Who are the most excited fans in Phoenix? These ex-Philadelphians.
“You can’t script this.”
Philly Ray figured he’d reached the pinnacle of fandom — an Eagles Super Bowl on his home turf in Arizona — and when the birds lost a heartbreaker, he slinked back to his barstool in Scottsdale to dream of future sports glory.
He didn’t have to wait too long.
“Full disclosure, my man. Since I’ve gotten here, all I’ve wanted is a Philly-Arizona championship series,” Philly Ray Poserina told The Inquirer Thursday afternoon. “As a Philadelphia fan, to witness my real hometown city to be here, in the city I live in, again. You can’t script this.”
A Northeast Philly native who moved to Arizona for love, Poserina, 58, has tickets to Game 3 and Game 4 at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix and will purchase tickets for Saturday’s game if the Phillies don’t clinch. He thinks they will.
“This team, this year, is special,” he said “The attitude, the swagger: you just don’t see that in Arizona and us Philly fans out here are eating it up.”
While he’s attended Arizona Diamondbacks games there and enjoys the stadium, Poserina is disappointed in the team’s fanbase and recent reports that ticket prices have plummeted.
“We’ve been through some really dry runs with the Phillies over the years, but you don’t stop supporting the team,” he said. “It’s insane to me.”
It’s well known that Philly fans travel well. If your team has notoriously weak fanbases — the Miami Dolphins or any Los Angeles football team — the stadiums are awash in green. There’s a handful of travel groups in the Philadelphia area that facilitate this. Arizona, however, has a lot of transplants from the area, folks who moved west for the weather, or relationships, even to get sober.
» READ MORE: Tickets to tonight’s NLCS game are so cheap, Phillies fans are buying them so Diamondbacks fans can’t go
Poserina, who grew up in the Morrell Park section of Northeast Philly and went to Archbishop Ryan, helped start the Eagles West fan club in 2014 and Scottsdale’s Rockbar has become its headquarters. He welcomes any fan to stop by.
“We’re all here, my man. We just switch out the green for red for Phillies games,” he said.
One fan, Jimmy Wallin, opened sober living homes and a handful of bars called Philly’s Sports Grill in Arizona. He’s also going to the games at Chase Field — ”I overpaid” — and will be flying back to Philly for any World Series games.
“My wallet wants the Diamondbacks to win, but my heart is with the Phillies,” he said.
Dave Duffy, an Arizona resident who grew up in Cherry Hill, has dropped a few thousands dollars on Phillies gear, Eagles kelly green jerseys, and, of course, tickets to Game 3 and 4.
“I’ve never seen the Phillies clinch the pennant in person,” Duffy, a Rockbar regular, said Thursday. “That’s why I don’t mind paying the price.”
Philly fans in Arizona said anyone traveling out for the games should bring shorts — the temperatures were in the upper 90s Thursday. And while it can’t compare to the party vibes at Citizens Bank Park, they said Chase Field has its own charms.
“I’ve never been to the stadium with the roof open, so I’m looking forward to that,” Duffy said. “Centerfield is deep but I still think we’re gonna hit a few out.”