A Phillies tale with fans: “That Bum Nixon,” Labor Day, 2003

There used to be this convention involving people going to baseball games and sitting near each other. Here’s a Phillies tale from those strange times.

It was quite a while ago, and I’m not sure why I thought about the Boston Red Sox outfielder Trot Nixon aside from the idleness of the COVID-19 Spring, but here’s a Phillies story about him:

Once upon a time, people went to Major League Baseball games and sat in seats pretty close to each other. This was something friends and I did together on Labor Day in 2003. (I had to cast about Baseball-Reference for the specific date, but ultimately, I found the game in Nixon’s Game Logs for the season.)

I was reminded that the four of us were at this game because we had bought a season package of six tickets that more than a handful of people shared, but only four wanted to go that day. We went to games that season not so much because we were passionate fans of this specific Philadelphia Phillies squad, but for another reason.

Our goal was, besides seeing MLB games in person, to be on the early-contact list to buy tickets for the new ballpark that would open in 2004, Citizens Bank Park. This plan worked. Two of us were at the ‘04 Opening Day Game, the first-ever at “The Bank,” where we were soaked in a cold rain until we left.