. So then I stopped by around 11:00am that same morning and there was a new cashier who I began to tell my story to and she did not understand anything I was saying so she called her dad and handed me the phone. He said for me to come back again the next morning so I agreed and my boyfriend and I woke up again at 4:30am and drove down to Dunkin Donuts for the second time.

So we got there and they played us for fools AGAIN! They told us to come back in a few days because Cole was at another Dunkin Donuts that the same manager owned. This really pissed me off, but I thought of Cole so I agreed to stop in and try again for Cole’s sake. The day that the guy told us to come back was the morning my boyfriend and I were leaving for the shore so it was now or never. As we drove there it was pouring rain and we were so fired up and were determined to leave with Cole because be fought for him and we deserved him.

As soon as we walked in the Dunkin Donuts guys were laughing and acting weird so we were positive that we got punk’d again. That is until Cole came out we went crazy and thanked everyone so much. This was definitely one of my favorite Phillies memories. Since then, whenever we are watching the Phillies we always have Cole by our side. He is like a good luck charm and everybody loves him.

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Fan Friday – Dick

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, January 09, 2009 01:17 PM

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Fan Friday – Al

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, January 02, 2009 01:16 PM

Every since I raced to the door on Sunday mornings on Glenview St. off Roosevelt Boulevard to beat my father to the morning Inquirer when I was just learning to read at Solis Cohen Elementary School, my day hasn’t been complete without a Phillies update. Dad passed on his love of this team to my brother and me, just as a slew of returning WWII vets had done, as the Whiz Kids helped soothe the trauma of that war. He’d tell me tales of sneaking into Shibe park as a boy to watch games with my uncles. His heroes – Ashburn, Roberts, Simmons, Hamner, et al., became my treasured baseball cards that I would buy with my first allowances at the drug store on Tyson and Bustleton.

My zeal for the Phillies was so great, that I committed my only crime at the age of 6. My dad kept a collection of silver dollars in the same drawer in his bedroom chest in which a calendar picture of Marilyn Monroe lay temptingly under some undershirts. Not sure how many dollars I took, but it was enough to buy a whole box of cards- the entire series of Topps baseball cards, circa 1952.

Proudly, the next day, I showed off all the Whiz Kids cards to my Glenview street stick and step ball buddies. But my glee was short lived. I guess the druggist snitched, for my mother called me inside and scared me with a fake call to the Philadelphia police to get me to confess my crime. I returned all of the cards. Ironically I spent many years as a public defender for juveniles. She kept the deed quiet from my dad. His only concern was who was looking at the Marilyn Monroe calendar portrait.

The Phils’ fortunes have bookmarked each day since. No matter where I’ve been, I’ve known before sleep what they had done that day.

I’m not as bitter about 1964 as many fans became over the collapse. Great movie, sad ending. I can remember leaving for Penn State the day Bunning beat the Dodgers to give the Phils a 6 1/2 game lead with just 12 to play. I could barely hear the radio feed up there in Happy Valley, but the Pittsburgh fans that filled West Halls sure let me know the results of those fateful 10 games. I just attended a reunion party with friends from Marple-Newtown’s class of that year, and there was substantial reminiscing about that team and the year of hope turned sour.

When I went to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina in ‘69 I listened to static filled accounts on 1210 radio when the sun went down to assuage my homesickness. In 1980 I staged a one man drunken soiree through the streets of Raleigh after McGraw sealed the long awaited title deal.

Last week, 56 years and 500 miles removed from those days on Glenview St, this haggard attorney slumped into Court with the glow of the Phillies pennant somehow blanketing the gloom our current economic troubles. I reflected upon those early days during lulls and doodled lineups from the 50’s on my notepad. Go Phillies. An unbroken umbilical chord to my hometown.

