Reading Fightin Phils
Welcome to Baseballtown — FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the Reading Fightin’ Phils, the Double-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Our visit is covered by the local news before a doubleheader with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
We arrived at the front gates at FirstEnergy Stadium in Reading an hour early to meet Jimmy Raxasena, the one-man news crew assigned by WFMZ-TV to cover our road trip. He chatted with us for a bit, took some notes, and then asked us to answer some questions on camera.
My father is an actor and a director. He has acted in 51 plays, portraying such diverse characters as Willy Loman, King Henry II, Marquis de Sade, Kris Kringle, and Oscar Madison. He has directed another 23 plays, the most recent in February 2024. While at San Diego State, he directed Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge Simpson, who was my babysitter. Dad also taught theater for several years.
This is all to say that my dad is pretty comfortable in front of a camera.
We told the story of our baseball journeys together, and then Jimmy wired me up so that he could get some sound as I roamed the ballpark. By then, the gates were about to open. We were anticipating a big night of baseball: Rain had postponed the previous night’s game against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies in the second inning, so we would see a doubleheader of nine and seven innings.
FirstEnergy Stadium, home of the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils, first debuted in 1951 as Reading Municipal-Memorial Stadium. It underwent a stream of improvements between 1989 and 2004 before a $10 million renovation in 2011. The goal of that work was to improve the facilities while retaining the unique charm of a ballpark named the #1 Classic Ballpark in the country by Baseball America.
In March 2002, the city of Reading adopted a new nickname, and a sign above the front gates proclaims it: “Welcome to Baseballtown.” It’s an appropriate monicker. FirstEnergy Stadium feels more like a theme park — with old-fashioned fun and something to see everywhere you look — than any ballpark I’ve ever visited.
Reading baseball goes back as far as 1858 with the Reading Athletic Club. The Reading Actives formed in 1874 and in 1883 joined the Interstate Association, one of the two original minor leagues. Reading clubs with great names like the Coal Heavers, Pretzels, Chicks, Brooks, Aces, Marines, and Keystones played in the first half of the 20th century.
In 1952, the Wilkes-Barre Indians relocated to Reading and played as a Cleveland affiliate for nine seasons, showcasing players like Rocky Colavito and Roger Maris. After hosting a couple of short-timer teams in the 1960s, Reading was awarded a new franchise in the Eastern League for the 1967 season, affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies. The two have been together ever since.
Originally playing as the Phils, the club won Eastern League titles in 1968, 1973, and 1995, and were co-champs in 2001. The franchise changed its name to the Fightin Phils in 2012 to help keep up with the trend toward more unconventional Minor League names while retaining the treasured connection with the parent club.
Just past the front entrance, we made a quick stop in the team store. Dad bought his customary logo baseball, and I picked up Reading’s home hat.
At the front of the stadium, in the concourse behind home plate, and along the walkways down both sides of the ballpark, the heroes of the Reading Fighin Phils and the Phillies franchise are on display in myriad forms. Teams through the decades are celebrated in a ribbon of history on one wall, while individual moments and players are memorialized on nearly every other available surface. Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Ryan Howard, Aaron Nola, and newly inducted Baseball Hall of Famer Scott Rolen — if they played for Philadelphia, there’s a good chance they came through Reading.
I strolled past the exhibits, pretending that Jimmy the News Team wasn’t right in front of me, walking backward with the camera on his shoulder, recording my impressions of this baseball shrine.
The main plaza is on the first-base side and is a unique enclosed space with picnic tables, concessions, and boardwalk games. It includes a stage for pre-game music that often features the Mascot Band (more on them later). On this Italian Heritage Night, the musical act between games would be Tony Farino, wearing an all-white suit and “singing great songs with class,” such as “Volare,” “That’s Amore,” and “Dominick the Donkey.”
Jimmy followed me to a concessions stand, where I ordered a Churger, a Reading ballpark favorite combining a burger, chicken breast, and American cheese. The concessions workers all gathered in one corner near me and the cash register, laughing, nudging, and hoping to get on TV.
I made my way down both lines to catch warmups for the Fightin Phils and the Rumble Ponies, the Double-A affiliate of the New York Mets. Binghamton’s record was just under .500 on the season, a few games ahead of Reading in the standings.
For the first game of the doubleheader, the Fightin Phils would appear as the Reading Hot Dogs, an alternate identity typically reserved for Sunday games. Reading’s celebration of the humble frankfurter is not only for fun: Reading sells more hot dogs than any other ballpark in Minor League Baseball.
I returned back to our seats and sat with Dad for a bit as we prepared for the game to get underway. We said our goodbyes to Jimmy, who was truly outstanding working with us — considerate, friendly, and efficient.
Game 1 started where the postponement left off, with one out in the bottom of the second, no score. Binghamton had already used two pitchers during multiple delays the night before and sent right-handed reliever Hunter Parsons to the mound. He gave up a run in the bottom of the third when Reading second baseman Cam Cannon blasted a laser over the left-field fence, giving the Fightin Phils a 1-0 lead.
