This is a great ballpark. The overall design including the steel and red brick exterior as well as the interior sight lines and look is outstanding. Left and right field are straight lines as opposed to the traditional curved configuration. There are a lot of similarities in how the field looks compared to Coors Field, another very nice park. The space behind the seats is open and easy to navigate. There are some nice statues of famous Phillies around the park too. The ballpark is in the ‘stadium district’ in Philadelphia. It’s surrounded by the Spectrum [until they knock it down], Lincoln Financial Field, and the Wachovia Center which used to be the First Union Center. Whoever put that name together clearly wasn’t hooked on phonics. There’s always plenty of parking on days when the other stadia are dark and there’s a convenient subway line nearby. If you are one of those people with a super-strong sense of smell, you may want to take a cab rather than the subway.
I’ve been to a few games here. When my friend Marc buys tickets, he prefers the upper deck in straight-away right. It’s a long way to home plate from there! I also saw a game with John and Bob right before the 2008 BRBL draft. We sat field level past third base towards the foul pole. Now for my shameful Citizens Bank Park secret…I’ve seen three games…three different years…all against the Washington Nationals. The Phillies have had much better teams but are 1-2 in the games I saw. The Phillies have had some great talent in Ryan Howard, Bobby Abreu, Jimmy Rollins, Jim Thome, and Chase Utley. For pitching they have had Brett Myers, Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer, and Brad Lidge. The Nats have had Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Zimmerman, and Nick Johnson. The games were fairly uneventful. I saw Abreu and Burrell home runs and some decent starting pitching from Myers and Hamels.
For my first game here, Marc, CJ, Grace, and I attended the second home game of the 2005 season right before we went to London for the BRBL draft. As we went to the game, Marc was complaining that he didn’t feel well and he just wanted to sit still and watch the game – no alcohol. We had upper upper deck seats but sat in the back row of the lower upper deck seats. From this vantage point some of Marc’s former students saw him and had a mini reunion. Marc was feeling better after a few beers! One of the former students said, “This is the greatest day of my life!” Overall, this is a great park to see a game. [Spend the money and sit in the lower level seats.]
UPDATE 08/24/2012: I was able to get to another game at this stadium. Two major differences from the other games I attended here. First, I was with Marc and his new wife and second, we sat in good seats. For this game we were behind the plate shading a little towards first base. Marc's wife [Sandi] gets tickets from her father who apparently has been a Phillies season ticket holder since the 1970's. However, my fourth time at this park, and still the only opposing team I have seen here is the Nationals. Until this season, Philadelphia had been dominating this division but this year the Nats had a 7 game lead in first place [when this game was played] and the Phils just had a fire sale getting rid of Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence. The pitching match up was two very mediocre starters and they pitched up to expectations. The seats, and the company, made for a pretty good game experience. One disappointment was the ushers. They gave us a hard time about not being in our exact seats even though there were plenty of open seats around us. Also they harassed some guy sitting behind us because he didn't wait for the current at bat to end before he walked down to his seat. It was a slow game and other people were doing the same thing. One final note on this game, Marc was pretty sick [probably from food poisoning] and at one point went to the first aid station. I offered to leave early because he wasn't feeling well and he said, "I learned my lesson in Pittsburgh. We'll stay to the end of the game."
UPDATE 08/24/2012: I was able to get to another game at this stadium. Two major differences from the other games I attended here. First, I was with Marc and his new wife and second, we sat in good seats. For this game we were behind the plate shading a little towards first base. Marc's wife [Sandi] gets tickets from her father who apparently has been a Phillies season ticket holder since the 1970's. However, my fourth time at this park, and still the only opposing team I have seen here is the Nationals. Until this season, Philadelphia had been dominating this division but this year the Nats had a 7 game lead in first place [when this game was played] and the Phils just had a fire sale getting rid of Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence. The pitching match up was two very mediocre starters and they pitched up to expectations. The seats, and the company, made for a pretty good game experience. One disappointment was the ushers. They gave us a hard time about not being in our exact seats even though there were plenty of open seats around us. Also they harassed some guy sitting behind us because he didn't wait for the current at bat to end before he walked down to his seat. It was a slow game and other people were doing the same thing. One final note on this game, Marc was pretty sick [probably from food poisoning] and at one point went to the first aid station. I offered to leave early because he wasn't feeling well and he said, "I learned my lesson in Pittsburgh. We'll stay to the end of the game."
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