Get the picture? It was cold! Too cold for my tastes. And I saw later on the TV news that in the morning there were some actual snow flurries. (I didn't see them, as I slept 'til 11:30.) And the game took 3 hours and 43 minutes thanks to the number of walks, hit batters (including a brief bench clearing which ended up without fisticuffs), pitching changes, etc. Nasty. I came up from Baltimore for this? But it was kind of weird all around.
It didn't look like a crowd of over 50,000 at all, except for a couple of innings. A lot of people were stuck outside in long lines due to lack of parking caused by new stadium construction, and a lack of open ticket windows. And people started leaving in the 6th inning.
Remember last year, when the first game at the Vet after 9/11 featured incorrect lyrics to "God Bless America" on the scoreboard? Well, yesterday the giant flag unfurled on the field prior to the game had.... 49 stars. In the upper-left corner there was a star missing! Naturally, the name of the company that provided the flag was proudly displayed on the scoreboard. See you in bankruptcy court! And the national anthem singer was an R&B singer named Jaguar Wright, and her version was all too...extended, as in...."OoooooOOOOOOOoooooooOOOOOOOoooohhhh sayyyyy can you seeee-eeeee--eee-eeeee--eeeee..."
I read in the paper that the pregame ceremonies were to include the introduction of our mayor....but he never showed up. Just as well. He'd have been really booed, and deservedly so.
Speaking of boos, I had my dilemma: cheer or boo Scott Rolen? As it was put in today's paper:
[quote] Would Rolen be booed because he slammed the front office?
Or would fans realize that, hey, he was only voicing what they'd been saying for years?
Would he be booed because he was perceived as greedy?
Or would they understand he would be a real dope to risk that kind of dough on the off chance of squeezing out a few more bucks?
Would he be booed for a perceived desire to abandon Philadelphia?
Or would they recognize that, given an opportunity to better themselves in a similar manner, they would call Allied Van Lines in a heartbeat?
Would he be booed because, in announcing his decision, he had spit all over his teammates, telling them in effect that they weren't good enough to win?
Or would they remember that, in fact, he never said that at all, that he actually said he didn't trust the front office to keep the team's nucleus together?
In the end, I didn't boo...nor did I cheer. I simply sat and observed. And in the pregame introductions and in his first at-bat (when many fans were still in lines outside) he got a decent amount of boos, but there were a larger amount of cheers. After that the boos were few and far between. It probably helped that he doubled, walked 3 times and singled, and that the Phils won the game.
I don't know what this means, though. When the benches briefly emptied in the 7th inning, the last player out of the Phillies dugout was....Scott Rolen. The first player back into the Phillies dugout after it ended was....Scott Rolen.
Upon reflection I realize that, like me, he was cold.