Patiently, my great friend Craig and fellow Phillies season ticket holder and I have been waiting for seven years for the All Star Weekend to come to Philadelphia. Countless miles walking around our work building having conversations about this that and the other often times interrupted by, “dude, I can’t wait for All Star Weekend at Citizens Bank Park” finally came to be!
Inside the All Star Village there were employees who would take your pic for free with your camera
We arrived Sunday morning at K-Lot (our second home’s driveway where many cheesesteaks, burgers, chicken tacos and meatball sandwiches have been constructed) where we met up with some buddies who live in Philadelphia.
We went into the stadium pretty early so we could browse the Team Shop and grab some food before catching the Futures All Star Game featuring one of the Philadelphia Phillies top prospects, Gage Wood. It was just a few weeks earlier that we traveled to Reading, PA to watch him pitch with the Reading Fightin’ Phils against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats who are the AA affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Sunday was a fun afternoon. It started early- the Futures All Star Game started right around noon followed by MLB’s new feature which was a 3v3 competition. It was so boring and bland I won’t even explain it. But Terrel Owens showed up. He must be busy looking for that chip to show back up on his shoulder, because nobody cared about this game but he was able to make a grand appearance.
The highlight of the afternoon came when Craig and I got to take our photo with our favorite usher, Craig (yes, another Craig). Craig rules! He is the king of his domain in Section 102, where our season tickets are and the three of us have become good buds!
After the game we took a ride share to a handful of places to grab dinner, dessert and just hang out. This evening was followed by a ton of sleep at what we have coined, The Circle Hotel, on Penrose, right across from the sports complex.
Monday morning came quick and Craig and I crushed some of the best diner breakfast you will ever have at the Penrose Diner.
Though it’s only a 5 minute walk, we had to take the truck over since we had to check out and were venturing to Center City for the All Star Village.
I enjoyed two very well scrambled eggs, some well done hashbrowns and perhaps the best chunk of scrapple I’ve ever had in my life (I always order it here because as I said, it’s literally the best!). If you don’t know what scrapple is, I would suggest not asking questions you do not want to know the answer to.
I’ll spare the details, but Philadelphia was very unorganized with the All Star Village event. They did have some amazing artwork though, including this mural:
Fun and colorful mural of an artist’s interpretation of South Philadelphia.
It took place in Center City which, yes, there’s a lot of historical and cool spots for the fans of the other 29 teams to check out, but parking is annoying and nobody (especially those from New Jersey) has zero concept of operating vehicles. It was a very frustrating morning/afternoon. I hope, at least, fans of other teams and those outside of the city found places like Barcade and Putt Shack amongst the array of very expensive high end restaurants around to enjoy. All of that is better than the All Star Village.
Which we shall discuss…
The Village itself was underwhelming. There wasn’t much to do or see unless you were a kid or had copious amounts of disposable income to enter into auctions for very expensive MLB memorabilia.
I’m honestly not really sure I even had an idea of what it would be like, but it was included with our ticket package to Sunday and our choice of the Home Run Derby so we figured we should maximize our trip and visit it.
They did have two baseball diamonds for kids and actual tutorials from former major leaguers. If you were under the age of 14 you’d probably have had yourself a ball.
However, for those of us who don’t wish to stand in long lines, it was pretty pointless.
Super appreciative I got to experience it though! The atmosphere at least was pretty fun! All of the mascots from the teams were roaming around and there were some interesting musicians playing some fun music.
After we left the most narrow parking garage in the country in Center City, Craig and I went to Chickie’s and Pete’s.
We split some hot wings and crab fries. Which, if you are not partaking in their great seafood menu, that’s what you do. Period. Also, wings were half price on Monday, so it was the frugal choice. And their wings are fantastic.
After getting our fill, we hopped across the road to the parking lots at Citizen’s Bank Park.
The Home Run Derby was at 8pm. We parked around who knows when and went in as the gates opened at 5pm. The line to get into the stadium was longer than sold-out playoff games and the line to the Team Shop once we got into the stadium was approximately 3.2 miles long but moved relatively quickly for us to go in and not buy anything. But hey, they were blasting air condition which was worth the wait in and of itself!
We hung outside at Pass and Stow for a bit to grab a little shade and cool down before climbing Mount Everest to our seats in Section 306.
I had to grab a panorama before heading up though and an usher around the 100 section of home plate actually let me scoop one up!
Panoramic image of Citizens Bank Park a few hours before theHome Run Derby took place
The Home Run Derby consisted of some fun players. We booed every one of them except Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber because we wanted the other 29 fan bases to feel a nice warm and comfortable welcome in our park- especially those who root for the dumbest franchise in sports aside from the Cowboys, the MESS.
We really did take pride in booing them when their fans would be on the scoreboard as well as the children who couldn’t catch routine fly balls. As bad as the kids thing sounds- it was in good fun and we cheered loudly when the caught them. But not so much for the Mets fans. We still made them feel uncomfortable.
The energy was electric. It was great to hear CBP as loud as October again and I hope we keep that energy up throughout the rest of the regular season!
The Derby came down to our own, as well as at the time of this post, the MLB leader in home runs Kyle Schwarber versus Jordan Walker of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The final stand-down started with Kyle followed by bellowing boos for Walker.
Walker came to the plate with a look of confidence and that look of confidence translated to him being victorious.
I’m bummed Kyle didn’t win it, but Jordan’s an awesome baseball player and it was awesome to see his stuff!
Ben Rice on the other hand was a bummer, just like the Yankees. So, while I feel bad for him he represented them well. Especially the Yanks fan sitting next to me telling me sarcastically, “your Phillie couldn’t win it” to which I replied, “your dude hit 7 homers and finished dead last in the first round.” That’s exactly where the conversation ended.
Yankees fans are so cute.
Overall…yes there were frustrations. Yes, the city of Philadelphia could have done things better- namely having shuttles out of the parking lots to Center City for the Village.
Otherwise, this may have been one of the best couple days of my life. I spent it with amazing friends, made new friends, garnished great memories and enjoyed a once in a lifetime event in my own backyard seeing the Home Run Derby at my favorite baseball team’s park!
Next time it comes to Philly, I’ll be in my 70s if I’m lucky so I’m glad I, as well as my true Philadelphia Sports fans friends, jumped on this opportunity!
Please enjoy the photos I took!
This weekend I packed light for obvious reasons and brought along my Fuji X100V accompanied by my iPhone 13 Pro Max for the photos!
Please follow me on Bookface!
- Mike
