On this day ten years ago, Phillies Nation was born.
Back in 2004, I was living in baseball-less Washington, DC and had no quality Phillies news readily available. So I decided to take it upon myself to start something I would enjoy reading. Thankfully, a decade later Phillies Nation is still my go-to source for news and analysis on the Phils.
I’m thoroughly amazed by how much it has grown. At first it was just friends and family reading and posting comments. Then around fall of 2005, when the Phillies were searching for a new GM, I began to notice the traffic spiking and several new commentors joining the blog. Ever since then, we’ve welcomed hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of fans each with a special love of the Phillies. Thank you to everyone who reads the site and interacts with Phillies Nation – whether as one of our 300,000 Facebook friends, 27,000 Twitter followers or 25,000 email subscribers – it’s wonderful to share this experience with you.
I hope you all have enjoyed the ride and all the things we offer Phillies fans like yourself. After the blog, we began organizing road trips first to DC, then to Clearwater, New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Boston. Soon after, we started making fun shirts and other merchandise. All the while, we were heavily involved in local charities from the Arc of Philadelphia and Liberty USO to player charities and even our #Give4Mark campaign (which launched our own charity, the Phillies Nation Foundation). More recently, we launched Phillies Nation TV which we feel further fills a void in sports media by providing baseball analysis with context and statistics, yet still from the perspective of die-hard fans. And finally, last year we got involved in a local retail apparel shop, Shibe Vintage Sports, that simply sells cool sports stuff you can’t find elsewhere.
Of course, Phillies Nation would be no where near as wide ranging and insightful without the talented people that have helped to grow it along the way. Thanks to the editorial leadership of, first, Tim Malcolm and, now, Pat Gallen we’ve been able to meld quality journalism with passionate fandom. Following closely in their footsteps are the variety of reporters, columnists, hosts, writers and beermen that have lent their unique talents to our collective goal, including: Rob, Amanda, Ian, Corey, Jay, Natalie, Ryann, Paul, Michael, Jon F., Nick, Jim, Jon N., Don, Eric, Kieran, Ryan D., Alex, Kenny, Pat E., Ryan, Marty, Ryan G., Dipsy, Ben and Jason.
To those listed above and everyone reading this, thank you for all your support over the past ten years. Phillies Nation has grown and thrived because of people like you who are dedicated not just to winning a World Series, but to enjoying the journey with fellow fans. Go Phils!
And to wrap up our 10 Year Anniversary Post, I’ll leave you with the very first article posted on Phillies Nation. Do you remember this day?
Milton Perfect though 8 1/3
What a game! Supurb pitching by Eric Milton, and Doug Glanville won’t have anything funny to say about this nailbiter. Phils funnyman nearly cost his team the win, which brings the unoffical total of 5 defensive mistakes in centerfield in the past week.
It was nice to see the Phillies’ young stars, Ryan Madson and Chase Utley, perform well today. Utley had the Phils first two RBIs including a HR. Smoltz just got the save up in New York, that means the Fightins’ are still a half game out.
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