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| Peter, Ron, Gayle, Tobie with Phillies sunglasses |
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| Trout Jerseys-all the fashion trend |
To my puzzlement, at the ballpark 1000s of fans are wearing Angels T shirt with the number 27 on the back. How could there be so many LA Angels fans here tonight and why is everyone so enamored of.........oh I get it- that's Mike Trout's number. And he came from Millville NJ, 35 minutes outside of Philly. Turns out the shirts were made special for this evening's 'homecoming' of sorts, as 8000 Millville fans stream into the park to cheer on their hometown hero.
Even I know about Mike Trout, the 22 year old phenom. Here's a piece from a news article:
"You can feel the energy on Main Street at Jim's Lunch, where Jim Maul's family has served the locals since 1923. "Hey, anyone going to Mike Trout's game Tuesday night?" yells Jim from behind the counter.
"The
whole town is coming, you kidding me," says Steve Stanick, president of
the Millville American Little League where Trout played. "This is about
the biggest thing that's ever happened around these parts." As
many as 8,000 of Millville's 28,000 residents loaded onto buses and into
cars to make the drive to Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday to see Trout
make his Philadelphia-area debut"As we stroll around the park before the game, Gayle spies a woman with a sign that reads ' I was Mike Trout's art teacher". I go right up to her and she is delighted, giddy even, to share that-yes- she taught Mike Trout in elementary school. I can't help but take her face in my hands to drink in the giddy, infectious pride.
But there isn't too much to shout about in his performance. Yes, he does get on base, but no long home runs (fortunately for the Phils) Still, every time he comes up to bat, the crowd cheers. Even when a hit or a homer could mean the Phillies would end up behind (which they eventually did).
Enough about Mike Trout. The Phillies are doing okay with a 2 run lead until Cliff Lee starts to lose control and Cody Asche makes a costly fielding error that lets in two runs. Two more runs later, the Angels are ahead 4-2. The Phillies never have a sufficient rally, despite another run batted in, and with an anticlimactic double play in the bottom of the 9th inning, the game is over.
Yet, yet, yet........of course it is disappointing........ and of course it's hard to watch gifted athletes underperform. There were some lovely outfield diving catches, and Ryan Howard did catch some over the head balls for a nice surprise that saved the last few innings.
In spite of the loss and the guy behind us who has had his heckling quips down pat, and some over analyzing by Peter's guest, we have had a nice evening. Not exhaltant, not uplifting, but a fine way to spend an evening with friends with the Philly skyline out in front of us, a full moon behind us, and baseball.
