Slowly, now a week out since the title was clinched, the rush on Phillies merchandise has started to abate. But no one expects to see the “red sea” part until after Christmas at the earliest and, perhaps, not until the 2009 season gets under way.

No one provides numbers, either quantity or sales figures. Not Major League Baseball nor any of the store chains. Now, they’ll be happy to put it in perspective.

Howard Smith Sr., the vice president of consumer products for MLB, made comparisons to what he called the hottest market that any sports league has ever seen, and that was in Boston in 2004 when the Red Sox swept the Cardinals and won their first World Series title in 86 years. “That set a new benchmark and no one thought anyone would sniff it,” he said yesterday, “other than I think the people in the business suggested the Cubs would be the biggest ever. That would be a big number. But the Phillies, the fact that they are emulating 2004 is remarkable to me. The only thing that will get them close to 2004 is longevity. It’s been a week now. Generally hot markets are over in a few days. But the fact that you had Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then Sunday, and it’s still going this week, shows me that this is something special and there’s no reason for this thing to die just yet.

“The retailers, especially given this economic climate right now, if they thought this thing was over you’d start to see things 50 percent off, you’d see them moving on in a heartbeat. They’re not doing it. They’re reordering goods. Modell’s ordered, on Friday I was on the phone with him, a 100,000 more pieces. Everything. Across the board.”

For one, the holidays are ahead. Chris Pizzo, a district manager for Modell’s, said they’re continuing to receive new merchandise and figure to do so through December. “We won’t get the same things replenished, but we’ll keep getting different stuff through the holidays,” said Pizzo, who said their stores returned to normal hours Sunday. “We just got in more fleece today. We have our jerseys with the patches on the sleeve. We have our T-shirts with the logo on the sleeve. So we have a lot of new stuff just in the last two days. We’ll have stuff straight through the holidays. It might not be front and center, but it’ll be in our store, and as long sales dictate it, it will be front and center.”
 
Everyone agrees that caps have been the biggest seller. Pizzo said so many were purchased that “some of our stores have them, but not many do.” And MLB’s Smith said that the hundreds of thousands of official locker room caps ordered have all been disbursed. “Those are completely gone,” he said. “To give you a sense of the rate of the sell-through, I believe we were faster sold out on these caps as we were in 2004.”

In general, fans will find that the World Series apparel is beginning to thin out. Scott Silnik, of the Sports Authority, said his stores had about “75 to 80 percent sell-through on all the products that we ordered.” Those include the parade T-shirts, what he called same-day sellers, that sold out, and the T-shirts that had the Phillies roster listed on the back. “Those were real hot. As far as World Series merchandise, I don’t know how much more ordering they’re going to do on that any more. It probably will be more stuff that we carry year-round. It’s getting to that stage.” Silnik said they are planning to do more reorders on what he called the generic product, the jersey and T-shirts that the stores carried way before the championships. “I’m thinking it will still be a really strong item for us right through the holidays,” he said.
    
Chris Streahle, director of marketing and advertising for Forman Mills, said they are hoping to bring more players into their stores, as they did during the postseason, but have less access now with those players “scattered all over the place with their families and vacation and everything like that.” Related merchandise, such as photos and replica trophies, “are still trickling in. and we’ll continue to get more winter-driven products. We’re going to have a nice World Series section at least through the holidays.”

One thing that Streahle said they’ve noticed is people buying for friends and family who live outside the region. “Tons of people, grandmothers, mothers, they have family in different states now. In the Army. We saw a lot of people come in and buying in bulk,” he said.

At the Phillies’ Majestic Clubhouse Store in Citizens Bank Parkthey're finally back to regular hours, but regular took on a new meaning during the postseason. Scott Brandreth, the team’s director of merchandising, said the store was open seven days a week through October. As of yesterday the team was undecided whether to open the store this Sunday to capture some of the crowd attending the Eagles-Giants game. “You know, when we opened this place we experimented with keeping [the store open] during Eagles home games, but it didn’t really work out for us that well,” he said. “But in October we were open and we did outstanding that one Sunday; it was our Game 4 of the World Series and they had a game against the Falcons. We did great that day.”

