Ballpark experience number six: Philadelphia

I'll be straight up...this was the least amount of fun I had at a baseball stadium on my trip. My rankings are just a rank of how much I enjoyed the whole experience of being at the stadium, not some detailed, objective scientific study. After all, what kind of expert am I? I am a New Zealander who has never played baseball, and had never even watched a game in person until 5 years ago. So in the highly unlikely event that any Phillies fans read this post and feel offended...it's not Citizen's Bank Park's fault...it's mine.

At this point in the trip, I was tired and starting to feel the effects of a diet consisting mostly of greasy junk food. Also, because I was travelling city to city by train, I hadn't gotten much sleep the previous three nights (two 6am starts and an overnight train from Boston to Baltimore). Plus, it was just so damn hot outdoors. A sensible person would probably not have been walking around outside as much as I did.

The point I knew I was in trouble was right after I ate this cheesesteak:

It was from Geno's, which is a famous cheesesteak place. I had been planning on getting another one from Pat's, which is another well-known place just across the road. However, I started to feel really overheated and lethargic and just damn greasy after finishing the sandwich. I forgot to get napkins and couldn't be bothered to go up to the counter and ask for some. So I just wiped the grease that was settling in on my face on my t-shirt. I think I can actually pinpoint that moment as the lowest point on my baseball tour, where I was just so lazy and slow that I couldn't even ask for a fucking napkin.

I should also point out that I had been walking around in the hot sun for about an hour trying to find the place. It seemed like it took twice as long for me to stagger back to the hotel and get into bed. At this point, I was seriously contemplating not going to watch the game. I just had no energy at all. But, an hour or so of rest in my air-conditioned room managed to revive me enough to order a ride on Uber to the stadium (Uber is awesome to use).

I got to the stadium and stayed for 4 innings. Here is an action shot to show that I did attend:

I think that was Jose Bautisita up hitting. I don't really remember, but let's say it was, and that he hit a 500 foot dinger (Edit: on closer inspection, the batter looks nothing like Jose Bautista). The 2015 Blue Jays were very good, so even if it wasn't Jose, chances are that it was another badass hitter like Edwin Encarnacion or Josh Donaldson. I mean there is only a 1 in 9 chance that it was Ryan Goins (Edit: it's not Goins, he bats lefty). He is terrible. The Phillies were/are terrible too, so I imagine Toronto won that game.

I didn't eat anything at the stadium. Nothing seems appealing when you are sweating grease. All the yummy junk food I was piling in at other stadiums suddenly seemed repulsive. I was craving fresh vegetables, but unsurprisingly, they were in short supply at the ballpark. I had to head out and find something more palatable.

Here is a picture of the roast beef wrap I got from some posh healthy food store after the game:

Here is a picture of the vegan buckwheat noodle meal I ate for breakfast the next day:

It was amazingly delicious.

I used to think that if I lived in the US, I would become really fat eating all the delicious junk food. It is good to know that my body has an in-built mechanism to avoid consuming too much crap.

So yeah, what to say... this stadium ranked 8th and last. It's not really a fair ranking, but the stadium didn't seem particularly interesting in any case. What I saw of Philadelphia itself didn't tickle my fancy either. So now that I have ticked off Citizen's Bank Park, I will probably never go back.