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Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Phillies fan feed: Keeping tabs in the suburbs

 

Inquirer staff writer Bonnie L. Cook reports:

Carole Silverman, a receptionist at the Upper Merion Township Building on W. Valley Forge Road, in King of Prussia, said she has been an avid Phils fan since age 15 when she and her father went to Connie Mack Stadium to see players like Robin Roberts.


She loved rookie righthander Ray Semproch and actually met him and formed a fan club around him in 1958. "You can't forget stuff like that," she said.


Because her township job requires fielding and routing many calls, Silverman opted not to watch the game on her computer. "They're going to keep me updated," she said of fellow workers. Silverman said she had "TIVO'd" the game at home and would watch it later.


After studying the stats, she predicted the Rockies would win in four, giving one game to the Phillies at home. "I'm a great Phils fan, but I don't have a good feeling," she said. "I just hope I'm wrong."


In order to stack the deck, Silverman planned to wear her lucky Phils garb today to the office. The gear included Phillies earrings, T-shirt, socks, cap, and tote bag. All these items were given a green light by a township memo that said: "Tasteful Phillies fashions will be permitted at the township on game days."

Joe Bondi, 79, kept an eye on the game as he and sons James and Michael researched a possible sale at Bondi's Furniture, a family-owned showroom and warehouse in Norristown a short walk from the Montgomery County Courthouse. Bondi sat in an old armchair in a windowless section of the warehouse closed to the public. Son Michael worked at a computer while James sat at an old-fashioned wooden carpenter's table.


"Nice catch," said Bondi, as shortstop Jimmy Rollins ran and snagged the ball in an early inning.
Observing the stadium stands packed with spectators on a workday, Bondi said: "There is no recession. The last thing people give up is their recreation."


"It is windy there. Look at that shirt flapping," Bondi said of pitcher Cliff Lee. As if on cue, a tree snapped out front on Main Street and the top half fell on a parked car. No one was hurt, but the car's owner was upset.




"Go Phillies!" a flashing sign read on the side of the Route 93 Septa bus that pulled into the Norristown Transportation Center at DeKalb and East Lafayette Streets, just after the game started. The bus runs between Norristown and Pottstown via Collegeville.


Bus drivers arriving for their shift said operating rules prevented their following the game while driving. But one driver said he'd be checking his cell phone for the score "at the end of my run."

Read more Phillies fan feed  in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 5:37 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Phillies fan feed: It is October baseball...

Inquirer staff writer Kristen A. Graham reports:

    The day started warm if windy, but by the seventh inning, it was decidedly chilly at Citizens Bank Park.
 
    Fans put on warm jackets and threw blankets over their legs.
 
    Brian Collins bought his daughter Mairead, 10, hot chocolate to keep her warm.
 
    The hood of Mairead's pink Phillies sweatshirt was tight around her face. 
 
    "It's cold," she said.
 
    But that was no big deal, she said.  It was her first playoff game, ever, and she and her dad were excited.
 
    "We're going to the Series," a jubilant Brian Collins, 40, predicted.  "We're playing the Yankees in the Series and we're beating the Yankees in the Series."
 
    Collins, a printer who lives in Havertown, was given a half day by his boss.  As for Mairead...
 
    "I told her school she had an appointment," Brian Collins said.
 
    "An orthodontist's appointment," said Mairead, who declined to give her school or her grade.
    "I don't want to get in trouble," she said.
 

Read more Phillies fan feed in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 5:31 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Phillies fan feed: Red, white and blue, and Santa's a Phan

Inquirer staff writer Kristen A. Graham reports: 

    Ethan Clearfield painted had his face red, white and blue.  The Richboro Middle School seventh grader placed a Phillies temporary tattoo on one cheek.  Stationed in his seat in section 232, Ethan, 12, was ready.
 
    And so was Cliff Lee, despite a shaky first inning.  Ethan was sure of it.
 
    "He's going to win," Ethan said of the Phillies Game 1 starter.  "It's going to be huge."
 