Brandreth said that quantities of the championship T-shirt and cap remain, but what he called some “generic World Series product that was kind of a one-and-done situation . . . we’re out of a few of those styles. And another thing . . . there’s a parade T-shirt graphic that our players wore as a hooded sweatshirt. I don’t think we had that in stock. Unfortunately, MLB didn’t make us aware that the players were going to wear it. We had the T-shirt ready and handy, but we didn’t have the hooded sweatshirt. But we’re trying to get that in. Besides that, we’re doing OK. We’re definitely, from where we were last Saturday, we don’t have as much product, but we still have a decent amount of product left in the store.”

Figure that product to be supplemented, at the ballpark and elsewhere around the region, with items specific to a few of the upcoming holidays. MLB’s Smith said that in 2004 they brought together their top licensees to brainstorm new ideas that would bridge sales through to the next season, particularly in the Boston market. “We said, ‘This is something special, so how are we going to continue to make it something special?’ We came up with some really neat ideas. We did holiday editions of all the products, so you saw green and red editions of the hat, the T-shirt, things like that, with a little Santa Claus flavor on it. We followed up with Opening Day, and we did St. Patty’s Day editions, so we really had a lot of fun with it. And, quite frankly, we just kept bringing new product to the marketplace and it just didn’t end [until] after the season started. And, quite frankly, our intentions are to do the same thing now.”

Smith said they’ll meet next week in Las Vegas to talk about a merchandise push that will include a national ad campaign in December and, among other things, limited-edition items to sell during the holidays.

“Look, let’s say we sell a million T-shirts,” he said. “OK. So that’s one design. Well, we’re going to come out with a holiday edition; we’re not going to sell a million of them. We’re going to keep it more limited, keep it more fresh. So, to your point, a majority of people’s Christmas and Hanukkah lists are going to include something with the Phillies.” 

Who knew that last week’s furious preparations at Forman Mills for the rush of customers wanting Phillies merchandise would turn out to be a fire drill for similar madness this week?

Chris Streahle, director of advertising and marketing for Forman Mills, said the wave had already crested by the end of the weekend for anything Phillies when the election arrived last night. And another crush developed this morning.

“We’re seeing a huge increase in Obama T-shirt sales,” said Streahle a couple hours ago, laughing when asked if they have the World Series logo on them. “We had Obama T-shirts, but now the shirts say ‘He is President’ and not ‘Vote for Obama’ and people are ripping them off the shelves. It’s another frenzy. Tees, hats, hoodies. It’s a big part of history and people are buying anything they can.”

Unlike last Wednesday night, the stores didn’t stay open from dusk to dawn to sell Obama apparel. But the approach, Streahle said, was the same.
 
“We actually treated as an if win championship,” he said. “The President Obama shirts could not hit the floors until it was confirmed that he won. We got the boxes yesterday and when we got the news this morning they went out to the sales floor.”

The Philadelphia Sports Congress just announced that 1,500 standing-room tickets for the Army-Navy Game are going on sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow. The ticket price is $45.

This 109th edition of the game and the 81st to be played in Philly is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 6. Gametime is scheduled for noon at Lincoln Financial Field. The Navy march-on will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the Army march-on will follow at 10.

Tickets can be purchased at all Philadelphia-area Ticketmaster outlets, online at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at 215.336.2000. Tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. There is a limit of six tickets per purchase.

Next year's game will be back in Philly, only on the second Saturday in December, following a recent announcement. Moving the game back a week will ensure that it doesn't conflict with any conference championships. Organizers are hopeful it will give the game more visibility. Indeed, it will become the final regular-season college football game.

