Going once … and forever

Two-hundred dollars to start it. Twohundredoverhere, twohundredisbid. TwohundredIhave, nowtwofiftyin-theback. Three-hundred is your bid, sir. ThreehundredIhave, nowthreefifty? Thank you. Fourhundredbid? FourhundredIhavenowfourfifty? Four-fifty, sir?

The auctioneer’s words streamed from his mouth in long chains, then into a microphone that propelled them through the P.A. system and sent them spilling over several hundred souvenir-seekers seated in the bowl of the Wachovia Center.

The syllables sped around the arena, sneaked out the exits and bounced up and down the concourse, each pushing the one spoken before it to go faster and faster …

Fivehundredintheback? No sir? Fourfiftyoverherefourfiftyisbid. Four-hundred-fifty dollars. FourfiftyIhaveherefourhundredfiftydollarsfourfiftyIhavenow. Five hundred? Fivehundredisnowbid, now you’re out, sir.

Like most fans attending the Phillies’ Final Pieces memorabilia auction and sale on Friday, 19-year-old Joe Romano was not about to fork over a few thousand dollars for a Veterans Stadium relic. But that did not stop him from dreaming about owning the banner with Richie Ashburn’s retired No. 1 that once hung just beyond the stadium outfield wall.

By the time the auction was over, that item commanded the highest price of anything sold all day — $10,100. The entire day grossed $700,000, which was donated to Phillies charities.

Romano, from 16th and Ritner streets, said he watched about 30 games a year at the Vet, but added he will not miss it when it’s gone.

"I never liked it to begin with," he said, clutching a replica Pat Burrell bat, a Veterans Stadium commemorative ball and the Phillies Field of Memories DVD. Yeah, we believe you, kid.

There were plenty of items the majority of the 8,000 people in attendance could attain without remortgaging their homes — everything from surplus stadium giveaways like bobblehead dolls and stadium replicas to broken bats and folding chairs from the field-level luxury boxes.

Dawn Chellel found the perfect Valentine’s gift for her husband — a jar of dirt. The soil used to surround first base on the old infield — or so she was told.

"The dirt could be from anywhere, we don’t know," she joked.

Chellel also snatched up two wooden boxes, one with a swatch of green NeXturf and another with a green square of the outfield wall, complete with what could have been part of the yellow foul line. Going price for the set of three? Fifty smackers.

Father and daughter Ralph and Stephane Derr braved a two-hour drive from Reading, largely through sleet and ice. Their shopping list was ambiguous, but their mission was clear: Buy any scrap they could get their hands on.

That included broken bats used by Jimmy Rollins and David Bell, T-shirts, a seat from the 100-level boxes (that will match the two blue stadium seats they bought at an earlier sale) and the sign from the Phillies’ executive dining room.

"My room is like a total museum to the Phillies," Stephane said. Together, dad and daughter had spent about $400 — and it was only 1 p.m.

FivehundredIhaveafivehundreddollarbid. It only hurts for a second, sir, it only hurts for a second. Fivefiftyisbidsixhundred? FivefiftyIhavenow, fivehundreddollars. You can almost see it on your wall, can’t ya?

What exactly does one do with Mike Schmidt’s old locker or the steel vault door that Continental Bank installed on its superbox in the 1970s or a fire-engine-red leather sectional that used to be in one of the executive lounges?

Or with a large sign listing the "new security guidelines" at Veterans Stadium?

Stan Batycki drove to South Philly from Long Island, and that’s what he ended up with.

"Slim pickings is what I got here," he said of his recent $50 purchase. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Batycki has no reason to be a Phillies fan. Still, he said, he abandoned his regional roots in 1964 and started rooting for the Phillies and his favorite player, outfielder Johnny Callison.

That same year, Callison hit 31 home runs and the Phillies lost 10 of their last 12 games of the season to blow a six-and-a-half-game lead. The disappointment did not chase Batycki away.

"When my kids were small, we used to come here on a Sunday," he said. "It was like coming out to the country, going to see them play."

Batycki said he’d display his new sign in his basement, above the pair of blue seats he already had from the Vet.

Another New Yorker, Fred Sawyer, of Queens, just needs a person to sell beer and hot dogs, and the conversion of his living room into a stadium will be complete.

Sawyer already has four Veterans Stadium seats in his collection, plus two more taken from Yankee Stadium before it was refurbished in the 1970s. On Friday, he spent $100 on a folding chair from the field boxes.

He hopped on the Phillies bandwagon in the early ’80s — which explained the light-blue Mike Schmidt jersey he was wearing — while spending summers at a relative’s house in the Poconos.

"That was the channel that was on," Sawyer said of the station that broadcast Phillies games at the time. "It was all we could get. So I started watching Schmitty and Carlton, suffered through the dark years of Terry Francona and Nick Leyva.

"Philadelphia is my second home away from home."

Fivefiftyisbidfivefifty. Fivehundredfiftydollarbid.

Once.

And five-fifty is bid twice.

Sold for five-hundred-fifty dollars.