Because of my recent eye surgery, I’ll have to watch the Phillies opener from home this year. But baseball season always reminds me of my Pop-Pop Waters. Born in 1908, Pop-Pop was a lifelong Phillies fan. He would listen to every game on the radio, or watch them on TV when they were televised. I clearly remember going to the old Connie Mack Stadium with him when I was young to watch the Phillies. The stadium wasn’t in a great neighborhood at the time. I remember him paying the young neighborhood kids (i.e. extortionists) when they would come up to him and say “Watch your car, mister?” He gladly gave them a dollar to make sure his car didn’t get vandalized. It was just part of going to the game. It was so exciting going to the stadium as a kid. Of course I loved all the Phillies, but I also got a thrill seeing some of the big stars of that time- Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Bob Gibson, and Lou Brock were some of my favorite visiting players. Back in those days, I remember that Johnny Callison was my grandfather’s favorite Phillie player. Johnny lived right in Glenside, the same town as Pop-Pop, and the Glenside community loved him. Whenever I went to their house, I would bring a baseball glove, and having a catch in the backyard with Pop-Pop was part of our usual routine.
The new Veteran’s Stadium opened in 1971, and Pop-Pop and I were there for the opening game. I was 14 years old. We sat up in the upper level. but I didn’t care. We were there for the first game in the beautiful new state-of-the-art stadium, rooting on our Phillies. While my dad went to games with us on occasion, he had a busy work schedule so I went most often with my grandfather. Pop-Pop’s brother-in-law, “Uncle Nicky” DiStefano had tickets for every Phillies home game. Uncle Nicky obviously had plenty of money, and bore a striking resemblance to Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero in the Sopranos TV show. (We could never confirm if Uncle Nicky was actually in the mafia, but I had my suspicions.) Uncle Nicky gave Pop-Pop lots of free Phillies tickets every year (Sixers tickets, too), and he always took me. I remember one year we went to over 25 Phillies games together- 5 games in one weekend alone (a twilight double-header Friday, a night game Saturday, and another double-header Sunday). We loved our baseball!
We saw many classic games over the years- the All-Star game in 1976, several playoff and World Series games, Terry Muholland’s no-hitter in 1990, and the Phillies 26-7 massacre over the New York Mets in 1985. It was especially thrilling to have my young son, Kevin, join us for an open house at the stadium not long before Pop-Pop passed away in 1991. Pop-Pop would have loved the new Citizen’s Bank Park, which went back to the old-style baseball park design. I think of him every time I go to a game.
And so begins another baseball season. Play ball! Go Phillies!
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