That's the final year of the current contract. At some point discussions will start on 2010 and beyond. Organizers do know that the game will continue to be aired on CBS; the academies and the network recently extended their contract through 2018. 

Like a manager who has been to the postseason before, Chris Achilefu felt comfortable that he knew just what to expect at his Forman Mills store on

“Before we knew it the game was over and in the next half-hour, we were mobbed,” Achilefu related earlier this afternoon, still going on fumes after pulling an all-nighter and moving adroitly from interviews to pulling out more merchandise. “We couldn’t put anything on the table anymore, so we just opened boxes. And I’m telling you, they were into those boxes.”

His story was a duplicate of one told by anyone involved in retail overnight. The calm before the storm, then the end of the game, then a sea of customers rolling  in and washing back out with anything with Phillies markings or colors.    

“We were as prepared as we could be,” said Scott Silnik, district manager for Sports Authority stores, earlier today. But not necessarily ready for what was in store. “To give you an idea I watched the game from home and figured once they told Cole Hamels he was the MVP I’d go over to the store at that point. I got over to the store in Turnersville [N.J.] where I live and there was packed house. You couldn’t find one parking space. There were five police officers from Washington Township directing traffic, and I would say at least 700 people in the front of the store. We had 800 units on hand and that was sold out in a half an hour.”

Everything was orderly, he said. Nothing out of the ordinary, as Silnik called it. “Everyone was shopping very, very neatly. No commotion. No fighting over everything.”

And then that store and others in the Sports Authority chain closed, restocked, and opened again around 5 a.m. “When we got to the [Turnersville] store about 4,” Silnik said, “there was a long line all the way around the building, people with their lawn chairs and all that kind of stuff, sitting out, waiting to rush the store, and we sold out that order in five minutes this morning.”

Merchandise they’ve been double and triple ordering has been selling out in 10 to 15 minutes after hitting the shelves, he added. “We can’t keep up with the demand right now. I’m thinking it will probably take at least until tomorrow afternoon for things to kind of level off with demand and we can get our supply caught up.”

With that demand expected to continue into the weekend, the 13 Forman Mills stores already have announced that they will open at 5 a.m. and not close until midnight today through Sunday.

Modell’s Sporting Goods stores also figure to remain open late tonight and reopen tomorrow before sunrise. As of a couple of hours ago they were still deciding on how much they were planning to expand their hours for the weekend. District manager Derrick Morgan could barely talk this afternoon, a combination of directing operations and exhaustion. Like Achilefu at Forman Mills, Morgan was looking for a corner to take a nap.

“Eight stores stayed open until late last night,” Morgan said, “and a couple came pretty close to not even closing, like where I am now, at our

Morgan said he attended the game last night and “because of the barricades I couldn’t get out of there really. I’ve been here at Cottman since 4:30 this morning. I haven’t left the store yet.” There and at other Modell’s stores, help had been recruited from as far away as New England to run the registers and sort merchandise. “We have 14 registers going,” Morgan said after pausing to look around the store. “It’s just surreal.”

While the two-day suspension of play left Phillies fans unhappy, it turned into a blessing for the Modell’s stores that were expecting to sell the basic world championship gear for a day or two. “You know what,” Morgan said, “we actually ended up with more because of the game getting split up the way it did. When we opened up the championship stuff last night, we actually had like blankets, shot glasses, coffee cups, car flags, pennants, baseballs. It’s a pretty deep selection.”

Not that the specific item matters. Chris Streahle, the director of advertising and marketing for Forman Mills, said “people are definitely looking more toward cold-weather items, but the feeling last night was so strong and intense that it really didn’t matter what it was. They were buying T-shirts, anything that said champion on it.”  

Sports Authority’s Silnik agreed. He noted that customers were “buying what we call generic [items], which is just a regular Jimmy Rollins jersey or Chad Utley jersey, things we would carry any day of the week. Even [league] championship stuff.”  He said they are planning to open their stores at 6 tomorrow morning to satisfy fans looking to purchase items before the noon parade. “If we get late shipments, we’ll stay open tonight,” he added. “But we’re going to run down. It will happen just like last night. We’ll end up selling out and having to close the building down and wait for the next shipment.”  

