When going to a Phillies baseball game, what are a few common items that fans bring?
Maybe it’s a chilly April night and mom packs a couple of blankets for the kids. Perhaps your favorite non-Phillies player is coming into town and you want to get a nice picture with your camera. You could bring a baseball or 2 in hopes of getting an autograph. You could also break out the old baseball glove to catch a foul ball or home run (I do not care what age you are. That’s a stupid unspoken rule.).
They are plenty of other things you could bring to a game but the real question is: What do you carry them in?
Do you use a backpack? Do you have a nicer bag for a camera? Do you have your supplies in a purse? How about a fanny pack even if it’s not 1997 anymore? Hell, are you bringing a case for your binoculars?
Silly baseball fans, that’s all illegal according to the Philadelphia Phillies.
This new policy further restricts bags after backpacks were banned in 2021.
This year, purses can only be 8″x5″x1″. That’s not a purse. That’s a wallet. Maybe it could be a small clutch.
That’s not even the Phillies’ biggest offense. The only bag on this pre-approved list that a non-parental male would typically own is a plastic bag.
Guess what’s been banned in Philadelphia since October of 2021.
Philadelphia will start enforcing businesses to stop giving out plastic bags starting April 1, 2022.
So, you can’t get a “convenience store plastic bag” anywhere in Philadelphia.
Phillies Are the Hypocrites in This Situation
That isn’t the only irony of this new bag policy. Two, and possibly three, Phillies giveaways in 2022 break their own bag policy.
For Mother’s Day on May 8th, the Phillies are giving away a Herr’s clutch to all women 15 and over. If that clutch measures over 8″x5″x1″, may God have mercy on your soul. That’s the one giveaway that MIGHT be legal.
On July 26th, all children 14 and under will receive a MLB Network tote bag. All of those children will be in violation of Citizens Bank Park’s bag policy and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
The children attending the August 28th Phillies game will also be added to Santa’s naughty list as a JT Realmuto Back-to-School cooler bag must be in violation of this bag policy.
So as MLB as a whole has been trying to garner new fans with events such as Home Run Derby X, the Phillies are making attending Phillies games more difficult.
Just to make it clearer why this humble writer is upset with this new policy, here’s my favorite picture I’ve ever taken at a Phillies game.
That’s Chase Utley, stretching before game 1 of his final homestand in Philadelphia. Fans were calling him to come over. As he stretched, he gestured “just a minute,” “The Man” eventually went over to greet fans on the 3rd baseline.
I wouldn’t have brought my camera if I didn’t have a bag. I would have never captured these memories. Contact the Phillies. Let them know why this is a terrible policy.
Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire
