Phillies at Red Sox: May 27th to May 28th

Monday and Tuesday 7:10
Fenway Park - Boston, MA

Phillies 24-26, 3rd Place in the N.L. East, 6 1/2 games behind the Braves
Red Sox 31-20, Tied for 1st Place in the A.L. East with the Yankees, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Orioles

Phillies Probables:  Tyler Cloyd (1-0, 2.70), Cliff Lee (5-2, 2.48)
Red Sox Probables:  Alfredo Aceves (1-1, 8.20), Ryan Dempster (2-5, 4.69)

At the Ballpark:  For purposes of this post, I went back and tallied up all the Major League ballparks I've visited so far in my travels.  The official count stands at 18.

However six of those 18 stadiums - Veterans Stadium, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, (Old) Busch Stadium, Olympic Stadium, (Old) Yankee Stadium and RFK Stadium - no longer exist or no longer house a Major League team.

The 12 other stadiums I've visited are, in order of visit - Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Coors Field, PNC Park, Progressive (then Jacobs) Field, U.S. Cellular Field, Kauffman Stadium, Wrigley Field, Great American Ball Park, Comerica Park, Citizens Bank Park (obviously), Tropicana Field and Dodger Stadium.

Notice what's missing from the list?  Despite having lived on the East Coast my entire life, I've never visited Boston and I've never seen a game in Fenway Park.  This madness needs to end.  I recently called a family meeting and I demanded that we right this wrong as soon as possible, perhaps even this summer.  I've even heard that there's a particular section of Fenway I should check out when (not if) this trip happens.

At the ballpark for this series, Skip Lockwood will be on hand prior to tonight's game to sign autographs for fans, and former Phillie Ken Ryan will sign autographs prior to Tuesday night's game.

Phillies Leaders

Average:  Chase Utley - .272

Runs:  Chase Utley - 21

Home Runs:  Domonic Brown - 9

RBIs:  Domonic Brown - 27

Stolen Bases:  Ben Revere - 8

Wins:  Cliff Lee - 5

ERA:  Cliff Lee - 2.48

Strikeouts:  Cole Hamels - 63

Saves:  Jonathan Papelbon - 9

1973 Topps #65

1973 Topps Flashback:  It's just a quick flashback segment today, featuring the 1972 ERA League Leaders as memorialized within the 1973 Topps set.  Steve Carlton was coming off a career year, in which he went 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA for the just plain awful 1972 Phillies squad.  I wrote about that team when I covered the Phillies appearing in the 1972 Topps set.  Luis Tiant spent the bulk of his 19 seasons pitching for the Red Sox (8 seasons), and was a three-time 20-game winner for the club.
   

Tiant never faced off against the Phillies.  His only time in the National League consisted of nine starts for the 1981 Pirates - none of which came against the Phils.