Posing with NLCS trophy, fans relive Phils' magical run
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CLEARWATER, Fla. -- For a second straight day, fans lined up along the right-field concourse at BayCare Ballpark to check out the Phillies' 2022 National League Championship Series trophy.
Most fans were seeing the trophy in-person for the first time, but others -- like Don Weston from Reading, Pa. -- simply wanted a closer look. After all, Weston was one of the 45,485 fans on hand for Philadelphia's NLCS-clinching victory in Game 5 at Citizens Bank Park in October.
"It's pretty cool seeing it up close after watching them celebrate with it on the field last year," said Weston, who travels down to Clearwater for a week every spring. "I've actually got a picture -- it's not the best quality, obviously -- of Rhys [Hoskins] holding up the trophy, and now I'll have one of me with it, too. So that's pretty neat."
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Weston was one of many fans who hopped in line for a chance to have their picture taken with the NLCS trophy, which went on display on the right-field berm starting on Friday. It will remain there throughout the remainder of Spring Training.
Unlike Weston, Julie Hill wasn't at the pennant-clinching contest, but her brother was at the game -- and he doesn't let her forget about it.
"My brother rubs it in all the time that he was there and got to see the celebration and everything," she said. "So now I can just be like, 'Yeah, but do you have a picture with the trophy? Because I do.'"
For some fans, seeing the trophy brought back memories of their favorite moments from the postseason run, whether it be Hoskins' bat spike or Bryce Harper's go-ahead homer that ultimately brought that NLCS trophy to Philadelphia. For others, it was just about sharing a special moment between a father and son or a father and daughter -- or in the case of the Thompson family from Cherry Hill, N.J., three generations of Phillies fans: a grandfather, a father and a son.
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But for some, seeing the trophy was simply a sign of bigger things to come.
"Last year was really cool," said 10-year-old Sammy Benson, a West Chester, Pa., resident on vacation in Florida with his family. "But I think they'll be even better this year. I think, next year, we'll be taking a picture with the World Series [trophy]."