Phillies Winter Caravan

[Shawn_E.]

Phils Winter Tour to stop in Reading Jan. 27
Reading Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies Winter Tour will make its annual stop in Reading on Thursday, January 25, 2007 at the Sheraton Reading.
It will again be a banquet to benefit Baseballtown Charities. The lineup is still being worked out but tickets have been made available early due to requests from fans who are interested in securing seats as gifts for the holidays. Details attached.

Toys for Tots reminder: The Reading Phillies/U.S. Marine Corps Reserves 9th annual Toys for Tots event is Saturday, December 9 at FirstEnergy Stadium. New toys are being collected from 10 AM - 2 PM. Complimentary refreshments, a visit from Santa and the R-Phils mascots are all part of the fun.

 

[Autograph Amy]

There is one scheduled guest for this event..so far. Gary Burnham who is Reading's career homerun leader will be in attendence. Gary is also an accomplished artist who will have some of his art work on sale. I must say that he did an incredible drawing of Pat burell a few years agao and sold them in Reading's merchandise "store". Never had a chance to get one but they are very good! Info:http://www.skiltech.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=reading&Product_Code=Caravan

 

[sugarcult2]

Cole Hamels has just been added as the first official guest. Anyone ever been before? What's the setup like for autograph opportunities?

 

[majdic2136]

Whenever they went to Scranton you waited in line and they just signed 1 per and then you could get back in line but the line was huge and i think they cut it off after a while but it was pretty cool...I went 2 years

1st year
Jimmy Rollins
Eric Valent
Randy Wolf
Greg Legg

2nd Year
Jimmy Rollins
Brett Myers
Larry Bowa

 

[Autograph Amy]

The one in Reading gets packed as well. I have friends that do this event...I never have been able to make it myself. I am positive that it is one per person inside and you can probably get in line again but I am sure the line will be too long to get through a second time. I may try and do outside the event although I have never done this before. I can't 50/50 it either...I have way too much Phillies stuff to get done. Hamels should bring in a big crowd..last year Ryan Howard was there I believe...and they had one of the biggest crowds ever for this event. As I recall my friend saying...there is a head table and the lines for each person are separate.....Reading is really big on the Phillies so it will be one per...and hard to move around from line to line!

EDIT...Crowd last year was around 650...in a typical hotel banquet room type setup. I imagine head table and podium up front and those round tables to eat your dinner. Probably hard to move around the room due to the crowd.

 

[Autograph Amy]

Phillies manager Charlie manuel added to the list.

 

[dd316]

Full schedule announced: http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.co...ent_id=1766632&vkey=pr_phi&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi

Doesn't list every player though.

 

[Autograph Amy]

I was pretty glad to see this list includes a mall that is 10 minutes from me. That's good newe..now I don't have to go to Harrisburg! Yeah they don't normally announce the players until closer to the events...maybe after the first of the year!

 

[GoSportsCard]

I'll be attending the one at the King of Prussia mall. Not sure if I'm going to any of the other malls. I'm going to wait until January to see whos going to be where before I make that decision.

I was at the king of prussia mall 2 years ago and there were only about 50 people there. Modells gave out phillies tee shirts and pins and I think stickers to almost everyone in line. That year it was Chase Utley and Jason Michaels.

Last year I went to the one at the Granite Run Mall. There must have been over 500 people there. They had a taping of the meet the phillies comcast show. The players at this event were: Ryan Howard, Tom Gordon, Aaron Rowand and Jimmy Rollins. Charlie Manuel and Pat Gillick were there also but they were not out for the signings. They went behind the scenes. I would have picked them up but I had to get out of the massive line and it just wasnt worth it. They did have some announcers and misc. signing after the players but wasnt sure of who everyone was. The bad thing was all but 1 left before 1/4 of the line went through. I only one recognized 1 of them to be more then an announcer and that was John Marzano who comments about the phillies on comcast but he also use to be a catcher for the Red Sox in the early 90s.

All in all I had a great time at each of the events and recommend them to anyone that lives in the area.

 

[Autograph Amy]

Yeah gosportscards....the one where they tape the Meet the Phillies thing is always so crowded...I never even bother with that one. I may go to the King of Prussia one this year, depends on my hubbys work schedule so I will look for you there!!