Game Day.....Stadium #2 Philadelphia Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies play in Citizens Bank Park. The ballpark opened on April 3, 2004 and hosted it's first regular season game on April 12, 2004. This ballpark replaced the multi-use stadium of the 70's, Veterans Stadium. Citizens Bank Park is located within the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, which is also home to Lincoln Financial Field (Football Philadelphia Eagles home), and the Wells Fargo Center (Basketball home of the 76'ers and Hockey home of the Flyers). The stadium was built in just over 2 years for a cost of $458 million.

They have made 2 modifications to the stadium since it's opening. After the first year, they swapped who would be in which bullpen. The bullpens are stacked on top of each other in Right Center Field. The Phillies decided to move to the lower pen to have a better view of the field during the game and to be farther away from heckling fans. They did forget to rewire the bullpen phones. During the first game they could not talk directly to their own bullpen, so hand signals were used to communicate. For the 2006 season, 2 years after opening, the left field wall was moved back 5 feet to reduce the number of home runs hit. More than half the home runs hit in the first 2 years were hit to left field. The stadium still has a reputation as a hitter-friendly ballpark.

A couple of milestones that happened at Citizens Bank Park....

*Jim Thome hit his 400th career home run on June 14, 2004

*The Phillies lost their 10,000th regular-season game in their history on July 15, 2007 marking the first time a professional sports franchise reached that plateau.

*Hosted their first World Series game on October 25, 2008 against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 3. 4 days later, the Philadelphia Phillies won Game 5 and winning the 2008 World Series and their 2nd (1980) World Series title.

*Roy Halladay pitched the first no-hitter in Citizens Bank Park on October 6, 2010.

*Hosted the NHL Winter Classic on January2, 2012. NY Rangers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2.

*Citizens Bank Park will host the 2026 MLB All-Star Game to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

I will be posting about the game and our experience there tomorrow. Have a Great Night everyone! Thanks for reading.