Phillies Volunteers Don’t Have It Easy

by Posted on

If you’ve been to Citizen’s Bank Park for a Phillies game, you’ve probably seen numerous volunteers around the Park. For instance, there is the Phillies Go Green initiative where people, usually young, walk up and down the aisles collecting empty plastic bottles to be recycled. I never really understood why the empty beer cups aren’t recyclable.

I never really thought about these volunteers in terms of where they come from, are the same people at every game, do they stay for the entire game, etc. That was until Opening Day.

I’ve been to a fair share of Phillies games where they hand out promotional items. Sometimes I get a bobblehead. Sometimes I get a t-shirt. On Opening Day, I got a magnet. I never really thought about who handed me those promotional items once I got through the ticket turnstyles, until this Opening day.

As I stood behind Section 110 drinking a beer and eating a soft pretzel an older woman stood next to me with a slice of pizza and a water. I don’t know her name, but she looked like a Peg so I’ll call her Peg for the purposes of this piece. Peg had a slight slouch and white hair. If I had to guess her age, I’d say maybe mid-70’s.  Peg explained that to us that she was one of the people who handed out the magnets.

Peg came from South Jersey on a bus full of volunteers, all seniors. They were when gates open, which I think is 1.5 hours before the game? They stood and handed out promotional items until the gates closed, which might have been like the 5th inning?

That’s a lot of standing for me, let alone a senior citizen. After all of that, does she get a ticket to a seat to sit down and enjoy some of the game? Nope. She basically had the equivalent of a Standing Room Only ticket once she was off duty. It’s not like tickets are hard to come by? Give these volunteers a f**king seat.

We asked about her pizza. If Peg didn’t get a seat, surely they’d give her a food voucher since she’s been at the ballpark for more than 3 hours. Nope. Nothing. Eating on her own dime.

If this is true, the Phillies need to do better by these people. As a Phillies fan and a human being, this seems like some pretty bad treatment. It’s not like the ballpark is packed. Get them seats. Even if it was packed, they are performing a service to the ballclub. For that, they get to watch maybe 4 or 5 innings, standing?

And, give them a food voucher for a slice of pizza, pretzel and drink. These people are probably on meds that need to be taken with food! They shouldn’t be out of pocket for helping your team out.

Hey Phillies…check yourselves.

If this is true, This is a Violation!

I have no reason to think Peg was full of sh*t. I guess she could’ve been senile and aimlessly wandering the ballpark making up volunteering stories, but I doubt it.

Phillies need to do better by their volunteers.