If the Phils win tonight, the frenzied euphoria won’t be limited to the ballpark and surrounding neighborhoods.

Expect it to be just as crazy at a number of retail outlets in the region as boxes are busted open and the World Series champion merchandise hits the shelves.

The highlights? Forman Mills will keep all 13 of its stores from Allentown to the Jersey Shore open all night to sell its items. Sports Authority stores will close its 14 stores across the region at 9:30, then reopen if the Phillies win and sell merchandise “for as long as we need to be open,” said district manager Scott Silnik. And Modell’s Sporting Goods is planning the same, reopening its eight stores as soon as the Phillies win and staying open “until the volume dies down,” according to a company release. And who knows when that will be.

Mitchell Modell, company CEO, called the next 48 hours potentially “the biggest single event in our 119 years that we’ve ever had” if the Phils win tonight. Christmas in October? That’s what he called it, but it’s more than just a catchy phrase. Modell said earlier today that the company moved 160 people into the area Monday from their stores all over the East Coast --  “anywhere from North Jersey, South Jersey, Philly, Washington, Baltimore, Boston, all over, just helping out the stores, mostly cashiers and receiving.”

Turns out the hotel bill’s going to be a bit higher, as that personnel has been forced to stay in town a few extra days because of the suspension of play Monday night. “They’ve been helping out in the stores. Obviously, we preprinted a lot of merchandise, so they’ve been helping assort them, ticket them, process them," Modell said. "So, God willing, when we win tonight, they’ll be floor ready and set up.”  

Modell’s will open the following stores for business after a win: Exton; Clifton Heights ; Montgomery Square Mall in North Wales;

Christopher Streahle, director of advertising and marketing for Forman Mills, said they won’t even bother closing the doors tonight. All 13 in the region are planning to keep the lights on through the evening and overnight, and restock as they go along.

Sports Authority’s Silnik said their 14 stores will close at 9:30 to get set up, and then reopen after a Phillies win and stay open all night if they need to. But, he added, “I really anticipate volume dying off. I anticipate it being where, we have a lot of goods, but I think we’ll end up selling down and that will dictate when we’ll close, because we’ll be low on volume. But we have a second shot coming in for 6 a.m., maybe even earlier, and then product coming in on the hour. All 14 stores will reopen at 6, that’s what we’re advertising, but as soon as we get product, we’ll be open. So, we’ll probably be open at 5 in a lot of stores.”

The Phillies say their store at the ballpark will not stay open, but instead will reopen at 9 a.m. tomorrow stocked with World Series champion merchandise.

Game 5, well -- the rest of it anyway -- is a go for tonight. The first pitch is expected to be made at 8:37.

The Phillies say that gates will open at 5:30 p.m. Fans will need their tickets from Monday to get back into Citizens Bank Park. If you have a ticket that you think might be unscannable – maybe crinkled or partially torn or just plain mangled from the dampness – the Phillies recommend that you get down there to give them time to take care of the problem.
 
Fans who drive to the complex also should plan on arriving earlier than usual.  Parking will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, the Phillies say.  Fans with parking passes or receipts from Monday (Oct. 27) will be permitted to gain re-entry into any of the sports complex lots.  They will not be required to park in the same lot.  Those without passes or receipts from Monday, Oct. 27, will be required to pay for parking. 

Remember there’s also a Sixers game going on at the complex. That will start at 6 p.m.

SEPTA has said that Sports Express service on the Broad Street Line will be implemented from 6:25 p.m. to 7:35 p.m. between Fern Rock Transportation Center and Pattison Station. Trains will run every 10 minutes and stop at Olney, Erie, Girard, Spring Garden, Race-Vine, City Hall, Walnut-Locust and then Pattison Avenue. Express trains also will provide service after the game is over.