    Ethan and his dad, Ron Clearfield, 51, of Richboro, clapped and cheered, even as the game remained scoreless in the fourth inning.
 
    Nearby, Santa Claus sat drinking a Miller Lite and waving a rally towel.  Naturally, Santa is a Phillies fan, wearing a long-sleeved red Phillies shirt and his trademark red-and-white holiday cap.
 
    Santa - alter ego Ed Caufield, 65, of Hatfield - had skipped out of work with a construction company to attend the game.  His boss was a few sections over.
 
    "If he didn't let me come today, I'd ruin his Christmas," Caufield said.

Read more Phillies fan feed in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 3:34 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Phillies fan feed: Playing hooky as a brisk wind blows
Playing hooky from work to be at the Phillies-Rockies opening playoff game on Oct. 7, 2009, are (from left) Jose Gonzalez of Philadelphia, Scott Miller of Newark, Del., and Bob Musial of Philadelphia.

 Staff writer Kristen A. Graham reports from Citizens Bank park:

  As a brisk wind whipped on the field, three spectators in Section 117, along the first base line, watched batting practice.
 
    Their work clothes - khakis, oxford-cloth shirts, ties - gave them away as work-skippers.  Their grins gave them away as big fans.
 
    Bob Musial, Scott Miller and Jose Gonzalez work at the Gulf Agency Company, shipping agents near the airport.  And yes, they said, their boss knows they're at the game.
 
    "I owe him big-time," Musial, 27, said of his supervisor.  "He's a big Phillies fan, and he's still at work."
 
    Gonzalez came prepared.  He slipped a Phillies jersey over his long-sleeved work shirt.
 
    "Any time they say, 'Phillies game,' I throw the jersey in the truck and hope I'll get there," said Gonzales, 38.  "You never know."
 
     A few rows down, Tony Copestick sat with his son, Connor, 7. 
 
   Connor was lucky, he said.  He's a second grader at Thomas Richards School in Atco, but his teacher didn't give him a hard time for leaving school early to come to the game.
 
    "She likes the Phillies," Connor said.
 
    As for Tony Copestick, 49, a gym teacher at the Camden County Vo-Tech School, he taught in the morning, then picked Connor up and headed to the ballpark.
 
    Some of his students were jealous.  
 
    "And some," Copestick said, "are actually at the game, too."

Read more Phillies fan feed in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 2:15 PM  Permalink | 1 comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Phillies fan feed: OMG, who turned out the lights?

Inquirer staff writer Amy Rosenberg reports:

Some Phillies fans down the Shore were besides themselves for awhile today.

Just 90 minutes before game time, a blackoutleft  parts of Margate and Longport without power.

"Everybody wants to know now if they'll be able to watch the Phillies," said Margate Fire Chief John Kelley, who was not sweating himself because a backup generator was powering the TV's at the firehouse.

The blackout affected about 1,600 customers of Atlantic City Electric and a utility truck could be seen racing through the streets looking for the cause, which Kelley said was likely wind related.

On Ventnor Avenue, Michael Jonuzi, owner of the Chelsea Pizza shop, sat dejectedly in his darkened shop, a TV with a blank screen facing the tables.

He pondered whether to just go home.

"I hope we get electricity to watch it," he said, prayerfully.

His prayer was answered.

Acting like the clutch players Phillies fans hope their team will be, utility workers located the problem and restored power on at 2:12 p.m., a cool 25 minutes before game time.

Whew.
Read more fan feeds in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 1:57 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Phillies fan feed: Carnival atmosphere at the ballpark
Joey Bulicki, 11, of Pensauken awaits the start of Game One of the opening round of the National League playoffs at Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 7, 2009.

Inquirer staff writer Kristen Graham reports from Citizens Bank Park:

There's a carnival atmosphere outside Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies and Rockies will square off in their first National League Division Series game at 2:37 today - a band in Phillies shirts playing, fans lining up to buy playoff t-shirts and drinks from the beer garden. 

    It hardly feels like a Wednesday. 
 
