phillies tickets

PHILADELPHIA ―For the first time since April 6, 2005, the Phillies woke up in first place.

Their fans responded.

Within 45 minutes of ticket windows at Citizens Bank Park opening at 9 this morning, all remaining tickets for games tonight and Saturday against the Washington Nationals were sold out, the Phillies said. Sunday's regular-season finale alreadhad been sold out.

The Phillies will place a total of 500 standing room tickets on sale each day for each game. Those tickets, limited to two per person, will be sold at 4 p.m. today, 1 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday.

Play-in games are possible at Citizens Bank on Monday and/or Tuesday.

Beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, season-ticket holders will be able to purchase
tickets to both potential play-in games through an online only pre-sale at www.phillies.mlb.com. Tickets will be sold to the public starting Sunday.

Also, with tonight's sellout crowd, the Phillies will surpass 3 million fans for third time in franchise history. They drew 3,250,092 fans in 2004, the first season for Citizens Bank Park, and 3,137,674 fans in 1993 at Veterans Stadium.

It's inconceivable that the Mets have arrived at this nightmarish situation.

But even if you're a Mets fan who's been rendered catatonic by despair, you've got to appreciate baseball's bottomless ability to astonish you with things you've never seen before, things that were supposed to be impossible.

Things like not one National League playoff slot wrapped up with just three games left in the season. Things like seven teams still in contention for four tickets to October. Things like the New York Mets, the most expensive team National League money can buy, blowing a seven-game lead in the space of just 14 games.

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The Mets haven't lost the NL East yet, but they're working hard at it. After blowing a 5-0 lead on Wednesday night and getting swept by the Nationals, the Mets welcomed the Cardinals to Shea Mausoleum on Thursday for a make-up game. The Cardinals, slumping badly in September and out of the race, were supposed to be beyond caring about this game, eager just to get the season over with and go home. The Mets, desperate for a win, had their ace and inspirational leader, Pedro Martinez with an extra day's rest, ready to save the season.

And they lost. Got shut out by Joel Piniero for eight innings and by Jason Isringhausen for the ninth. Walked back to their clubhouse like zombies, their faces blank, their minds unable to comprehend what is happening to them.

The headlines say they're on the verge of a historic collapse. With 17 games to go, they had a seven-game lead, and no team had ever blown a lead that large with so few games to play. But the headlines are wrong. The collapse has already taken place. What else can you call losing 11 of their last 16 games and giving up 10 or more runs in five of those losses?


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That's not to say they still can't somehow win the division or the wild card or tie for the wild card or the division or both with three or more teams.

The Mets play Florida in their last three games, a team they took three of four from just last week. The Phillies take on the Nationals, the team that just swept the Mets. Over in the NL West, the Padres are playing the Brewers, who are still in contention in the NL Central, which the Cubs are doing a poor job of nailing down. Colorado and Arizona are in the mix. The possibilities have never been so bountiful this late in the season.

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Stretch run: Breaking down MLB playoff races

But if the Mets win, that won't cancel out the fact that they have let Philadelphia make up seven games in little more than two weeks. It won't change the reality that the Mets are now tied for first for the first time since May 16. If they win, it will be because the Phillies suddenly forget how to win. And even if the Mets sweep the Marlins and the Phillies lose one to Washington and finish second, it's impossible to view the Mets as anything other than what they've proved themselves to be ― a team that doesn't have the guts to win when it counts.

Mets fans will celebrate, and do so wildly, if they somehow manage to win the division or even sneak in as the wild card. But the party won't last long, because the playoffs start next week, and is there any reason to think that they can beat anyone in October?

Who would've thought that scoring a Phillies ticket for this weekend would have become more difficult than getting a seat at Van Halen's two-night stand at the Wachovia Center next week? This is a strange and wonderful city, my friends, and here are some ways to enjoy it.

Oh, what I wouldn't give to see that Bono wanker get his ass kicked: If you, like most people, have become disenchanted with the world of professional boxing, the antidote can be found on Saturday night at the New Alhambra, when hungry amateurs go toe to toe in the Muay Thai Kickboxing Showdown. It's bloody and ruthless, and apparently a pretty good place to pick up single women, assuming you're into gals that like to watch people beat the crap out of each other. In other bloodsport news, the Colonial in Phoenixville shows Raging Bull on Sunday. On film no less.

Spend money on weirdly attractive women: Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for two women I love. First, the foul-mouthed and well-schnozzed Sarah Silverman, who pretty much sucked as hostess of the MTV Video Music Awards but still rocks my world. But the show that you can't miss ― and the show that I am going to miss because I have to go to a friggin' wedding on November 10th ― is the incomparable Annie Lennox at the 1,900-seat Merriam. (And if you have enough money to do all that, you can certainly afford to buy your favorite person at Philadelphia magazine a ticket to that Van Halen show next week. This blogging really doesn't pay the bills.)

If the last book you read was not the Da Vinci Code: The National Book Festival, whatever that is, is going on in D.C. this weekend, though we've got plenty of our own book stuff going on to keep you bibliophiles occupied. The two events you'll find me at: the $1 per pound book sale at Robin's Bookstore and the Banned Books Reading at the Free Library in honor of National Banned Books Week (who knew?).

Total sensory overload: So the Franklin Institute is selling $25 tickets to the pretty lame Tutankhamun exhibit, which ― finally ― ends this weekend. It includes the Mummies IMAX movie. But I'd much rather spend $14 and see Transformers in IMAX. A friend of mine just saw it and said he started having acid flashbacks.

Bad table manners: I'm really not much of an art gallery guy, but photographs of random Philadelphians stuffing their face with food and taken without permission I like.

If you have any suggestions for the Weekender, please e-mail them to me. And don't forget my Van Halen tickets!