The weather could not have been better, as we once again helped embarrass a fellow NL East rival (after witnessing a Ryan Zimmerman walk-off on our last trip), turning a Phillies road game into a neutral playing field. That weather was perfect for a classic Phillies Nation tailgate, which much like Doc never lets you down.
The Mets don’t let you grill in their lots, but that wasn’t a problem thanks to a delivery of 200 Philly cheesesteaks from Shorty’s in Manhattan. Add in hundreds of Yuenglings, Miller Lites, and over a dozen varieties of craft beers and we were good to go. There wasn’t much missing from this glorious Saturday, except maybe a semblance of a rivalry. Brian even handed out keychains to Mets fans as a sign of goodwill…and a little pity.
In recent years, the Phillies successes coupled with the Mets failures has taken some luster off the rivalry. However, when Mets fans try to bring it, Phillies fans aren’t ones to sit on their hands and take it quietly.
During the tailgate, one Met fan was attempting to heckle a gentleman on the trip. The gentleman’s wife did not take kindly to this and you know what she did? SHE SLAPPED THE METS FAN IN THE FACE WITH A CHEESESTEAK! Stereotypical? Maybe. But think about it. A Phillies fan hit a Mets fan in the face with a cheesesteak. Classic.
Eventually we all made it into the game, and once you get passed the 652,248,117 advertisements splattered across CitiField it is actually a beautiful ballpark that more than holds its own against the newest crop of stadiums to sprout up in Major League Baseball.
On the field, Roy Halladay had his A-game going and the Mets couldn’t play defense. So after just two-and-a-half hours, we were walking out of the stadium with a 4-0 victory. Ryan Madson provided some ninth-inning drama, but just for entertainment’s sake.
Thanks to everyone who attended and for helping to make it another successful road trip for Phillies Nation. This season over 1,000 Phillies fans traveled with us on our the three trips. With two of them featuring Roy Halladay starts, you couldn’t ask for much more.
