The next MLB Office Olympics could get interesting. . .
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
The next MLB Office Olympics could get interesting. . .
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
One of the more bizarre intra-division feuds has developed in the wake of the Nationals announcement of a "Take Back the Park" campaign designed to limit the ability of Phillies fans to purchase group tickets at Washington home games. Instead of players taking passive-agressive or even active-aggressive shots at each other through the media, the latest round of sniping features Nationals Chief Operating Officer Andrew Feffer and Phillies director of media communications Greg Casterioto.
In a story in the Washington Post earlier this week, Feffer talked about the outrage that many Phillies fans have expressed after learning that the deposits they placed for group tickets are being returned.
"We're going to make it a little more difficult for the Phillies fans," Feffer said. "I want to be consistent with that. My only disappointment is, I guess, I won't be able to see them swim across the river if they're not there."
In that story, former Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth talked about a similar campaign he thought the Phillies had during his early days with the team, one that was designed to keep Mets fans from over-running Citizens Bank Park the way Phillies fans have Nationals Park over the last couple seasons.
“All I know is, in ’07 it was 50-50, 60-40 Mets to Phillies fans,” Werth told the Post. “And then pretty soon there were very little Mets fans. Whether that’s because they stopped selling to Mets fans or they just stopped coming, I don’t know.
“You’re definitely better off with a park full of your own fans at home compared to a park full of somebody else’s fans at home. I think it’s good.”
Yesterday, Casterioto responded with an e-mail to Nationals beat writer Adam Kilgore.
“That could not be more wrong," Casterioto wrote. "The Phillies did not at any time have a similar promotion to the Washington Nationals’ ‘Take Back the Park’ campaign. Making the postseason in 2007 and then winning the World Series in 2008, along with a team full of exciting players and having a great place to watch a baseball game, is what drew more Phillies fans to Citizens Bank Park.”
What did the five fingers say to the face?
For what it's worth, I did a quick archive search and could find no mention of any official campaign run by the Phillies with Mets fans as the target. The closest I could find was Brett Myers saying he hoped Phillies fans would buy up all the tickets for a 2007 series so that New Yorkers would be shut out.
Buy Phillies tickets 
A slightly different story in Denver. The Rockies decided that tickets for the only Phillies series would be 42% higher than last year, while just about all other tickets are 5% more . As much as I like the Phillies, I don't like being gouged by paying $92 per ticket for infield box seats for a regular season game, so I won't be up at Coors Field the weekend after the all-star break. First time in 15 years not seeing the Phillies in person.— ijj- Is it even legal to deny someone access to your establishment without a better reason than "we don't like your kind here"?— franknbeans
- waaaaa!!!! if they had fans they'd buy the tickets. can't wait til this guy gets fried for coming up with such a badly thought out idea.— bingo
- waaaaa!!!! if they had fans they'd buy the tickets. can't wait til this guy gets fried for coming up with such a badly thought out idea.— bingo
- and yet Phillies fans get the blame again. I hear that Philadelphia fans are teh reason we have debt, disease and baldness. its all a publicity stunt to generate interest in a mediocre product. Washington Nationals...the SHAMWOW of professional Baseball— bingo
- the whole dc area is dweebs, dheads and dbags— eagle stuck in dc
- That is just Jayson being Jayson. In '07 Werth was not close to being a regular player. 94 games. Talk from the bench is cheap.— Seal Rock
- It appears that all the asses in washington are not in the Whiter House or in Congress!!!!!— billroc35
- Like Casterioto said (more or less) winning solves all your problems. Fans come out, players don't fight, everything is great. So not sure what Werthless was talking about.
My questions is, what if the Nats don't sell out all the Phils games? When your not a winning franchise you want the Yankmees, Red Sox and Phils to come to town so people will fill the stadium.— Phils_World_Champs - I stay in the DC area now and try to go to most of the games when the Phils are here. I LOVE going, the only folks wearing Nats gear are the ushers.— mifunk
- If they block Phillies fans from the games the park will be 50% empty. The Nats fans will not fill that park. Pick your poison. You can't have it both ways. You would think they would want a full park to pay that ridiculous salary they gave Spaceman.— delcodanno
- Great front office in DC. Sold tickets mean more means to build a winning team. Philly did that and we got Roy and Cliff. DC did that and got Jayson. Hum..
— cahris - The Nats front office can play all of the games that they want, but the fact of the matter is that D.C. is not a good baseball town (there is a reason they have already lost 2 teams) and Nats fans will never fill up that stadium consistently.— phink
- The Nationals sound like they're trying to be a Triple A team, not a major league team. Part of being a pro is being able to play in any enviroment. The Nationals shouldn't care if there are 50,000 fans in their stadium. Just pretend you're in Philly and be happy most of that money is coming to them. They really sound like a bunch of losers from the players to the people in the front office.— AvoidSundanceVacations
- Phillies and Nationals aside, I cannot imagine that the city of Washington DC is pleased with the decision of the Nationals. Last summer I went down to a Phillies/Nationals series. I went with my wife, my parents and friends of my parents (6 people). We spent the weekend in DC hotels, ate at DC restaurants, went to DC stores, used DC transportation, and bought tickets for DC museums. We were not the only ones either. There were Phillies t-shirts everywhere meaning there was lots of money being spent in the city. The city should be calling the Natioanls and telling them not to push people who spend money in their city away.— wobblie
