I Went to Every Phillies Game in April and It Was Great

Photo by Dan McQuade

When the Phillies return home tonight after a 10-game road trip, they’ll be playing their first home games since they swept Cleveland in a series that stretched from April into May. They’ll have rookie Tommy Joseph, who was promoted today, in the lineup for the first time. And it will be the first time this season I won’t be there.

This April, the Phillies were one of a few teams to offer a new gimmick: The Spring Pass. For just $50, you could get tickets to every April game besides Opening Day. I scored an Opening Day ticket on StubHub for $33, so that meant I paid about $6.38 a game to attend every Phillies game in April in the stands.

Here’s how the Spring Pass worked: For every game, you got a standing-room only ticket to gain access to the park. About an hour before the game, you click an option in the app to “claim” seats. Where these are depend on how crowded the game is. For some cold weeknight games in early April, I sat in the lower levels in the outfield. At the Sunday game that was the Phillie Phanatic’s birthday, I was banished to the 400 level. Mostly, I sat in the 300 level.

It was pretty great: I paid a couple bucks a game to watch a team that went 8-4 in the 12 games of the Spring Pass. That’s another thing: This year, the Phillies are quite good. When they come back tonight for the start of a nine-game homestand, they will have a record of 20-15 — good enough for a Wild Card spot. As prospect writer Matt Winkleman noted earlier today, the Phillies only need to go 44-83 the rest of the way to have a better record than last season. And this is with an offense that is next to last in the league in runs.

Fortunately for Phillies fans, the team is giving you another chance to get this deal. This week the team unveiled its June Pass, which gives purchasers tickets to every weekday game in the month. That’s 10 games for $50 — five bucks a game. You used to have to pay an usher to sneak you into Veterans Stadium to get into a game that cheaply!

As a fan who took advantage of the Spring Pass deal, I can highly recommend the June Pass for people who are on the fence. The beers and cheesesteaks may still be overpriced, but the tickets are a steal.

Follow @dhm on Twitter.