Citizens Bank Park is the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ballpark is a part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex and has a seating capacity of 43,647. The ballpark was opened in 2004 just before the Phillies regular season began. The field was built to replace the multipurpose Veterans Stadium and features a natural grass playing field, classic Philadelphia-style concession stands and has a great location on the northeast corner of the sports complex which also houses Lincoln Financial Field, the Wachovia Center and the Wachovia Spectrum.
In the late 1990s, requests were made by the Phillies, Philadelphia Eagles NFL team, the Pittsburgh Pirates MLB team and the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team to replace Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh to be replaced. Pressure was heightened for new facilities when a railing collapsed at Veterans Stadium during an Army-Navy game, resulting in the injury of eight cadets.
The stadium plans were actualized and the ground was broken in the summer of 2001. Though the Phillies originally had hoped for a downtown ballpark similar to the likes of those in Denver, Cincinnati and Baltimore, the team decided to build at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Regret has been expressed by fans and residents of the area that the original Center City location was not chosen but despite this setback, the Phillies set records in 2009 for attendance and sellouts.
In the first years of Citizens Bank Park, 218 homers were hit in 2004 and 201 in 2005. More than half of these runs were hit out into the left-field. After the 2005 season, the left field wall was moved back five feet. Even with this modification, Citizens Bank Park has earned the reputation of being one of the most hitter-friendly parks in Major League Baseball. In 2009, 149 homers were gave up which is the most in the National League and just second in the majors behind the new Yankee Stadium.
Though Citizens Bank Park is still a fairly new stadium, there have been some memorable moments for both the Phillies and the ballpark at the field in its first few years. On June 14, 2004, former first baseman for the Phillies Jim Thome hit his 400th career homerun. On September 14th of 2005, Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves hit his 300th career homer which went 430 feet and landed in the upper deck of the left field. On October 25th of 2008, the ballpark hosted its first World Series game in which the Phillies took victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. At this game, country singer Tim McGraw spread a handful of his father Tug McGraw's, late Phillies closer, ashes on the pitcher mound prior to throwing the ceremonial first pitch. The team claimed their second World Series championship title during game five.