    Although scoring tickets was nowhere near as hard as it was for say, last year's World Series, friends Nicholas Black and Chuck Rementer of Glenside felt lucky to get inside the ballpark.
 
    Black, 54, has a season ticket holder friend whose husband lost her job.  Playoff tickets were too rich for her blood, but she offered them to Black, an avid baseball fan.
 
    "I told her, 'Your misfortune is my fortune,'" Black said.
 
    The two travel together to ballparks all over the country, so going to see the hometown team in the playoffs was a no-brainer, they said. 
 
    "I have tickets for every series," said Black.
 
    Neither Black nor Rementer had trouble getting a weekday off from work.  Rementer, 53, a barber at Ralph's Barber Shop in Glenside, said his boss is at the game, too.  So is another Ralph's barber.
 
    "I'm not sure who's even at the shop," Rementer said, laughing.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 1:12 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Nutter, Denver mayor, announce NLDS wager

 

Who really needs a crate of cheesesteaks or a boatload of buffalo burgers anyway?

 Mayor Nutter and Denver Mayor Jim Hickenlooper today announced homeless families in Philadelphia or Denver will benefit when the  Phillies play the Colorado Rockies in the National League Division Series. Comcast, Citizens Bank and FirstBank in Denver have joined the mayors in agreeing on a wager that looks like this:

If the Phillies win the series, Project H.O.M.E will receive a $1,000 donation from Comcast; a $500 donation from FirstBank; and a $500 donation from Citizens Bank.
If the Rockies win the series, Denver's Road Home will receive a $1,000 donation from Comcast; a $500 donation from FirstBank; and a $500 donation from Citizens Bank.

“The Phillies-Rockies series will not only be an opportunity to see some great baseball but do some good for the community. Mayor Hickenlooper and I may not agree on which team to root for, but we are both committed to fighting homelessness. When the Phillies win, I look forward to collecting $2,000 for Project H.O.M.E.,” said Mayor Nutter.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 12:37 PM  Permalink |
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Truck crash cleared from I-95 near stadium complex

A tractor trailer crash on the northbound lanes of I-95 this morning near the South Philadelphia stadium complex threatened to making getting to the first game in the Phillies-Rockies series a nightmare for some fans, but crews cleared the wreck with time to spare.

The tanker truck overturned near Exit 16 about 10:50 a.m., closing two of the three northbound lanes for about two hours.

But at 1 p.m. -- more than 90 minutes before the start of the game -- PennDOT reported the wreck had been moved and all northbound lanes reopened.

No word on injuries.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 12:29 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Prison for Philly man in penis enlargement plot

Inquirer staff report:

A Philadelphia man reportedly has been sentenced to 4 1/2 to 18 years in prison for stealing the identities of eight people to pay for penis enlargements for himself and a friend and breast implants for two women.

The Morning Call of Allentown reports that Jose Amid Juarbe, 40, racked racked up more than $88,000 in  bills in the victims’ names.

The man and two woman who received the plastic surgery courtesy of Juarbe also are from Philadelphia.

Juarbe pleaded guilty in August.

“People think that because I'm gay, I don't have to have my parts working,” he told Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos at his sentencing yesterday, the newspaper reported.

In another story from the Lehigh Valley, a man who killed his twin in a freak accident a week ago has taken his own life.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 12:06 PM  Permalink |
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Good Morning Philadelphia: Citizens Bank Park makes final preps for NLDS

Staff photographer Tom Gralish reports:

The sun begins to peek out as the rain clouds disappear over Citizens Bank Park this morning.

Here, electrician Bill Dooner changes burned out neon tubes in the sign over the parking lot entrance on South Broad Street.

The forecast is for strong winds, but no rain, as Cliff Lee takes to the mound for Game 1 against the Colorado Rockies at 2:37 p.m.

With only hours to go before the game, tickets were still available on auction websites.

The timing of the game has been a sore point for many ticket holders and sports bars.

Read more breaking news in our From The Source blog.

Posted by Inquirer Online Desk @ 10:04 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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