Phillies Nation

by Adam Kilgore
Nationals Journal
Washington Post Nationals Blog

The only obvious thing about all those Phillies fans from opening day is the anger. A lot of Nationals fans who attended believe the presence of so many visiting fans spoiled their opening day, and a good number of them are under the impression that the Nationals aided and abetted the interlopers.

Definitely, I can say the Nationals did not discourage them. After that, I think it gets kind of complicated. What should the Nationals have done? Should the Nationals have turned away large groups from Philly? Should they have sold fewer groups seats, period?

There are two viewpoints that probably cut to both sides of those questions. A Nationals fan named Daniel Furth e-mailed the Post yesterday and called Monday, “the worst baseball experience ever.” He’s the fan I talked to for the story in the birdcage liner. He goes to about 20 games each year and he usually brings with him a small group of people.

“I just think that they are really short-sighted about how to build a fan base,” Furth said. “Sure, they’re getting revenue and they’re selling tickets. But building a fan base would have been making sure these tickets were available to people all over the D.C. area.”

Another viewpoint comes from a Phillies fan named Brian Michael, who I also talked to for the story. In 2004 he started a Web site, Phillies Nation, that has turned into one of the more prominent fan blogs. He organized one of the bus trips. He said he doesn’t make much money off of them, he just does it for fun, the same reason he started his site.

“If Nats fans simply organized themselves into a group of 25 people, they can purchase group tickets just like all the other groups (including Phillies groups),” Michael wrote in an e-mail after we spoke on the phone. “So, if you are a fair weather fan that just wants to go to the important games, then you have no right complaining. … The Nats ticket office doesn’t do anything egregiously out of the ordinary. … if you care enough about the team to go to Cincinnati game on July 21, then you’ll find a way to get tickets to Opening Day (e.g. the Nats will offer them). If you don’t care that much, then you can’t complain about not getting to Opening Day. Phillies fans care and we fill stadiums both home and away.”

That’s another way to look at it, which I’m sure will produce more anger. The bottom line is probably this: Whatever the Nationals did or did not do, a lot of their fans left opening day, really, really mad at them, and how can that be good?

For further context, I also wanted to include the e-mail back-and-forth I had with Stan Kasten. The transcript is after the jump.

By Adam Kilgore
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 7, 2010; D01

Before the Philadelphia Phillies clobbered the Nationals, 11-1, Monday, their fans scored an even more resounding blow. A significant portion of the 42,190 in attendance for opening day rooted for the away team, creating an adverse atmosphere for Nationals players and making some Nationals fans feel like visitors in their home park.

A Phillies fan named Brian Michael said it “felt like a home game.” Washington Nationals Manager Jim Riggleman called it “a statement of where we’ve got to get to.” And NationalsEnquirer.com, a prominent Nationals fan blog, called the day “one of the low points in the brief history of the Washington Nationals.”

The phenomenon of a visiting team’s fans infiltrating the opposing stadium is not unique to the Nationals, particularly in the cozy Northeast corridor. Camden Yards in Baltimore has earned the nickname “Fenway South” from years of Boston Red Sox fans packing the park for Orioles games. But the raiding of Nationals Park on opening day stung District fans.

“I don’t think any of us care about losing 11-1,” said Daniel Furth, a Nationals fan who attended. “But, really, to me, the atmosphere just ruined opening day. It just completely ruined it.”

The Nationals did not discourage Phillies fans from coming in droves. If anything, the team may have encouraged them.

In December, Michael received a phone call from Bree Parker, a senior account executive in the Nationals group ticket sales office. She wanted to know if Michael needed to reserve tickets so he could watch his favorite team on opening day.

Michael appreciated the call. For the past four years, Michael had been arranging bus trips to Phillies away games through his Web site, PhilliesNation.com. Michael had also tried planning trips to Citi Field in New York for Mets games, and he always found them “annoying” to deal with. Michael already knew Parker from when she helped him the previous year. This winter, he did not even need to call, he said.

“They reached out to us,” Michael said. “They were able to meet our needs for the tickets. It wasn’t too much of a hassle or anything.”

Michael secured about 530 tickets. Monday morning, he packed 275 people on five busses that motored south on Interstate 95. They parked in a lot they had rented thanks to a referral from Parker, who was away from her office Tuesday afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

Nationals Director of Ticket Operations Derek Younger referred questions to a team spokesman.

“We sell season tickets and book groups all winter long,” Nationals President Stan Kasten wrote in an e-mail. “For every game of the season. All of this is before any individual tickets go on sale. Most of our groups are local. Some are from out of town. It’s really that simple.”