Market-Frankford Line service will have extra trains running between 69th Street Terminal and Frankford Transportation Center, SEPTA says, and regional rail trains will also add cars to all regularly scheduled trains. Suburban Station Regional Rail ticket offices will remain open until 12:30 a.m. on all game days.

In addition, eight downtown lots and garages are charging just $5 for parking. That discount will be available any time after 5:30 today. Round-trip subway token packs will be available for $2.90 from the attendant.

Use the Broad Street Line’s City Hall Station if you park at the following:
JFK Plaza Garage at 15th and Arch streets
AutoPark at City Center at 15th and Arch streets

Use the Broad Street Line Race-Vine Station if you part at the following:
Gateway Garage at 15th and Vine streets
Broad and Race streets Garage
Broad and Wood streets lot
Broad and Callowhill streets lot

Use the Broad Street Line Walnut-Locust Station if you park at the following:
AutoPark at the Gallery Mall at 10th and Filbert streets
AutoPark at Jefferson at 10th and Ludlow streets

In the case of Game 5 of this World Series, the answer is several. Local ticket brokers and sites on the secondary market were reporting some business today from people trying to sell their tickets to a game that could last as few as three innings and might not get resumed until Thursday.

Billy Adams, of the Wanamaker Ticket Office at 16th and Market streets in town, said earlier that "eight out of 10 calls today have been people trying to sell their seats. I guess they are trying to recoup their money. But then you have people calling trying to get a thousand dollars seat for three innings of baseball. So basically we've been buying back tickets at face (which range anywhere from $150 to $250)." He said they've resold them for $300 and up, below what they would have sold before Game 5 started yesterday.

"We definitely do have action," Adams said, "but the big action just isn't there anymore. Most of my calls have been people selling. But we're not getting too deep back into it."

A representative for StubHub, the official reselling partner of Major League Baseball, said that it had 53 tickets posted by mid-afternoon and expected 100 to be listed by the end of the day. Sean Pate said he saw a similar interest in sellers trying to recoup as much of their investment back as possible. Tickets were listed for $575 on the low end for standing room up to $3500 for a spot behind home plate. "So prices are staying pretty firm," Pate said. "It's interesting because not only is the suspension such a unique thing, but basically what's at hand here is the clinching game of a World Series. You’re looking literally at potential people buying three innings what they've waited three decades for."

Anyone wanting to sell their ticket through StubHub was told that they needed to drop them off at the company's office in the Holiday Inn Philadelphia Stadium,

Matt Moran, an associate VP for TicketNetwork.com, said they were showing around 80 tickets available on their site, including a smattering that never were sold before Game 5. Those were posting in a range of $2000 on the upper end to $500 on the low end. That compares to the $900 get-in price that buyers were paying before Game 5 originally started Monday. Any tickets purchased were available by pick-up only.

Certainly anyone picking up tickets that were used last night wants to make sure those tickets are intact. There was a false report circulating for a while today that some had been ripped in half at the entrances, but Phillies VP for Sales and Ticket Operations John Weber wrote in an e-mail that all tickets were scanned last night. Now some tickets might have gotten damaged in the downpour; if so, Weber asks fans holding tickets that they think might be unscannable -- "because it's crinkled or ripped somehow" --  to get down to the park a little earlier than usual to alleviate any problems. Pate also said that all the tickets they have had turned in at their office have been intact. "If for some reason a ripped one was submitted we would validate its authenticity with the Phillies and have it reprinted for the buyer," he wrote.

The Phillies noted on their Web site that fans will need their Game 5 tickets to get into Citizens Bank Park whenever the game is resumed. A note on the site also indicated that “fans with parking passes from Monday (October 27) or receipts will be permitted to gain re-entry into the parking lots. Fans that no longer have their passes or receipts will need to pay.”

