Sunday, May 31, 2015

Why We Missed the @ReadingFightins Game Last Night

2014 Bowman Draft
Top Prospects #TP-22
2015 Chachi
Special Edition #3
2014 Bowman Draft
Draft Picks #DP4
We'll get to the Phillies game recap in a moment, but first I wanted to share why we didn't go to the Reading Fightin Phils game last night.  My wife Jenna and I haven't been to a Reading game in over ten years and about a month ago, I went online to look for tickets for an upcoming game.  I bought four tickets to last night's game in Box 7, Row 9, right behind home plate.

Unbeknownst to us at the time I bought the tickets, our oldest son's Doug's soccer playoffs were also scheduled for yesterday beginning at 1:30.  We're both staunch supporters of Doug and everything he does, so naturally we weren't going to miss his soccer playoffs.  Realistically though, we imagined his team (which had gone 3-4 during the regular season) would bow out in the first round or at the very best, the second round.  We'd be on our way to Reading (a two hour drive for us) well in advance of the 6:35 first pitch.


To make a long (and hot) story short, Doug's team stunned pretty much everyone and made it all the way to the championship round, facing off against an undefeated team.  The third and final round began after 4:00, which meant the drive to Reading wouldn't be happening for us.  Even if we left right after Doug's game finished we wouldn't get there until at least the middle of the game.  Jenna and I made the decision to eat the tickets and not tell Doug until after his game that we wouldn't be heading to Reading.

Doug's team played their hearts out, but they didn't prevail in the championship game.  Naturally that led to a group of heart-broken eight and nine year olds, and Doug was even more upset because we'd miss last year's top draft pick Aaron Nola and the Double-A debut of top prospect J.P. Crawford.  Being the huge Phillies fan that he is, Doug was excited to see the future of the franchise in action and maybe even collect a few more autographs.

That's why we missed the Reading Fightins game last night . . . but we're already looking at the calendar to figure out when we can reschedule our trip.  And we'll be sure from now on not to discount any of Doug's teams in future playoffs!  I'm so unbelievably proud of him.

Kids still smiling here . . . this was taken after their second round victory.
* * *

Rockies 5, Phillies 2
Game 51 - Saturday Afternoon, May 30th in Philadelphia
Record - 19-32, 5th Place, 10 games behind the Nationals

One Sentence Summary:  The Phillies sleepwalked through another loss to the Rockies, dropping this game by a score of 5-2.

What It Means:  The loss matches the team's season high six-game losing streak.

What Happened:  Aaron Harang pitched well again (6 innings, 2 runs, 7 strikeouts) but the Phillies went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Featured Cards:  I wanted to show off the cards of three athletes with bright futures.  (I'm partial towards the middle one.)

3 comments:

deal said...

Congrats to Doug and his teammates!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to Doug And the rest of the Whalers!

I'd like to hear about your trip if/when you make it to an R-Phils game (I'm too much of a grumpy old man and go back too far with the team to call them the "Fightins"). I've been to a bunch of games at Municipal Stadium (again, grumpy old man), but it's been at least twenty years since I've been, back before the Crazy Hot Dog Vendor had ridden his first ostrich.

Jim said...

Thanks guys. I showed Doug your comments and they made him smile!