Are you swooning over the Phillies’ new ballpark? I’m not. Oh sure, it’s a glittering jewel next to the sorry old Vet. But the new park has given the Phillies organization an arrogance it has not earned on the field. Please remember that the Phillies historically have the worst record in all of professional sports. At one time, the humility with which the organization conducted itself reflected its failure. No more.
Ticket prices are sky-high, but for that I can forgive them. If you are a partial season-ticket holder and you need to exchange a ticket, you are restricted to a handful of games. Exchange your ticket for a lower-priced one and you won’t get cash back. Instead they give you a voucher good toward the purchase of yet another ticket. In fact, if you exchanged a rain check from a June date with Detroit for a lower-priced seat, you received nothing back. The Phillies arbitrarily decided the game had no cash value. These are practices for which the Eagles would be roasted by the local media, but the Phillies fly below the media radar screen.
Citizens Bank Park gets justified raves, but it should not be immune to criticism. It is a launching pad for cheap home runs, second only to Coors Field. The ridiculous ease with which home runs fly out of the park has made for sloppy baseball. It’s like watching a softball beer league.
There are little annoying things about the park that have gotten lost in all of the hype. The expensive giant scoreboard is cluttered with so much information that it is confusing. When a hitter is at bat, what you want is his batting average, RBI and home runs. You don’t need his number of times at bat, which is often mistaken for his batting average. Sometimes, less is more. And then there are the "Major League Notes" in right field, where you get out-of-town scores. These "notes" are flashed so quickly that they could be used for subliminal messages. It turns out the notes are also pretty meaningless, informing you that a certain player singled to lead off the second inning. Huh? Out-of-town notes should consist of home runs or such essential information as a no-hitter in progress, not trivial hits that do not affect the game. It’s as if they turned over this brand-new toy to your grandmother, who never watched a ballgame, and asked her to operate the thing.
And who was it that decided to explode the fireworks at 1:30 in the morning on July 2 after the game went 16 innings, without regard for the neighbors? Please don’t tell me that the Phillies didn’t want to disappoint the families who go to the games once a year to see the fireworks display. Most of them were home in bed by the time the Phillies’ fireworks filled the night air.
Add to the lousy baseball the bone-dry pulled-pork sandwich served up at Luzinski’s BBQ (it tastes as if the Bull used his old sweat socks instead of meat), and the Phillies should realize their arrogance is misplaced …
Our mayor’s arrogance is almost legendary and just as misplaced. John Street has made a cottage industry out of arrogance. He protests his innocence over any wrongdoing. He makes not getting indicted a badge of honor. This mayor never heard of the phrase "the buck stops here." He washes his hands of guilt like some political Pontius Pilate while all around him, influence peddling has apparently cost the city a fortune. This is the same city that can’t afford essential services and can’t afford to cut business taxes to attract new jobs. But you who voted for the mayor this second time around are getting what you so richly deserve. Do you still believe that the federal probe was a plot hatched by Bush and Ashcroft?
In a city with arrogant sports franchises, run by an arrogant mayor, we in South Philadelphia may be the most arrogant of all. They ought to rename this area of the city after one of the outlaw territories in the Old West. Welcome to Deadwood, where the parking laws do not apply, where people barricade city streets without a license to celebrate whatever, and where the police and politicians have been intimidated into non-action. Our motto is, as my Mom used to say, "Hooray for me and the hell with you."
In the "broken windows" philosophy of law enforcement — used so effectively by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — you must enforce the nuisance laws to get respect for major laws. In South Philadelphia, where buses must navigate between illegally parked cars, where citizens beep their horns in anger and curse one another, where even main streets are closed at the whim of a private citizen and without notice, the police are silent.
Welcome to Deadwood.
