Home-opener vs. Royals -- yuck!
A home opener against the Royals is example No. 5,478 as to why interleague play on a daily basis stinks. The Phillies, in fact, may be stuck with the worst home-opening series in baseball.
Home-opener vs. Royals -- yuck!
Bob Brookover, Inquirer Baseball Columnist
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The Phillies announced Monday morning that single-game tickets will go on sale beginning Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.
"In less than two months, the Phillies finally return to Citizens Bank Park for Opening Week," Phillies vice president of sales and ticket operations John Weber said in a statement as players continued to gather here for Wednesday's first spring-training workout. "The 2013 season officially gets underway the weekend of April 5 with a great matchup against the Kansas City Royals and leads into a three-game series against ... the New York Mets. We look forward to welcoming back our fans for what is sure to be an exciting season."
The attendance figures early this season should be fascinating to watch for the Phillies. Their National League record streak of 257 straight regular-season sellouts ended last August, but they still managed to lead all of baseball in attendance with more than 3.5 million fans.
Whether the Phillies can maintain that kind of interest will depend on how well they play. It did not matter in recent years what opponent showed up to play in South Philadelphia. The fans were there to see the home team because they were that good. A few more seasons like 2012 and that is sure to end.
The first homestand has its good points and bad points.
On the positive side, the Phillies open the season against two teams that were a combined 146-178 last season, so the opportunity for a good start is in front of them.
On the flip side, it's not all that exciting to think about season-opening home series against the Royals and Mets. Even though Kansas City figures to be improved with the addition of true ace James Shields from Tampa Bay, they are still one of the least attractive and familiar teams in baseball.
Go ahead, try to name 10 Royals.
We'll spot you former Phillies lefthander Bruce Chen, who led the team with 34 starts last season.
A home opener against the Royals is example No. 5,478 as to why interleague play on a daily basis stinks. The Phillies, in fact, may be stuck with the worst home-opening series in baseball. The same weekend they're playing the Royals, the Yankees will be playing the Tigers in a rematch of the American League Championship Series and the Cardinals will be playing the Giants in a rematch of the NLCS.
The Nationals will be playing the Reds in a battle of two 2012 playoff teams.
Sorry, the Phillies vs. the Royals just does not get the juices flowing unless its a highlight reel of the 1980 World Series on MLB Network.
C'mon, Bob, surely you know the Phils led MLB in tickets sold last year but those 3.5m tickets did not lead to 3.5m fannies in seats. There were more empty seats last year than in the history of CBP. You couldn't give away tickets on Stubhub and I refused to. And this year it won't be sold empty seats.— PhillySubsMac- The crew running Major League Baseball constantly does everything that they can possibly do to ruin a great game. They catered to the fringe "fans" with this idiotic interleague baseball stuff.
The only time there should be interleague games is the World Series.— VOMIT MAN! - You're looking at it the wrong way. MLB probably think the Phillies will draw fans no matter why have them face a good team when the crummy Royals will do just fine. But chances are this is completely random and it's just a coincidence. This could be good for the Phillies because they should bury the Royals and get off to a good start.— Phillies2008WSChamps
- Yes, but if the Phillies lose to KC, the doomsayers will be out in force, giving up on the season after opening day.... Maybe they better bring back some of the 1980 teams to help sell tickets...— jlmfl
- Gives new meaning to the term "Royally screwed"— The Moose is Loose
- poor K.C. --they have to play a mediocre bunch of trash put together by a clueless imbecile --yuck— warbiscuit
- Royals have a more promising future than the Phils team full of over-the-hill overrated overpaid trash...take away Hamels and not a single Phils elite player or prospect under the age of 34— warbiscuit
- Translation: WHAAAAAAAAH! WHAAAAAAAAH! WHAAAAAAAAH! — The Pack Leader
- The Phils will dominate again this year with all of the stars coming back to from. It all starts with a big win n the home opener against a futile KC Royals team. Let's get on the bandwagon again Philly fans. This isn't Pittsburgh.— oakmontleo
- If the Phils have anything resembling a decent team, they could start the home season 6 - 0. That is enough reason to have the patsies early. If the Phils don't win at least four of those six, you might as well hang out the "Wait Until 2014" Banner. Getting off to a good start is essential for this team. If they produce a winning recorn without Choioch, they could be dangerous once he returns to the lineup. With Chooch, it isn't the 1927 Yankees, but there is no real dead spot in the lineup.— gotedge
- KC is an underrated team that has the ability to compete. If I lived in Philly, I would buy a ticket in right field just to boo Jeff Francoeur who doesn't like Philadelphia Kids (4 to 6 year olds) because they gave him a hard time when he was with the Muts. Regardless who the Phillies open or close with, it is worth seeing because they are the Phillies.— jpelle36
- the story line will remain Doc, Lee and Howard and Uttley,.....so a Royals series doesn't really matter one way or the other unless of course we lose— SyddBarrett
- Uh,...Cholly would absolutely love Rube to try and see to it that one Jeff franceur would remain behind after the series is over,....Cholly loves this guy and thinks he's tailor-made for this ball park— SyddBarrett
- The home opener will be tough to win if we assume that the Royals start Shields.— nmlawyer
