Into every baseball game a little rain may fall. The age-old tradition of a rain delay at a baseball game is as old as the game its self. Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, home of the Philadelphia Phillies has seen its fair share of rain delays since it has opened. I have been to many Philadelphia Phillies baseball games at Citizens Bank Park through the years. I have always enjoyed my experiences at any baseball game that I have attended at Citizens Bank Park up until the last time I went. It was that I had never tried to wait out a rain delay at the park. The way a baseball stadium like Citizens Bank Park handles a rain delay says a lot about it. It is easy for a ballpark to give everyone a good time when the weather is good, but what happens when the sky opens up and the game is put into a rain delay? This is my review of a recent rain delay at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
The weather forecast called for a 50 percent chance of rain during the baseball game that I had tickets for at Citizens Bank Park. I was optimistic that the weathermen did not know what he was talking about and I would be able to enjoy a wonderful evening of baseball. The evening started out in grand fashion at Citizens Bank Park. The Philadelphia Phillies were ahead going into the top of the 6th inning of the baseball game when we noticed the dark clouds rolling in from New Jersey. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. The raindrops start to fall at the beginning of the 8th inning at Citizens Bank Park. The baseball game was put into a rain delay at the middle of the 8th inning. I decided to wait the rain delay out to see the Philadelphia Phillies finish a glorious baseball game at Citizens Bank Park. This was before I knew how badly Citizens Bank Park handled rain delays.
There was plenty of room on the concourse of Citizens Bank Park to get in from the rain delay. This was the only positive that I could find to the entire rain delay at Citizens Bank Park. Shortly into the rain delay, I decided to grab something to eat and drink and one of the many food stands located in Citizens Bank Park. I could not do this. The attendants at the food stands had shut down the registers and gotten rid of all of the food and drink at the stands. Ok this struck me as a very strange thing to do since the baseball game was in a rain delay, and there was no telling when they would resume play at Citizens Bank Park. I walked around the concourse during the rain delay and found that the restaurants had also closed for the evening and that you could not even sit in them to wait for the baseball game to start back up. During the hour and a half rain delay at Citizens Bank Park the only thing that was open was the souvenir stands. This is the worse way to run a rain delay for a baseball game. It is for this reason; if a baseball game that you are attending at Citizens Bank Park goes to a rain delay, head for the exits. You will be much happier watching the rest of the game at home then starving at the baseball game to wait for the last out.
