Right field section the sweet spot for home runs

October 22, 2009|By Mike Jensen, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The place to be last night in Philadelphia? Section 103, Citizens Bank Park. Home-run heaven.

As baseballs flew out of the place all evening - by the seventh inning, the seven home runs hit by the Phillies and Dodgers had set a post-season record for a nine-inning game - the early action all went in one direction. Phillies Jayson Werth and Pedro Feliz crushed opposite-field shots that landed maybe 21/2 feet apart.

Werth hit his first-inning three-run home run - his first of two for the night - to Row 4, Seat 20. In the second, Feliz showed more strength. His homer reached Row 5, Seat 22. One row up and two seats over.

In between those shots, Dodgers first baseman James Loney found his Section 103 groove. His homer made it to Row 7 - Seat 22 again.

"We all knew the Phillies were going to win tonight," said John Heinsen, sitting two seats over from where the Werth ball landed and one seat in front of where the Feliz ball came down. "But this was pretty exciting to be right here."

Werth's homer first hit 6-foot-5 Dan McGinley in the hands - maybe the biggest hands in the section.

"He's got hands bigger than my FEET," said Anthony Diaddezio, sitting right in front of McGinley. "Look at his hand. His hand is swollen."

"It hit his hands like a backboard," said Kevin Williams, watching from one row behind McGinley.

The ball bounced away from McGinley down the same row. Dave Dougherty, a deputy sheriff in Philadelphia, spotted it coming. "I was holding back the pack and said to my son, 'Dude, get it!' "

David Anthony Dougherty, a sophomore at Interboro High in Delaware County, scooped it up from "right below his [father's] butt," he said. Dad's glasses were bent from the melee. But they have the baseball.

At that point, the father said, "It's the game-winner right now."

Next came the Loney ball, landing three rows back. Steve Belfiglio, a Penn graduate who grew up in Newtown Square, never got out of his seat. The whole section was talking about how Belfiglio caught the ball and threw it back in one motion, almost reaching the infield.

"I didn't want to touch it for any longer than I had to," Belfiglio said.

"He didn't even hesitate," said Tom Little, sitting down in Row 4. "Jayson Werth turned around and went like, 'Oh, yeah.' "

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