The Nationals took deposits for group sales — 25 tickets is the threshold — beginning in November and started selling those tickets Jan. 4. When individual tickets went on sale March 2, seats for opening day — aside from the 400 $5 seats the Nationals hold back for every game — sold out in seven minutes.

The hordes from Philadelphia left many Nationals fans with an impression that the organization had sold droves of tickets to Phillies fans at the expense of Nationals fans who wanted to buy tickets but could not.

“By making them available to fans in Philly, they were no longer available in D.C.,” Furth said. “They have seven minutes worth of tickets available. People in Philly, they had 20,000. They had lots more than seven minutes.”

A sampling of other teams’ policies shows a narrower gap between when group sales and individual sales begin. The Tampa Bay Rays sell put their group and individual tickets on sale on the same day in February. Orioles group tickets went on sale in mid-January, and their individual tickets started selling at the end of January.

The Nationals said the raiding of Nationals Park was not a product of policies that favor opposing fans, but rather another growing pain for a franchise five years old and coming off consecutive 100-loss seasons.

“As anyone who has watched bad teams turn into good teams, in any sport, these problems dissipate as teams improve, as home teams’ followers get more numerous and more enthusiastic,” Kasten said.

Kasten also said the nature of Phillies fans contributed to the feeling Monday at Nationals Park. He said that Red Sox fans had attended in even greater numbers Saturday for an exhibition game, but there was a “tangible, qualitative difference in the two crowds.”

But there also is a difference between how hometown fans feel during an exhibition and their team’s opener. In Baltimore, the Orioles make opening day tickets available only to their own season-tickets holders. Even if the Orioles played the Red Sox, an official in the Orioles ticket office said, their park could not be overrun on opening day.

During pregame introductions at Nationals Park Monday, Phillies fans booed Nationals staff and players and chanted “Sucks!” after the public announcer bellowed each name.

“That was impressive,” Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth said. “It felt like all of right field was only Phillies fans. This kind of started to be our home away from home a little bit.”

Welcome to the Phillies Nation Podcast!

Pat Gallen is joined today by Victor Rojas of the MLB Network just hours after the Mark McGwire interview in which he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs during his career.

Victor sheds some light on the situation, saying that his candor was self-serving because of his new job with the St. Louis Cardinals.  On the flip side, he thinks Big Mac left the door open on too many issues and had an opportunity to close them by simply saying he took them to get an edge over the competition. Until players are completely open, Victor says, there will always be questions surrounding players who dance around the topic without hitting it head on.

As far as the Hall of Fame is concerned, Victor isn’t sure much will change with this confession.  He does believe that more and more retired players who are linked to steroids will follow suit to try and save face and win some people back.  Victor does believe Pete Rose should be in the Hall, and that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have an asterisk or plaque symbolizing those who may have cheated.

Rojas is one of the lead anchors for the MLB Network, both as a studio host and play-by-play voice.  Before joining the new baseball-only network, Rojas was a voice for both the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks.  Before taking his skills to the booth, he was the GM for the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League.

Phillies Nation Podcast – Episode 24

Today our own Pat Gallen was interviewed by Nicole Brewer of CBS3 for her segment Behind The Blog: PhilliesNation.com.

What’s your favorite blog of all time?
My favorite blog of all time is probably Truehoop, which is now part of ESPN.com. It was actually the reason I got into blogging, because I love what Henry Abbott does on his site. It’s actually an NBA blog, which is how I got started, by doing my own basketball blog.

What’s the best blog post you’ve ever written?
I’d like to think that each time I write, that it’s the best I’ve done because I’m learning new things everyday, and still learning the craft of being a writer. If I had to pick one though it would probably be the piece I put up after the Phillies Game 4 win against the Dodgers, when J-Roll won it in the 9th. It was basically a breakdown of my day and just how insane it was at the ballpark. I think it captured what it’s like to be a true fan at the game.

Read more and watch the video at CBS3.com

Delaware County Daily Times
By TIMOTHY LOGUE

They can be found in Denver pubs, the cafes of Rome and in the sports bar at the Gen. Patton Barracks in Heidelberg, Germany.

And Brian Michael will tell you their numbers are growing.

“You can go to pretty much anywhere and you will find Phillies fans,” said Michael, the 28-year-old founder of PhilliesNation.com

Thanks to Michael and his 10,000-plus subscribers, those fans have had a place to share insights, frustrations and love of all things Phillies since the site went live a few months after Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004.

“I grew up in Philly and had moved away to Washington, D.C.,” Michael said. “I was finding it hard to get all my Phillies information, so I decided to put it all in one place.”

In addition to offering game stories, columns and podcasts, Phillies Nation subscribers also get together for road-trips to New York, Washington, D.C., and Clearwater, Fla., charity events and tailgates.