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Fan Friday – Jane

Posted by Brian Michael, Fri, December 26, 2008 01:16 PM

I was destined to be exposed to the virus that infects all Phillies fans by my father I’m sure while I was still in the womb. My earliest memories growing up in the late 1950s are falling asleep to the sound of the Phillies on the radio. The console radio was for some reason kept in my bedroom, and that’s where my dad listened to the games. So…I listened to them too. If he was trying to brainwash me, it worked! I guess he thought that by having an only child who was a girl; brainwashing me was the best way to “grow” a Phillies fan!

When the Phillies transitioned into broadcast TV, so did we. We had only one television (black and white, of course) and if I wanted to watch TV, it was usually the Phillies! I remember that one year our vacation to the Jersey Shore was planned to coincide with taking in a game at Shibe Park. I vividly remember that my dad parked his car in someone’s driveway for the game. I don’t remember who won the game, however!

To be closer to the Phillies, I chose to attend Penn. I attended many games in September and April, enjoying every one. Of course, the Phillies were always as close as my radio and TV. After graduation, I moved to northern New Jersey, and experienced my worst homesickness for the Phillies, not my family! I was glad when they made the playoffs and I could sneak my radio to work to listen to the games.

I returned to Penn in 1980 to obtain my master’s degree. What wonderful timing! I was in Philly for that wonderful World Series winning season. I was in my apartment at 40th & Chestnut Streets when the Phillies announced that World Series tickets would go on sale the following day at 9 AM. I grabbed my sleeping bag, some cash, and headed off on the Market and then Broad Street subways to score some tickets. I slept at the Vet and got some of the last tickets available, on the top row in the outfield (who knew those were bleacher seats without chairs?) and my dad and I had a blast. We were there! At the Phillies World Series! And we saw them win a game! I can also say that thanks to my dad, I was at the parade that ended up at JFK Stadium. He told me I had to go, even though I had class that day. And I went saying – who knows if I’ll ever have another chance to attend another Phillies celebration parade. It was a wonderful decision and one that I never ever regret!

Through the ensuing years, my dad and I have continued our obsession with the Phillies. We watch them through good and bad, through managers that my dad hurls expletives at, and years where we were just so close and years that we were just so bad. We never ever gave up on the Phillies, not even with Mitch and Joe Carter. My dad always says that the Phillies would have never been in the World Series to start with in 1993 if not for Mitch Williams. My dad has forgiven him for that one pitch; me — not so much.

My dad and I have been lucky enough to experience many Phillies moments together in person. We attended one of the Phillies-Oriole World Series debacles in 1993 with the Wheeze Kids. We attended a playoff game against Atlanta in 1993 and a World Series win against the Blue Jays. We were at the All Star game at the Vet. I have taken my dad on Phillies “Road Trips” to see the Phillies play at Wrigley, in Colorado, at Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards always fully dressed head to toe in Phillies gear. Together we attended that magical day at Cooperstown when Michael Jack Schmidt and Richie Ashburn were inducted into the Hall of Fame. We will never forget the “sea of red” and that we were part of it!

Somehow I managed to get tickets for Opening Day of Citizen’s Bank Park. My dad was just recovering from a hospitalization for pneumonia, and was determined to attend. The weather that day was cold and rainy, but off we went anyway at my dad’s insistence. My dad said – “If I die there, it would be OK. I’d be at the Phillies game.” That’s my daddy!! We were the first two people in line to enter at the gate by Ashburn Alley. As we stood in the cold dreary weather, who came out with his entourage but Steve Carlton who was coming out to unveil his statue. My dad literally ran over to Steve Carlton, and said, “I’ve always wanted to shake the hand of a hall of fame pitcher. Congratulations, Mr. Carlton.” I held my breath, but Steve just very nicely said – thank you sir. I’m not quite sure my dad has yet washed that hand!

My dad is now 81 years old, and I thought our chances of attending another Phillies World Series together had passed us by. I have tried all of my connections for tickets to no avail. Then I saw your contest, and hope that you will agree with me that my dad Tom Ziegenfus is the greatest Phillies fan and reward both of us with one more chance to attend one more World Series game together. Thanks for reading our story.

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