A love-hate relationship

Mike Koplove still remembers watching the Phillies play the San Francisco Giants Aug. 15, 1990, at home with his dad, Steve. When pitcher Terry Mullholland took his no-hitter into the seventh, the two looked at each other and decided it was worth heading to Veterans Stadium for the final two innings.

Sure enough, Mullholland tossed the first no-hitter by a Phillies pitcher at the Vet.

Koplove the younger also attended Game 6 of the 1993 NLCS, when the Phillies beat the Braves and advanced to the World Series.

"I never had season tickets. I would just go over there if I had nothing to do on any given night," said the right-handed relief pitcher, who is now a player for the Arizona Diamondbacks. "I probably attended 100 games, but I was usually playing [baseball] myself so it was tough to find time."

Coming to the Vet as a member of an opposing Major League team wasn’t quite so enjoyable. Koplove, who was selected by the Diamondbacks in the 29th round of the 1998 draft, made his Major League debut Sept. 6, 2001, in San Francisco. After missing the Arizona team’s trip to Philly in 2002, Koplove fittingly arrived with the Diamondbacks in May 2003, just in time for the Vet’s final season.

Other than the large contingent of 100-plus family and friends sitting in the stands, the stadium just didn’t rank up there with the likes of Baltimore’s Camden Yards, San Francisco’s Pacific Bell Park or Arizona’s Chase Field.

"The [Vet] clubhouse was kind of rundown and it just wasn’t a place visiting players looked forward to going to," he said.

But it wasn’t all bad for the now 29-year-old pitcher, who picked up his first win of the ’03 season when the Diamondbacks made a May stop in at the Vet. Wearing his Number 58 jersey and extremely nervous about making his Major League debut in his hometown haunt, Koplove came in with one out in the eighth, got Mike Lieberthal to ground out and struck out Pat Burrell.

"You can’t beat that, to pretty much get a win in your home stadium," Koplove said during a May 2003 interview. "It was a pretty amazing experience for me."

After the game, then-Diamondbacks Manager Bob Brenley presented Koplove with a game ball so he could always remember the special occasion.

Two years later, the pitcher said it’s tough to miss playing at the Vet with Lincoln Financial Field and Citizens Bank Park taking over the South Philadelphia landscape.

"Citizens Bank Park is probably one of my two or three favorite ballparks in the league," said Koplove, who played there during the ’04 and ’05 seasons.

The pitcher, who resides in Brinton Estates during the off-season, said it was a little strange to drive by the sports complex and not see the doughnut-shaped stadium in the skyline.

"Not seeing the Vet there is kind of spooky," said Koplove, speaking, not so much as a player, but as a South Philadelphian.