Phillies Phever

Wednesday night John and I took Samuel to his second ever Phillies game.  His first Phillies game was at The Vet when he was only a month old.  Needless to say, he was more excited about this one.  When we walked in the gate we were given rally towels which Samuel swung around with unmatched enthusiasm- hitting John and I in the head in the process every time. 

I was glad I had the foresight to feed him a healthy dinner before we left for the game.  We had only been in our seats for half an inning when Sam declared he was hungry.  John and I decided to take him on a walk to show him the new(ish) stadium.  Samuel ate his way around the entire stadium!  He started out with cracker jacks (from a stand near our seats) which he had been dying to try because of the song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."  He got about halfway through the bag (about 1/4 of the way around the stadium) when he deperately needed some lemonade.  Next it was the blue cotton candy at the half-way point.  We got him to put it down for a few seconds to play run the bases but then he quickly finished it off and we had to find a bathroom to wash him down.  Sam is my messy eater so you can imagine what he can do with cotton candy!  After the pit stop (about 3/4 of the way around the stadium) we stopped to get some ice cream in the mini Phillies helmets.  By the time we made it back to our seats, Sam's ice cream was mostly melted.  As we scooted past people to sit down he tipped his helmet and dripped melted chocolate all over the seats of the people in front of us.  I did a quick wipedown and got most of it just before they leaned back.  I hope they weren't wearing new jerseys! 

Samuel started getting tired around the middle of the 6th inning.  However, he perked up once the Phillies Phanatic showed up.  On the big screen we saw a Braves fan with a foam tomahock booing the Phillies.  The Phanatic ran up to the fan, took off his Atlanta hat and threw it into the crowd.  Then he stole the tomahock and hit him on the head a few times.  After tossing the tomahock, the Phanatic ripped off the fan's Braves shirt and replaced it with a Phillies shirt.  He also gave the fan a Phillies hat and a foam finger.  The ex-Braves fan and the Phanatic started cheering for the Phils.  It was totally staged but Sam thought it was the best part of the game! 

As for the game itself, it was a shut out until the bottom of the 8th inning when the Phils finally managed to eek in a run which ended up winning them the game.  We didn't see it though, we were getting Sam a soft pretzel.