Watching the fans, the Phillies' 'Eye in the Sky' has seen it all

Hours before the first pitch, Wes Whittington pushed open a steel-mesh fence at the bottom of the centerfield light tower and climbed 29 steps up a narrow metal ladder into the sky above Citizens Bank Park.

He could see the skyline in the space between each step. He jokes these days that it seems like someone has added more steps to the ladder.

Whittington took his seat inside his glass-enclosed perch just above Harry the K's restaurant. It was time to go to work - time to watch the people who've come out to watch the ballgame.

Wes Whittington is the "Eye in the Sky," as he's known at the ballpark.

At 75, Whittington has worked for the Phillies for more than a half century.

First as an usher at Connie Mack Stadium ("That place smelled like baseball"), then as security supervisor at Veterans Stadium ("Anything could happen on that 700 level - it was a known fact"), and now as director of communications at Citizens Bank Park, where he has sat in his outfield perch since the ballpark opened in 2004.

From there, armed with his ever-chirping radio and cameras showing what seems like every inch and angle of the ballpark, it falls on Whittington to monitor all the minor and major dramas that accompany a baseball game.

Every spilled beer and broken seat, every vomit and brawl, every lost child and obnoxious fan, every heat stroke and heart attack, every plea for the location of the nearest hot dog stand. It all goes through Wes.

"He is the conductor that makes everything happen," Sal DeAngelis, director of stadium security, said before Thursday's businessperson's special against the San Francisco Giants.

When his radio bleats or phone rings, as they do endlessly throughout the game, it is up to Whittington and his small staff to focus their cameras on whomever may need a helping hand from a host, or a medic's attention, or a stern visit from security.

That was the case Tuesday night when home plate umpire Bob Davidson suddenly called time and took the unusual step of signaling for a cursing loudmouth fan to be thrown out, a first for even Whittington.

(The man was going to be relocated to a new seat, Whittington said, but decided to leave instead.)

Or that game in June when a fan threw a bottle at Ryan Howard. The incident wasn't reported until after the game. Whittington and his crew quickly found video of the bottle-thrower the next day. "If we had known sooner, we would have gotten the guy before he even got to the top of the steps," Whittington said. (The idiot eventually turned himself in to police.)

One of a few remaining employees dating back to Connie Mack Stadium, Whittington is an institution, said Eric Tobin, the Phillies' director of operations. He is known, by all, from ownership on down to the newest usher, simply as, Wes.

Growing up in Asheville, N.C., he'd play baseball from morning to dusk on a sandlot. When his father moved his family to West Philadelphia when he was 7, he played on playground fields, mimicking his hero, Willie Mays.

After graduating from West Philly High, he took classes through General Motors trade school to be a draftsman.

"I couldn't stand blueprints," he said. "I was tired of sitting down, drawing lines."

To beat the boredom, he would buy a ticket to Connie Mack, often two or three times a week.

His brother-in-law, the first black usher at the Phils' home field, he said, landed him the interview.

On a Friday night in 1964, during the opener of a three-game series against the Giants, those same Giants with Willie Mays, Wes Whittington, who was 22 and in love with baseball, donned the crisp white shirt of a Phillies usher. He never looked back.

"They were going to pay me to watch baseball," he said. And that's what he's done for 52 years: Watch. Though some nights are so busy he can't look up, like whenever the Mets come to town and everything goes to heck - there could be 80 ejections.

From that first fateful summer as he watched with a "sinking feeling" as the Phillies collapsed, losing 10 of their last 12, and the National League pennant with it. ("1964 will always be the lowlight.")

To that single year in the 1970s when the team equipped its security guards with clubs. ("I never wore my club unless the Mets were in town.")

To that glorious night in 1980 when he stood on the field, not 10 feet away, as the players piled on Tug McGraw and the euphoria of World Series championship erupted all around him. ("No one, but no one, had the view I had.")

In 52 seasons, his bosses said, he's missed only four games. And those were to attend his daughters' graduations or weddings.

Two years ago, to mark his 50th year with the team, the Phillies took Whittington and his wife, Mae, on a four day all-paid vacation to Clearwater Fla., where the team has spring training. He and Mae stayed in the finest hotel and dined in the best restaurants. Whittington even threw out the first pitch of a game.

Then, Wes Whittington came home and went back to work, back to doing what he loves, back to climbing his ladder in the sky above the outfield to watch over those who come out to watch a ballgame.

mnewall@phillynews.com 215-854-2759