Philadelphia Phillies vs Florida Marlins - Citizen Bank Park, Philadelphia, USA - Tuesday 9th September 2008

After seeing the Phillies lose at Shea Stadium a couple of days earlier, I got to see them lose again, this time on home turf. Apparently they often do this - get close to the top of the division, going into the final part of the season, then screw things up. So, Phillies fans seem to have very low expectations when their team has manoeuvred themselves into a decent position - because a disaster cannot be far away. As an Arsenal fan, this is somewhat familiar.

The Phillies play at Citizens Bank Park, a very new, purpose built stadium which has all of the comfort that Shea Stadium does not (and that presumably, that the Mets new stadium will have). The seats have lots of legroom, they have nice drinks holders in them, the toilets are plentiful and clean, and there are plenty of places to part with your hard earned dollars. This game was "dollar dog" night, so with unlimited hot dogs for a dollar each, you didn't actually need to part with all that much cash. They did make the money back on beer though, at $6.50 a throw.

This was another game that the Phillies lost. They raced into a 7-1 deficit after the first 2 innings, which deflated the crowd, and meant that they were probably always going to lose from the word go. The Phillies did stage something of a comeback, scoring 3 runs in the 4th, and 4 in the 6th, but after a start like that, it was always going to be very difficult to win the game. It finished 10-8, a very high scoring game, with some excitement towards the end as the Phillies got close to the Marlins score. But ultimately the home fans were frustrated.

These 2 trips to baseball were a bit of an eye opener - American fan culture was very much in evidence, but seemed pretty tame for both games (although I hear that Mets fans can be lively at times). The game of baseball itself seemed quite boring, and (excuse the pun), games seemed a bit hit and miss as to their interest level and excitement. But then I guess having grown up with baseball, Americans are much more likely to see the attraction. The crowd really seemed to appreciate the few exciting moments (although there were more moments I'd describe as "tense" rather than "exciting"), which makes you wonder why they don't go for a proper sport like "soccer".