Phillies fans gobble up game tickets

Fans lined up at Citizens Bank Park and jammed the Phillies website this morning to buy single-game tickets to see the World Series champs this season.

Don Pizzo, an insurance salesman who left his Drexel Hill home at 4:30 a.m., was the first to arrive at the ballpark at 5:15 a.m.

Pizzo said he wanted to buy tickets for the April 8 Ring Ceremony Day game to mark the return of his 22-year-old son Brandon after serving for 18 months with the Army in Iraq.

He also plans to take his 3-year-old daughter for her first baseball game that day.

Online tickets for April 8 game sold out quickly, but Pizzo got the seats he wanted after the Phillies Phanatic cut a ceremonial strip of tickets to start the sale, about 9 a.m.

"We have a special allotment held so our fans at the window don't get locked out," said Bill Wilson, manager of sales operations.

By the time the ninth person in line got to the ticket window, however, only standing room tickets were available for the Ring Ceremony game.

The game was sold out quickly online for several reasons. Not only did the cybersales start earlier - at 7:30 a.m. - but many seats were gone by then. Season ticket holders have been able to buy tickets to individual games since Feb. 9, and fans who signed up for a Phillies email club or bought tickets online last season got notified of a "presale" that started Tuesday, according to John Weber, vice president for ticket sales and operations.

Gabby Stankewiz, 15th in line, was disappointed not to land seats for the ceremony, but happy to get seats for her and friend Jen Giardhini, both 18, at the championship T-shirt giveway game on April 7. The Montgomery County Community College students are both from Willow Grove.

Four other games - Opening Day and three against the Boston Red Sox - were not on sale. The April 5 opener was reserved for season ticket buyers, while fans had to a a block of six games called a "Six Pack," or a season ticket plan, to see a Red Sox game.

Fans hoping to see those games, though, do have one other shot - win tickets through an online drawing. For more, go to www.phillies.com, and click on "Tickets," then "Tickets Purchase Opportunity."

Also, a few hours before most home games, the Phillies sell about 500 standing-room tickets at the windows on Darien Street, Weber said.

Whether Opening Day or Red Sox games would be available on game day hasn't been decided, Weber said.

Pizzo and other early arrivals at the park were given wristbands that allowed them to leave until the ticket windows opened or to take advantage of a 15- percent-off sale at the Majestic Clubhouse Store.

Items on sale included black World Series locker room hats, originally priced at $35 and a framed collage of player scenes with a disk of authenicated World Series dirt, regularly priced at $299.

Even before today's sale began, season-ticket buyers scooped up at least 24,000 of the ballpark's 45,000 seats, about 4,000 more than last season.

The online address for buying tickets: http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/phi/ticketing/singlegame.jsp.

Tickets to some games also can be found at http://tickets.philly.com