There's some question when a second walk through the turnstiles will occur. Fox 29 forecaster John Bolaris said by phone that the decision on whether to play Wednesday will be tougher to make. Today was a washout from the start, with periods of heavy rain falling into the afternoon. Tomorrow those will slacken to rain and snow showers that could last until 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening. Wind chills, he added, will be in the upper 20s. Thursday night's forecast seems much better, with skies clearing and temperatures in the mid-40s.

Average prices for Game 5 spiked over $1000, Pate noted, with the potential clinching game increasing demand. Bottom line, the three games in Philly have cost StubHub buyers an average of $904 a ticket.

That's far short of what people are paying for Game 6 and Game 7 in St. Petersburg , Fla. Overall, the average price of a ticket for the four games there is sitting at $389. Get-in prices have been as low as $185. "They've come down substantially the last couple of days," Pate said. Game 6 tickets have sold for an average of $427 and the cost of a ticket for Game 7 has been around $30 higher. Pate said he expects a "landslide of activity" once buyers know the series definitely is headed back to Florida . The ticket price most affected would be Game 7, obviously the clincher for both teams.

At this point, those who sat through last night's rain and wind just hope the clincher has been delayed no more than a day or two. Greg Hoy, of Philadelphia , paid four figures for two tickets so he could take his dad to Game 5 and partially pay back his gratitude for his dad taking him to Game 1 of the World Series in 1980 at the Vet. Hoy said by phone that they attended last night and just sat there in disbelief as the rain continued to intensify. "We just kept thinking that there was no way [the game was] going to be canceled but ultimately they did [suspend it]. But we are going back. My dad is coming back into town to do it, and we'll hope they can squeak out a win. It's unfortunate the way [last night's game] turned out. I just wish Major League Baseball would have had a little more foresight when it comes to the Series and take look at things like weather forecasts, and maybe moving games up."  

How many times can a World Series ticket change hands?

In the case of Game 5 of this World Series, the answer is several. Local ticket brokers and sites on the secondary market were reporting some business today from people trying to sell their tickets to a game that could last as little as two-and-a-half innings and might not get resumed until Thursday.

Billy Adams, of the Wanamaker Ticket Office at 16th and Market streets in town, said a couple hours ago that "eight out of 10 calls today have been people trying to sell their seats. I guess they are trying to recoup their money. But then you have people calling trying to get a thousand dollars seat for three innings of baseball, two-and-a-half if the Phillies get the lead. So basically we've been buying back tickets at face (which range anywhere from $150 to $250)." He said they've resold them for $300 and up, below what they would have sold before Game 5 started yesterday.

"We definitely do have action," Adams said, "but the big action just isn't there anymore. Most of my calls have been people selling. But we're not getting too deep back into it."

A representative for StubHub, the official reselling partner of Major League Baseball, said a couple of hours ago that it had 53 tickets posted and expected 100 by the end of the day. Sean Pate said he saw a similar interest in sellers trying to recoup as much of their investment back as possible. Tickets were listed for $575 on the low end for standing room up to $3500 for a spot behind home plate. "So prices are staying pretty firm," Pate said. "It's interesting because not only is the suspension such a unique thing, but basically what's at hand here is the clinching game of a World Series. You’re looking literally at potential people buying three innings what they've waited three decades for."

Anyone wanting to sell their ticket through StubHub was told that they needed to drop them off at the company's office in the Holiday Inn Philadelphia Stadium, 900 Packer Ave. That office opened at 9:30 this morning and also will be open tomorrow. No tickets were being accepted by e-mail.

Matt Moran, an associate VP for TicketNetwork.com, said they were showing around 80 tickets available on their site, including a smattering that never were sold. Those were posting in a range of $2000 on the upper end to $500 on the low end. That compares to the $900 get-in price that buyers were paying before Game 5 originally started Monday. Any tickets purchased were available by pick-up only.