“I’d say 60 percent of our subscribers are from Philadelphia and the outlying counties,” Michael said. “But we also have guys on military bases in Germany, people who have moved to Texas and nuns from Philadelphia.”

The closest thing to a Phillies Nation mission statement can be found in the “About” section of the site, which says, in part:

“Although there are certainly other sites out there that deal with the Phillies, this one is written exclusively through a fan’s perspective. Stats and algorithms have their place in analyzing baseball, but if a player sucks, Phillies fans don’t require quantitative proof. We smell failure a mile away. We boo first, ask questions later.”

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Michael is one six writers on the site, which also features his sister Julie, a 2005 Villanova alum, and columnist Nick Staskin, who moonlights/daylights as a beer man down at Citizens Bank Park.

While the Red Sox Nation is a brand name known throughout the country (the team even sells certificates to prospective members), Michael said his operation is a little more parochial.

“It’s a little different than the Red Sox,” said Michael, whose girlfriend, Laura, is a huge Yankees fan. “A lot of people find it easy to be in Red Sox Nation, but to be part of Phillies Nation, I think you almost have to be born and raised with it.

“The Yankees and Red Sox have the international cache. Maybe if we win a couple more World Series, we’ll be there.”

Michael, who describes himself as “a hardcore Phillies fan from birth,” made his first trip to the Vet with his father in 1987.

“I remember Ozzie Virgil hit a home run,” he said. “That’s about it.”

Hardcore Phillies Nation members would know he was referring to the May 13, 1987, game where Virgil, then a member of the Braves, homered off reliever Wally Ritchie, or the May 14 game, where he smacked two solo shots off starter Kevin Gross.

With the exception of the 1993 pennant winners, there was little for Michael or any other Phillies fan to cheer about until the current nucleus of players started to contend.

“My parents always planned their vacations around where the Phillies were playing when I was growing up, and I’ve followed them ever since,” said Michael, whose site features an Ashburn Award, given to the most valuable player from the previous game, and asks fans to contribute their favorite memories of Harry Kalas.

Thursday morning, he was hosting a Phillies Nation tailgate outside Citizens Bank Park. A “game-watching” party is scheduled for Saturday night at McFadden’s Restaurant & Saloon, the popular pub that’s attached to the ballpark. More than 150 people have already signed up for the event.

In addition to social and charity functions, Michael, who works for a political consulting firm in Arlington, Va., attends as many Phillies games as he can. “I have a six-pack plan from the Phillies and I probably made it to 20 games this year, home and away.”

For buying a block of tickets for Phillies games in Washington, D.C., the Nationals recognized him and other “group leaders” before a game at Nationals Park.

“They brought us all down to the field and I was wearing a Phillies hat,” Michael said. “They asked me to take it off, which was fine with me. … I didn’t want to embarrass them any more.”

By Patrick Lester
OF THE MORNING CALL
October 7, 2009

The baseball gods threw hard-working Phillies fans a buzz-killing curve this week.

But they sure were smiling on those with free afternoons or a propensity to fake a sniffle in the heat of a pennant race.

The defending world champions play the Colorado Rockies today and Thursday beginning at 2:37 p.m., a time slot that has created a rare buyer’s market for the opening round of the Phillies’ latest playoff march.

Ticket-holders with job commitments are scrambling to sell. The ticket-less with time off or no qualms about playing hooky are capitalizing.

In one case, 10 — count ‘em, 10 — tickets were available for $75 a pop, a bargain compared with those going for hundreds.

”My friend and his family were supposed to go, but because the game is so early they can’t,” said Lisa Moise of Philadelphia, who advertised those 10 tickets on Craigslist for a friend who was stuck in the office Tuesday. ”Literally, no one can get off. And I know they’re not the only ones.”

That appeared to be an understatement. Tickets that have been hard to come by all season — the Phils broke an attendance record this season by selling out 72 of their 81 home games, including the final 41 — suddenly are ripe for the buying.

During lunch hour on Tuesday, StubHub.com had 1,096 seats available for today’s game and nearly 1,200 for Thursday’s game. Prices were starting around $51 and went up to $2,000.

One shrewd Craigslist poster was looking to take advantage of the unexpected supply: ”Don’t have a lot of cash so looking for best ticket at lowest price.”

For some, the early start times were a sobering blow to business.

Take Gino Capobianchi. Following last year’s title run, the Philadelphia man bought season tickets for this year, specifically to sell them and make some money. He also guaranteed himself playoff tickets, which normally translate into a big payday on the open market.

Capobianchi, who is 48 and unemployed, put a pair of tickets up on Craigslist for $400 apiece Saturday. By Tuesday, the asking price was down to $280 and heading south.

”So far, nobody called because it’s a bad time,” Capobianchi said. ”I’ll just lower the price until somebody calls.”

