The park (Brighthouse Field) is fairly new and has a seating capacity of about 10,500 people. There is plenty of parking but even though we arrived at the park at 11:45 AM for a 1:00 PM game start, we still had to park quite a distance away.
Since today was St. Patrick's Day, a lot of the fans were wearing green Phillies gear in varying combinations. The Phillies team members also wore green jerseys and hats to mark the occasion. The crowd set an attendance record today and almost everyone there was a Phillie fan. The stadium also features a raised grassy area in the outfield where people can sit on the grass and watch the game. There are also lots of food booths, lemonade stands, and beer booths. Many of the concession stands featured "Phillie food" and local east coast beer selections.
Our seats were right behind the Phillies dugout on the third base side of the field in the sun. The temperature was about 80 degrees and the skies were clear - it was definitely a sun screen and hat day. Alas, the Phillies lost by one run, but we got to see a lot of the regular players up close, as well as many rookies and new players trying to make the team. We wore our matching Philllies t-shirts to the game and bought an authentic Philadelphia soft pretzel in the shape of a Philllies logo. Pat tried a cheesesteak sandwich (not authentic but OK). We both had fresh-squeezed lemonade (delicious) and Pat had a couple of Yuengling beers (he said they were very good).
Our Phillies shirts
After the game, we came back to the hotel to rest (Judy) and work on the blog (Pat). We left about 7:00 PM to hunt for dinner. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we decided to find an Irish pub we had read about on the internet. We drove around awhile near Clearwater Beach looking for the pub and the "large event tent" that was supposedly set up next to it. We asked for directions at another restaurant in the area and found out that the pub had gone out of business last year. So much for updating the website.
The people who gave us the information about the closed pub recommended another Irish pub with an event tent in Clearwater, so we found our way there. I don't know what we expected, but it was a very noisy and confused mob scene there with no place to sit down and eat, so we left. On the way out, we passed by a group of Celtic bagpipers that were warming up; at least, that's what it sounded like.
We then gave up on the St. Patrick's Day celebration idea and set off to find "Lenny's", an "authentic Philadelphia diner" in Clearwater near the ballpark (also advertised on the internet). It was completely dark by then, and even with the GPS we had great difficulty finding Lenny's. We finally found it around 8:30 PM - it was closed - only open for breakfast and lunch, we found out later.
It was beginning to look like a Taco Bell night, but we made our way back to Clearwater Beach (the British babe on the GPS knew exactly where that was) and we ate dinner at the Palm Pavilion restaurant, just up the beach from Frenchy's Rockaway Grill where we had eaten the night before. The food was excellent - shrimp/crab chowder and blackened grouper (a local fish and a delicacy). We got back to the hotel around 10:30 PM, with greatly increased knowledge of where everything was, and was not, in the Clearwater area.
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