Monday, September 23, 2002
Phillies officials take notes
Team says goodbye to Veterans Stadium next year
By Michael Perry mperry@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
One year from now, the Philadelphia Phillies will bid farewell to Veterans Stadium and prepare to move into a new home venue. Six team officials, including president and CEO Dave Montgomery, attended the final series at Cinergy Field to see what kind of festivities the Reds were holding.
“We're going to be facing the same situation,” Phillies vice president for public relations Larry Shenk said. “They're doing a great job. Maybe we'll steal some ideas from them. We're in pretty good shape. We're hoping to finalize (plans) within a month.”
Phillies officials watched tape of stadium-closing ceremonies in Atlanta and Baltimore and are in the process of getting tape from Pittsburgh.
Playing in Cinergy Field's final game Sunday was meaningful only to some of the Philadelphia players.
“It's just another game,” outfielder Ricky Ledee said. “It's nice to play in the last game, but the game is more special for them than for us.”
“It means a lot more to the home team,” second baseman Marlon Anderson said. “But it's definitely a big weekend. A lot of people have come through here and played in this stadium. They had a lot of good teams here.”
Outfielder Doug Glanville grew up in New Jersey, and his brother Ken was always a big Reds fan. George Foster was one of Ken's favorite players.
“I offered to fly him up for the game, but he had to work,” Glanville said. “So I said I'd try to get some autographs or something.”
Of all the people in the Philadelphia clubhouse, the one most understanding of the Reds' history is manager Larry Bowa, who played for the Phillies from 1970-81.
“Our players are so young,” Bowa said. “Everyone knows Pete (Rose), and I'm sure Johnny Bench. Some of them probably don't even know Tony Perez, who to me was as good of an RBI guy as there was in baseball, especially with two outs. And Davey Concepcion, I know a lot of them don't know him, and he was a great shortstop.
“It's special, because it brings back a lot of memories for me playing against the Big Red Machine. We used to have some great games here. We used to come in on the short end of the stick all the time.”
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Phillies officials take notes
