Phillies Fans Are Raucous, but They Didn’t Move a Seismograph
As the 2016 season begins, you have to look a lot farther than just the Phillies, where they stand 6.5 games above the NL East basement.
We’ve been waiting for a new owner to hire for two years now, but until we get a new ownership group there is little the Phillies can do to bring in a new fan base. To be fair, the Phillies have done a good job of finding a new fan base: young, passionate, and eager to attend all of the games. Young people want to see the Phillies win. They want to see the Phillies succeed on the field. They were more than willing to pay at least $12 a ticket to see the Phillies on the field, but the Phillies have not built a rabid following because of the team’s financial struggles.
The Phillies have an important game remaining against the Diamondbacks, who now have a $25 million man in centerfield, which is a marked increase from the $8 million he provided for last year’s Diamondbacks.
The Phillies have to win their final game to ensure it doesn’t matter who the Phillies hire as their owner next week.
If the Phillies win next Tuesday and are in first place on June 22, they will be home for a four-game series with Arizona that will be televised on Fox Sports Net, with the final game an 8:10 start time.
“That’s a good night,” said Dave McNally, a Phillies season-ticket holder since 1995. “The Diamondbacks are a good team. They make a lot of good baseball plays.”
In the 2016 game in Philadelphia, McNally said he would be more pumped for a Saturday game in Washington than a Wednesday night game in Philadelphia. That game is a 1:10 start time. The Diamondbacks are playing four games at Washington that day and would then play three games at Philadelphia on Saturday morning, including the final game, which would get a 5:00 start time.
McNally doesn’t care about the game time. He just wants the team to lose, as the Diamondbacks already are, and he doesn’t want his team to have to face the Phillies on national television.
“I like the game, to be honest with you,” McNally said. �