Certainly anyone picking up tickets that were used last night wants to make sure those tickets are intact. There was a false report circulating for a while today that some had been ripped in half at the entrances, but Phillies VP for Sales and Ticket Operations John Weber wrote in an e-mail a short time ago that all tickets were scanned last night. Now some tickets might have gotten damaged in the downpour; if so, Weber asks fans holding tickets that they think might be unscannable -- "because it's crinkled or ripped somehow" --  to get down to the park a little earlier than usual to alleviate any problems. Pate also said that all the tickets they have had turned in at their office have been intact. "If for some reason a ripped one was submitted we would validate its authenticity with the Phillies and have it reprinted for the buyer," he wrote.

The Phillies noted on their Web site that fans will need their Game 5 tickets to get into Citizens Bank Park whenever the game is resumed.

There's some question when that will happen. Fox 29 forecaster John Bolaris said by phone this afternoon that tomorrow's decision on whether to play will be tougher than today's. Today was a washout from the start, with periods of heavy rain falling much of the day. Tomorrow those will slacken to rain and snow showers that could last until 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening. Wind chills, he added, will be in the upper 20s. Thursday night's forecast seems much better, with skies clearing and temperatures in the mid-40s.

Average prices for Game 5 spiked over $1000, Pate noted, with the potential clinching game increasing demand. Bottom line, the three games in Philly has cost StubHub buyers an average of $904 a ticket.

That's far short of what people are paying for Game 6 and Game 7 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Overall, the average price of a ticket for the four games there is sitting at $389. Get-in prices have been as low as $185. "They've come down substantially the last couple of days," Pate said. Game 6 tickets have sold for an average of $427 and the cost of a ticket for Game 7 has been around $30 higher. Pate said he expects a "landslide of activity" once buyers know the series definitely is headed back to Florida. The ticket price most affected would be Game 7, obviously the clincher for both teams.

At this point, those who sat through last night's rain and wind just hope the clincher has been delayed no more than a day or two. Greg Hoy, of Philadelphia, paid four figures for two tickets so he could take his dad to Game 5 and sort of pay back his gratitude for his dad taking him to Game 1 of the World Series in 1980 at the Vet. Hoy said by phone that they attended last night and just sat there in disbelief as the rain continued to intensify. "We just kept thinking that there was no way [the game was] going to be canceled but ultimately they did [suspend it]. But we are going back. My dad is coming back into town to do it, and we'll hope they can squeak out a win. It's unfortunate the way [last night's game] turned out. I just wish Major League Baseball would have had a little more foresight when it comes to the Series and take look at things like weather forecasts, and maybe moving games up."  

One of the repercussions of the Phillies playing in the World Series is a change in the starting time for the Sixers' first game. Scheduled for tomorrow night at the Wachovia Center against the Raptors, the game now will begin at 6.

Originally, that idea was kicked around in case a Game 6 was being played, as scheduled, back down in Florida. The thought was that fans could see the Sixers game, then either head home or to a Phillies viewing party or just stay in the Center and watch the game. But now, with a resumption of Game 5 now tentatively scheduled for tomorrow night, the idea makes even more sense. No doubt some people who hold Sixers tickets to tomorrow's game also have tickets to Game 5 of the World Series, which probably wouldn't start until around 8:45 if it is played tomorrow. That's because presidential candidate Barack Obama's advertised program, which is running on Fox and several other networks, will run from 8 to 8:30.

In short, fans could watch the Sixers, then have plenty of time to cross Pattison Avenue and get themselves settled in the ballpark. Be aware that this Sixers change is set in stone now. Even if bad weather postpones the Phillies again tomorrow, the start time is officially 6 p.m.

The AT&T Pavilion at the Wachovia Center will remain open after the Sixers game late into the evening for fans to watch the last few innings of the baseball game with half-price domestic beer specials and food. Access to the AT&T Pavilion after the Sixers game will be free and open to the public.