2004 Baseball

Phillies 7 Orioles 6

Saturday Night
Citizen’s Bank Park
With Dave, Jennifer, Sujan, Stone Groove, Rosemary, Amy, Marc, Jamie, and Jim

It was an eventful night, to say the least. And, oh yeah, there was a game. At first, the game seemed like it was going to be a Phillies' blow out. The Orioles bullpen had pitched fifteen innings in the previous night’s game and because of injuries and general tiredness, the Orioles’ lineup featured such luminaries as Luis Lopez, Chad Mottola, and Robert Machado.

As far as the new ballpark goes, Citizen's Bank Park is okay. It is a vast improvement on the old park and the view of the skyline (if you aren’t situated behind the humongous scoreboard) is nice. I like the nooks and crannies of the field and the outfield stands reminds me of Coors Field. However, the view of the parking lots leave something to be desired. Marc complains that the missing walking rim in the upper deck made it so there were no vendors around. I would rank it higher than Miller Park and The Ballpark in Arlington in the ranks of new ballparks but below or at the same level with all the others that I have been to.

After falling behind 3-0 after the first inning, the Orioles looked strong. They even took a 6-4 lead into the 8th. Alas, the bullpen wasn’t up to the task and they blew it in the 8th. It was a nice night for a ballgame with family and friends. Rosemary was sufficiently entertained enough by Jim and Amy to enjoy her third big league game.

I think my favorite Stone Groove moment of the night was that he thinks Jerry Hairston looks like Bill Mantzouris. It turns out that my sister says that at every Oriole game, he cries out that he thinks many of the players look like Bill. He only admits to claiming Hairston and Brian Roberts look like him. I don’t know- you make the call.

Hairston

Roberts

Mantzouris

But it all came to a crashing halt in the 9th when Sujan started a fight with some Phillies fans. She describes the scene:

in retrospect, i admit it. i was bad. but i refuse to say i was not justified.

we rolled into citizens bank ballpark around 6pm to watch the phillies take on the orioles. i was with a bunch of orioles fans and really couldn't care about the phillies, other than they were 2 games ahead of the mets, so of course i was going to root for the orioles.
anyway, towards the later innings, the fans start chanting, "let's go phillies," to which i responded, "phillies suck." to which the obnoxious turd in front of me responded with flipping me the bird behind his back. he didn't even have the chutzpah to turn around and give me the finger. this offended me, so i leaned over in my seat and told him that i much preferred to be given the finger face to face. he then yelled at me so i yelled back at him. in his ear. i can give off quite a scream when i want to. then he called me a loser so i mocked his bird flipping. I told him to get a belt (his pants were quite low, exposing his boxer short-clad ass), he responded with "I'm doing you a favor." Daaaaamn.

unfortunately, the orioles lost the game. now my citizens bank park nemesis could have just left it at that, but no, he had to turn around and give me a double bird flip. i was besides myself. couldn't he just bask in the glory of a phillies win? dan told them to shut up, stone groove asked dan to stop, marc, of course, sided with the enemy.
so i didn't mean to alarm anyone or make them feel uncomfortable. i just have an aversion to stupid people. to be honest, i don't even know why i chanted phillies suck. i think i was just bored.

oh and i know many loyal youthlarge readers are also fans of stone groove. let me tell you, that guy is one of a kind. stone groove is my father-in-law to be. i sat next to him at the game and it was one chestnut after another. or as jamie likes to call them - bon mots. i don't think i should repeat most of them here, but stone groove had opinions on The L Word (he likes!), Luis Lopez, cherry ices, Rico from Six Feet Under and much much more that i can't remember.

Sujan, before the trouble.

And from my blog entry as Testosterone Dan:

At the game, there were some Abercrombie and Fitch type jokers in front of us. 19-year-old chumps who wouldn’t know class if it bit them on their Marlton, New Jersey assess. They thought they were flying high because some how a couple of these clowns ended up with beer.

In the top of the 9th, my lady cried out “Phillies Suck!” to counterbalance the “Let’s Go Phillies” chants. My lady is full of spark, being a New York girl, and is used to responding to chants of “Let’s Go Yankees” with chants of “Yankees Suck!” But I guess these jokers couldn’t take it.

One of them flipped my lady the bird behind his back! The chump didn’t even have the decency to give her the finger to her face. She gave this classless bastard a taste of his own medicine and that was that. Or it was until pinch hitter Javy Lopez struck out to end the game. They turned around and started giving my woman the finger and mocking us.

You don’t do that to me, my lady, or any of my New York crew (except for maybe Balgavy who deserved it, that guy was definitely not representing for Brooklyn on this evening) and get away with that. I stepped up to defend my woman’s honor. And if it weren’t for my auntie, my sweet little sister, and my dear ol’ pops there, I would have busted some heads. The assholes sauntered home to their moms and my crew went out to party.

The gang at Bob and Barbara's

Nate Wiley and the Crowd Pleasers

And what would a trip to Philadelphia be without a trip to Pat's?

Posted by dan at July 3, 2004 05:36 PM