Phillies Nation

Here are some photos I took from the games on Saturday and Sunday in Philly (they look best in Full Screen mode). If the weather cooperates tonight, I’ll have some more from the potential clincher. Go Phils!

The evening began with a fascinating tour of Citizens Bank Park and ended with McFadden’s girls pour shots down our throats. Darren Daulton was there, and to top it all off Nick “The Beerman” proposed to his girlfriend who he met on our Mets Bus Trip last year (she said yes!). Oh yea, and the Phillies beat the Yankees in convincing fashion behind Kyle Kendrick.

(view the photos in Full Screen mode for best effect)

This weekend I had the great pleasure of visiting Louisville, Kentucky where in addition to a stop a Churchill Downs (and winning $22 on the exacta in the 4th) I spent some time at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. It was pretty cool – like a mini-Cooperstown with over a century of history spanning the game’s best hitters. There was also an exhibit on Negro Leagues illustrations and memorabilia as well as batting cages for use with replica bats.

When a player signs on with the Hillerich & Bradsby-owned brand (as most players do), his signature is lifted from the contract for use on his personalized bats as well as the Museum’s display wall. So on file, you can see the signatures of the greatest hitters to ever swing a baseball bat – Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Richie Ashburn, Mickey Mantle (I got to hold one of his bats), Jackie Robinson, Honus Wagner, the list goes on and on. Some players still use Louisville Slugger bats even if they are not under contract – on those bats the name is printed in block letters. As we walked in, one of the craftsmen from Philly told us the story of how Mike Schmidt occasionally use their bats even though he was not under contract. He would even go so far as to wrap a piece of gold tape around the center to make it look like his sponsored brand.

We had a quick tour of the bat making process but were not allowed to take pictures. It was setup up like a typical small factory with a special $750,000 machine made in Italy that makes major league players’ bats. Placido Polanco had a rack full of bats in production there. All the wood is harvested from Northern Pennsylvania/Southern New York forests and is mostly ash. A few years ago, Barry Bonds sparked the maple craze which increased the share of those bats by almost 40%.

Other Phillies-related stuff included a collection of bats with the lineups from the 2009 World Series. There was also a demonstration of “what a 90 mph fastball looks like” where a life-sized video-projected Cole Hamels fires a real ball at a stuffed dummy behind some plexiglass. Finally of course there was a smattering of Phillies players throughout their record books and signatures including a listing of the 4-year running Silver Slugger, Chase Utley.

To complement our gallery of Phillies Tattoos, we’ve start to put together a collection Phillies license plates from around the USA.  Right now, we just have the three covering Virginia, North Carolina, and my expired one from DC.

If you rock a Phillies license plate or see one around town, take a photo and upload them here so we can add them to set.

Here are some shots from another fun and exciting Opening Day at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies Nation crew welcomed James from Villas, NJ, winner of our ESPN Radio trivia contest.

All the stories are true, Phillies fans invaded Nationals Park on Opening Day. Here are the photos.

When the calendar hits March 17, you know it’s time for another Phillies Nation St. Paddy’s Day tailgate party. The skies were grey prior to the Phillies-Yankees game at Bright House Network Field in Clearwater, but that didn’t dampen the our spirits – that job was reserved for Guinness and Yuengling.

Here are more photos from this afternoon’s Spring Training game between the Phillies and Tigers. The Phillies pitching (during “A” games) continues to look strong, as does top prospect Domonic Brown. So with a sunny day, the beautiful backdrop of Bright House Networks Field (without question the finest ballpark in either Spring league), a semi-fancy camera and our favorite Phillie stars, it’s hard to take a bad picture.

Here are a bunch of photos – including a few dozen of Roy Halladay – from today’s Phillies-Pirates Grapefruit League action in Bradenton, FL. A quick summary of the game: Halladay looked solid even though he gave up his first run of the Spring; Placido Polanco sprained his knee after attempting to catch a pop-up in the swirling winds behind the mound; Cody Ransom hit a solo shot to center and played well in Polanco’s absence; Phillies won 5-1.