He finds himself in an enviable win-win situation . If he doesn’t sell, he’ll make the 20-minute trip to Citizens Bank Park for the game. ”I can still go,” he said. ”When you’re out of work like half the city, you don’t have a schedule.”

Brian Michael, the 28-year-old founder of http://www.philliesnation.com , has a schedule he has to keep. He had to reluctantly turn down offers for tickets to today’s game because of his job as a Web site manager and political fundraiser. He said some Phillies Nation followers were voicing their displeasure over Major League Baseball’s perceived mistreatment of the Phillies.

”Obviously, because people can’t go, they feel the Phillies have been disrespected as the defending world champions,” he said.

Faust Ruggiero, executive director of The Phillies Fan Union, a fan club that says it has 140,000 members, said he was getting mixed reviews on the game times and ticket sales.

”Most of our members feel that the reigning World Series champions should have a prime time start for the first game,” he wrote in an e-mail. ”We’re not hearing that very many are selling their tickets, though. Phillies fans tend to be more hard-core than that.”

Mike Smith, a 25-year-old banker from Wilmington, Del., has eight tickets for today’s game and put six up for sale, four on StubHub.com and a pair on Craigslist. As of noon Tuesday, he sold one pair for $70 apiece — face value was $50 — and was expecting to get more bites on the others.

”I couldn’t find any friends to go because they’re all working,” he said, adding he made more money on last year’s tickets. ”Whoever is making the decisions is making the decisions based on viewership in the whole United States. I don’t think [the Phillies] deserve anything better just because they’re the World Series champions.”

So what happens if sellers don’t get any takers?

”I have no idea,” Moise said. ”We’ll probably start giving them away.”

Recent history has made it a joyous time to be a Phillies fan.  Beyond the 2008 trophy, this year’s team has rallied from an average start, catapulting themselves back into the elite class.  This weekend, the Phils took two of three from a very respectable St. Louis Cardinals team.  But after the Phils won Saturday’s game, a young life was taken.  The beauty mark of a World Championship quickly turned to the black eye of a senseless death.

We’ve seen insolent and vulgar behavior before at sporting events in Philadelphia – probably experienced it first-hand.  Yet the unfortunate actions of few have become synonymous with many.

After David Sale Jr., 22, of Lansdale was beaten to death outside of Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, the parallels were made immediately.  This city is filled with rude, despicable creatures and we were all lumped into the boat.  Plus this is not something the national media forgets; nor should they.  Colin Cowherd spat his fury and vitriol, blaming it on lack of education.  Just blame it on ignorance.

Although the whole story has not been revealed, Sale was jumped and beaten to death after an altercation over a spilled beer inside McFadden’s, which carried over to the parking lots outside of the stadium.

It’s foolish to think these kinds of things won’t happen.  Alcohol fuels the inner testosterone and, with the backdrop of an intense sporting event that credits winners, not losers, turns men into meatheads.    Three men, if we can call them that, believed that by beating a man repeatedly, they would win.  Now everyone has lost.

As part of Phillies Nation, I’ve experienced the passion of Phillies fans in many new ways.  I feel I am now one with the team, the city, and the fans, more than ever. The stain of a murder on the grounds of our park affects us all to an extent.  We should not downplay the loss the family of David Sale now must endure.  Here at Phillies Nation, our condolences go out to his family.

As a fan base, we have found solace and reprieve from everyday life in what trades will be made, which prospects are being watched, and whether or not J.P. Ricciardi is losing his mind.  Someone who enjoyed the same pastimes – one of our own – is now gone.  It hurts me deep because I think of the ballpark as a cathedral, a place where we can go to worship the baseball gods and pray for a run, or a win, or a championship.

Many of us did not know David Sale, but I believe there is an easy way to remember his life: by being a proper fan.  By proving the pundits wrong that pounce on Philadelphia’s every error. Whether we like it or not, it is you and I, and millions of other Phillies fans that will gain the reputation of three immature, cowardly cretins.  I think we all should rally around the spirit of Brotherly Love, giving our Phillies the fan base they deserve. It something we need to do.

From the Daily News

Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins will host the Fourth Annual Jimmy Rollins Celebrity BaseBowl Tournament at the Lucky Strike Lanes (1336 Chestnut).

Rollins and many teammates will bowl with fans July 23. Last year’s event sold out months in advance, so we’re letting you know about this now. The event benefits the Rollins Family Foundation and the Arthritis Foundation. Individual bowling spots are $1,000 (good for bearer and one guest) and available today at PhilliesNation.com.

Want more spring training talk? Visit Behind the Mike tonight and listen to yours truly on the Behind the Mike Show with Joel Michaelec. We’ll be talking about your world champions as they prepare to defend their title in 2009.