Opening Day

Opening Day 2010

Philadelphia Phillies Home Opener
Citizen's Bank Park

Today is one of the best days of the year - baseball opening day!  It's been a long cold winter waiting for the boys of summer to come back and I am so excited that today is the day.  Sure, there were three games yesterday, but eh.  Who cares about them?  TODAY is the day!  The Philadelphia Phillies get their 2011 campaign started! Unfortunately, for the first time in several years, I can't make Opening Day.  :-(  I will enjoy it sitting on my sofa at home though.  And getting excited for Opening Day 2.0 (tomorrow!) when we'll head to Citizen's Bank Park to see CLIFF LEE!

See, I am a HUGE Phillies fan.  Have been ever since I was 12 years old and now that seems like a lifetime ago.  I used to go to games with my grandfather on Rotary nights (he was President of the local Rotary for a few years).  Then, when I was old enough, I would go to games with friends.  This was during the time of Veteran's Stadium when you could walk right up to the ticket booth and buy a ticket almost anywhere in the stadium.  The 700 Level tickets were $5.00, the perfect price for a college student.

In 2002, we got season tickets with a friend with great seats!  Third baseline, two rows behind the box seats, on the aluminum retractable seats.  Those were amazing seats and for 16 games in 2002 and 2003, we watched the Phils play from them.  We attended all three games of the last series at the Vet and if you look closely at the retrospective on the last game at Veteran's Stadium, you can see a bunch of us in the second to last row cheering.

In 2004, we grabbed season tickets at the new beautiful Citizen's Bank Park (which oddly enough, really doesn't have a nickname...) in section 421, right above home plate.  Great seats!  Then, we moved from Jersey and making weeknight games became tough and we gave up our season tickets.  Two hours on a weeknight was just too much to handle.

But, we kept going to games.  Not as often, but as much as possible.  And my two favorite games are Opening Day(!) and Fan Appreciation Day.  Awesome times to be at the stadium.  The best Fan Appreciation Day was in 2007, when the Phils won the National League East on the last day of the season.  Wow.  What an experience THAT was!

And now, we are at the start of a new season.  A season to me that seems incredibly exciting and full of play-off excitement.  I don't care that Chase Utley (who is far and away my FAVORITE player) might not play this season due to injury.  I don't care that Brad Lidge is starting on the DL and may not come back until mid-June.  I don't care that Placido Polanco might be having elbow issues.  I believe this team has what it needs to make it to and win the World Series.  And I'm sticking with it.  I don't care what the experts say.  I don't care what the naysayers say.  I believe in my team and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the World Series at the end of October!

Happy Opening Day to you!