The Visiting Philadelphia Phillies

Last weekend, the Phillies”traveled” to Philadelphia for their weekend series “at” Toronto. Prior to the games, we knew the Phillies would bat in the top of the order and the game would follow American League rules using the designated hitter, even though they were playing in their home park. To further sell the idea that these were “away” games, the Phillies even wore their road uniforms, but the teams did not go so far as to switch dugouts nor did the concessions sell typical Canadian baseball fare. Although, that’s probably the same as American baseball fare at this point.

Throughout the weekend, we noticed other subtle things that were done to make the Blue Jays feel more at “home.” Before each batter came to the plate, their usual “get ready to hit ball psyche-up” music was played as they approached which isn’t normally done outside of a team’s home ballpark. The Blue Jays really like Rage Against the Machine. The usual music was played for the Phillies as well, even though the visiting team is not normally afforded this luxury. Between innings, video packages spotlighting the Blue Jays players were even shown in place of those showcasing the Phillies. It turns out the Blue Jays’ starters prefer Peter Griffin over Homer Simpson. Although he quickly corrected himself, PA Announcer Dan Baker even began Sunday’s game telling us the “Philadelphia Blue Jays” were hosting the “visiting Philadelphia Phillies.”

One Phillies home tradition that was firmly in place was the Phanatic. There was some debate about this, but the right decision was made. He did harass the “visiting” Phillies in Game 1, but he was up to his usual antics with the home crowd before the weekend was out. Although every game did feature mounties, mounties, mounties during the 7th inning stretch. The Citizen’s Bank Park “Citizen’s Seven” prize moment was also in place as we learned first hand on Sunday.

The fan poll questions were centered around Phillies/Blu Jays history and while the favorites were pretty obvious I thought it might be fun to see what people here thought.