Day 12: Philadelphia

Today we were in Philadelphia to see the Phillies take on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Citizen's Bank Park. It was the 2nd time that we had seen the Devil Rays play, and they had the same pitcher on the mound tonight as they did against Detroit last week, Scott Kazmir. Since I won when I had the D-Rays before, I figured I had to go with them again since Scott K. was on the mound. Tampa played a fundamentally sound game, and had home runs from Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford, and Jorge Cantu to power their way to a 7-2 victory. Overall, I now have a 6-3 lead on picking games against Ben on the trip.

Special thanks to Mr. Stazak for getting us tickets to the Phillies game tonight. Our seats were almost directly behind home plate, about 25 rows back. It was a great vantage point, and one we had not experienced yet in any of our previous games.



We left Pittsburgh at 9:00am this morning, and drove on the PA Turnpike until we headed towards Newark, DE, via Amish Town. It was very interesting to drive through and see them working out in the fields and on the roads in their horse & buggies. If you are traveling this way in the future, be wary of the intersection of E. Main St. and N. Decatur Rd. in Strausburg, PA. The Amish enjoy very long traffic light-cycles, and the crowds they attract ended up costing us 45 minutes on the drive through southeastern Pennsylvania.

My Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Hubie were awaiting our arrival with an excellent meal including pork chops, potatoes, and spinach. Rumor has it the spinach was good. We then had some lively conversation before heading down to the ballpark at 4:30.



Without question, the Philly Fanatic is the best mascot we have seen on the trip so far. He has no shame and the organization gives him free reign to entertain the crowd in any way, and he certainly does a good job. He was almost as entertaining as the doctor who sat beside us and gave us a detailed play-by-play account of each play that was about to take place. Although, he did predict the home run that Jorge Cantu hit in the 8th inning, 1 pitch before it happened. I suppose, even blind squirrels find nuts.

Along those lines, the fans in Philadelphia were very negative from the beginning of the game. They seemed rather hopeless about the game throughout, and had special animosity for 3rd baseman David Bell, who was booed loudly before he came up to bat in the 1st inning. It didn't help things however when he struck out his 1st 2 at bats.



One nice perk about the ballpark in Philadelphia was the complimentary shuttle that was offered from the parking lot to the stadium entrance. Not everyone received a ride, but the driver would randomnly stop at your car as you were getting out and offer a ride in the golf cart to the turnstyles. We were lucky enough to experience this, and learned a little bit about the facts of the stadium as well.

We had an excellent time in Pittsburgh, and wanted to thank Jackie for letting us stay with her. Despite me having to "help" her out with cooking the hot dogs, she was a wonderful host and it was great to hang out for a few days.

Here are the statistical updates:
1-end of day odometer: 20,394
2-miles traveled today: 380
3-miles traveled total: 3,751
4-states traveled in today: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware
bonus stat: the home team is 4-0 on our trip when the game takes place on an even numbered date