Cam Cannon
Cannon was a second-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2019. Earlier that season, playing for the University of Arizona, he was a doubles machine, wracking up 29 two-baggers in 56 games on his way to a .397 average and a very high draft position. Cannon had a strong 2021 at High-A Greenville, hitting .302 in 74 games, but an oblique muscle injury in 2022 kept him out for a month and a half. He was waved by the Red Sox at the end of the season and picked up by the Phillies, but he continued to struggle with injuries. In fact, Cannon had just returned from the injured list three days before we arrived. He would go 3-for-4 in this game but would be released by the Phillies just three weeks later after hitting .207 in Reading. Cannon ended the season playing for the unaffiliated Kansas City Monarchs of the independent American Association.
I walked behind the stands to get a better look at Baseballtown’s carnival-style games, squeezing even more ballpark fun into some tight spaces.
The teams each scored a run in the seventh, making it 2-1 Reading. But two Binghamton walks, a single, and a home run by center fielder Rowdey Jordan in the eighth put the Rumble Ponies ahead 5-2.
Cannon hit his second home run of the matchup in the ninth, but the rally stopped there. The Rumble Ponies took the first game, 5-3.
Game 2
I took a walk around the ballpark between games to get a taste of the many different vantage points available at FirstEnergy Stadium: picnic table seating and boardwalk box seats in left field, bleachers down the left-field line, the club picnic area, and the Dugout Suite next to the Fightin Phils dugout on the first-base side.
Several members of the Fightin Phils mascot collection appeared during the pre-game ceremonies: Screwball, Blooper the Hound Dog, and Bucky the Beaver. The latter two, along with Quack the Duck and Change-Up the Turtle, play tunes in the team’s Mascot Band before selected games. Quack the Duck, who we did not see, is actually Todd Hunsicker, Director of Promotions and the brother of General Manager Scott Hunsicker. Change-Up, who ironically flashed by briefly during the first game, is played by their father, Tom.
The formalities finished with the presentation of the American flag and a nice performance of the National Anthem. It was time to play ball once again.
Josh Hendrickson
The teams had changed up their uniforms during the break, with the Rumble Ponies donning their red jerseys and an oversized “Bing” in large script, and the Fightin Phils going with their classic pinstripes, a look that replicates the Phillies Whiz Kids teams of the 1950s.
Game Two got off to a shaky start for Reading and starting pitcher Josh Hendrickson. A native Australian and 38th-round pick of the Phillies in 2019, Hendrickson was in his third season wearing a Reading uniform, having made just one appearance at the next level for Triple-A Lehigh Valley in 2021. The left-hander walked the first Binghamton batter, then hit two of the next three batters before throwing a wild pitch that scored the first run for the Rumble Ponies. But Hendrickson stopped the bleeding there and went on to pitch five innings, allowing just the one run.
Dominic Hamel
The Rumble Ponies sent Dominic Hamel to the mound for the nightcap. A third-round pick in the 2021 draft, Hamel had been a steady performer at the lower levels of the minor leagues and would spend the full 2023 season in Binghamton.
Hamel gave up a double to the second batter he faced, Reading first baseman Carlos De La Cruz, but he did not give up another hit over the first five innings, finishing a stellar performance with 11 strikeouts and just two walks in seven innings of work.
Reading finally pushed a run across in the bottom of the sixth after a leadoff double by catcher Cody Roberts and another double from De La Cruz. The game was tied 1-1.
We saw some good fun and games between innings of both games, including an appearance by the beloved Crazy Hot Dog Vendor, who lobs hot dogs into the stands while appearing to ride a stuffed ostrich. (Matt Jackson, who has portrayed the vendor for 20 years, had the night off.) Other events included fans trying to slingshot a ball through a hole in a giant Sweet Ride Ice Cream banner; a Bavarian man and his inflatable buddy giving out a sack of pretzels; and the ever-popular Veggie Race down the right-field line towards home plate, with Carrot making up an early deficit to take the win over Lettuce, Cauliflower, and Broccoli. (See the video at the bottom of this page for these games and more!)
I did a final circuit of the ballpark, ending at the heated swimming pool beyond the right-field wall, where a big party of kids splashed about with an excellent view of the action.
Both teams put runners aboard in the seventh and final inning but could not break the tie. After two games and more than 14 innings, we still had more baseball to play.
The Rumble Ponies failed to score in the top of the eighth. In the bottom half, the Fightin Phils bunted their extra-innings runner over to third. Binghamton reliever Daison Acosta then intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases and set up a potential double play. He struck out Reading left fielder Baron Radcliffe to bring designated hitter Jhailyn Ortiz to the plate. The two battled to a full count before Acosta threw ball four, walking in the winning run.
It had been a very long day, beginning with our flat tire near Harrisburg, lunch and two sights in Reading, media coverage of our road trip, and a doubleheader in Baseballtown. It was only fitting to cap it all off with fireworks.