At least 1,000 people filled the Piazza in Northern Liberties to watch the Phillies clench the 2009 National League title on the huge Jumbotron TV. We grabbed our lawn chairs and headed out to celebrate the excitement of watching the game there. I left at the 7th inning to head into the city. I walked around on Broad Street, hearing the screams of excitement resonating throughout the streets as people watched at the nearby bars. Philly cops were wearing riot helmets, mounted police officers waited on their horses, lamp posts were greased on Broad Street, and some newspaper boxes were removed. When the Phillies won, people filled the streets…celebrating every way they knew how. Of course, it was nothing like last year when the Phillies won the World Series, but people were happy and that’s what this city needs. Now the Phillies are off to the 2009 World Series! Go Phillies!!
My cousin and my grandpa arrived in Philly on Sunday morning. We went on a boat ride on the Delaware River on the Spirit of Philadelphia. I had always been curious about this boat, but it’s even cheesier than I ever imagined it to be. Picture wedding dance party with cheese dance songs on a cruise and that would be it. Nevertheless, the food was good and we saw as much of the Delaware River as you really could see. I mean, let’s face it: there isn’t much. We celebrated Heather’s birthday!
In the evening, we went to a Phillies game. It was the first MLB baseball game for my cousin, the first one that my grandpa had been to in a while, and it’s the first time that I got to go to a Phillies game and sit in the 6th row! We were right by third base and it was awesome! Our tickets were expensive, but we had a good time. And since it was my cousin’s birthday, someone came to the seat to bring her a card and the whole section around us sang happy birthday to her while having confetti thrown on her. It was nothing short of awesome!
None of us really slept well, but we were troopers and woke up early enough to catch a ride on one of those Big Bus tours around the city. The tour is great if you have a good seat, but I don’t recommend sitting in the back. We had stopped off at City Hall to take a trip to the tower, which is something that I hadn’t done in years. The weather was perfect for a great view of the city. We finished off the day with a lunch at Sabrina’s.
I was surprised with the amount of energy that my grandpa had while he was here. I was pooped afterwards, but he really kept up the competition for us! We all had a great time!
The Phillies are doing pretty darn good again this year! That is all I will say to prevent from jinxing their future.
I went to my first game of the season on Monday night. They were playing the Chicago Cubs. I was with a group of people and while we did have nosebleed seats, they weren’t as bad as I thought they would be considering we were 3 rows from the very top. I still had fun, though the energy of the crowd wasn’t as exciting as it was when I had a closer seat in the past. But then again, that was last year when the Phillies were close to going to the playoffs. However, I got to see 3 home runs on Monday and that was awesome! AND the Phillies won 10-1 so it was a pretty darn good game. Jack Nicholson was there….wearing a Yankees hat.
I’ve been a bit behind on posting photos. I’ve also been a bit behind on taking photos as I’ve kind of been stuck in a rut for a while. Hopefully some new images will make an appearance soon. Until then….
2009 was a great year to become a baseball fan here in Philadelphia. I went to my first Phillies game in September 2008. The Phillies won the World Series in October. I had the opportunity of walking in the celebration parade and photographing the event. (see the photos here and here). On April 13, 2009, Philadelphia lost their amazing play-by-play announcer, Harry Kalas. Even though I hadn’t been a fan that long, I was a fan long enough to know that this man’s voice was the enthusiasm behind the excitement of Phillies fans. Watching Phillies games on tv ever since his death have never been the same.
A public memorial service was held at Citizen’s Bank Park on April 18 to commemorate HK. In the morning, they had allowed the public to view and walk past the casket. In the afternoon, a memorial service. I had prior plans that day, which happened to land me at FDR park…only a few blocks away from the park. I literally forgot about the memorial service until I arrived in the area. After my morning engagement, I decided to check out the happenings for the heck of it. Because I forgot about it, I didn’t have my long lens so I was kicking myself for that, but it was the event that really mattered. I was also kicking myself for wearing a little league t-shirt that was blue with “Royals” written right across the front. Not to mention that I was sitting right along the home base line with a whole section to myself, exception of a few other wandering photographers, only about 30 feet from the players. I felt like Shane Victorino kept looking at me and probably thinking “who is this jerk who shows up at HK’s memorial with a Royals shirt on?!” Or maybe Chase Utley was looking at me thinking “Who’s that cute little redhead photographer?” and see these photos and drop me an email with the likings of “what’s up, pantz?!”. And we’ll meet and he’ll give me his little baseball hat tip like he does everytime he’s up to bat! Yes, of course that will happen.
