There seemed to be fewer Red Sox fans in the stands at Citizens Bank Park last week. Perhaps the Phillies strategy of selling Red Sox tickets only to those who bought multi-game packs worked. But back in 1998, the Phillies made no bones about marketing to Red Sox fans. Heck, they even promoted Red Sox players for the series. Look at this:
That's not a program from Fenway; it's the official Phillies magazine I bought at Veterans Stadium. Besides the cover story on Pedro Martinez, there's a nice story on Terry Francona. (He, unlike Pedro, was a Phillie then.) There's also a story about the young, upcoming Bobby Abreu and the new Phillies Web page, Phanland. They have a screen shot of it, and one of the headlines is that the Phils are resuming talks with J.D. Drew. I wonder how that turned out.
I have this program because not only was it Boston's first trip to Philly for interleague play, it was the first time Christine and I went to a major league game together. It was a bad game, as you can see I got bored with keeping score. Stupid Steve Avery. Our outfield that night: Troy O'Leary, Darren Lewis and Darren Bragg. Kevin Jordan hit cleanup for the Phillies. Their double play combo was Mark Lewis and Desi Relaford.
Surely the Phillies were looking to better things ahead, like when their farm system would start developing MVP-caliber talent, such as the legendary reliever Kyle Kawabata. And Brandon Duckworth, whose claim to fame was being part of the Billy Wagner trade. Oh, and getting quacked at on his Baseball-Reference page. And when he was stinking up the joint for the Phillies, we called him Mr. Stinkypants. The Phillies did have a real grim, determined-looking prospect in the system at that time. His name? Jimmy Rollins.
I hope you enjoyed this. The Phillies are off, and the Sox start a series with the Diamondbacks. I'm working an all-nighter and may not be able to update. Hopefully the Sox can take care of business.
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