After the ceremony was over, I left with embarassment and a huge farmer’s sunburn on my arms, which turned into a tan that is still apparent on my arms today. ugh.
Anyway, the memorial was pretty grand. I was getting misty towards the end. I felt happy to be there to witness and share this event with thousands of other Phillies fans. Rest in Peace, HK. You will always be remembered in this City of Brotherly Love.
On December 11, I photographed the IBF Cruiserweight Boxing Championship at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. The fight was between Steve “USS” Cunningham and Tomasz Adamek. Steve Cunningham is from Philadelphia and you may have seen some of the photos that I had taken of him after he won the belt for the same Championship last year.
It was a night of firsts. As a photographer for Team Cunningham, I was shooting ringside (in the corner of the opponent, Adamek). I had never photographed a fight…let alone any sports for that matter. All I’ve gotta say is that the men pretty much have the sports photography covered; I was the only female photographer out of about 15 others. It was also my first time at a fight. I felt like such a guy! As the guys are flying into the ropes and there’s blood and sweat flying everywhere, I’m squealing with excitement to myself, “this is so frickin awesome!!”. Yes, I did end up with blood and sweat on my lens….and surely on myself after seeing the photos of fluids flying through the air over my head. But it was awesome and I would totally do it again.
Unfortunately, Steve Cunningham lost to Adamek, but it was a good fight. It was aired on national TV on Versus. Hopefully some of you watched! Apparently I was on there, but my face was glued to the camera the entire time so you didn’t see much of me. There’s a crappy quality YouTube video of part of the fight.
Steve is signed by Don King Productions and yes, Don King was there. I got to meet him and even shook his hand as you might have read in a previous post.
Anyway, on to the photos! I have to admit that I’m pretty pleased with what I captured and that rarely happens.
More about it soon. I’m beat and still sick.
Remember my previous post with the photo of the little guy, Will, who was getting everyone pumped up for the Phillies World Series parade? It turns out that someone also took a video of it which aired this morning on Good Morning America. It was great to see in person, but I’m so happy that someone took a video of this! You can see me walking in the background with my camera in hand and red sweatshirt (ha!).
Continuation of World Series Parade photos taken here in Philadelphia on October 31, 2008 after the Phillies won the World Series on October 29!
One of the cutest things ever was seeing this little one year old boy standing in the median on Broad Street. Every time he’d raise his hands, the crowd of thousands around him would go nuts cheering and yelling. It was amazing to see this little guy getting the crowd pumped up for the parade!
The Budweiser Clydesdales being led by Pat Burrell who is waving to the crowd.
Even the cops were all smiles…
If you didn’t know, that would be pretty crazy. The Phillies haven’t had a win in 28 years, but they won on Wednesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. Phillies “Phans” lined the streets in celebration for 5 hours, but what started out as a happy celebration ended in chaos. I regret not having gone out for the festivities that night, but I was a bit sick. But yesterday was the celebration parade that started at 20th & Market and went all the way down Broad Street to the stadiums. There were supposedly 2 million people who made it out for the parade; more people than I’ve seen at any other celebration in Philadelphia. And I know that I’ll probably never live in a city again that celebrates the World Series Championship like Philadelphia has….or even a city that celebrates the Championship at all. It was a once in a lifetime event and it was awesome. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be in the streets with the parade yesterday, capturing the excitement of the fans, the players…and even the Philadelphia Police. I took hundreds of photos, but here are just a few from yesterday’s festivities. More to come…
