Phanatic

There was more than a ball game at the Vet on Friday. In addition to cheering Darren Daulton's two homers, fans at the home opener took in the landing of Navy sky divers and a belly-flopping Phanatic, a couple of brawls, and banners critical of Eagles owner Norman Braman. And, of course, they booed - starting with the pregame introductions.

THE PHILLIES have another ace in their lineup. Forbes magazine has rated the Phanatic the most popular mascot in sports. The green whatchamacallit supplanted the Chicken for this year's top spot. The Phanatic, No. 2 last year, was selected in a survey conducted by the Marketing Arm's Davie Brown Index, which according to Forbes, "measured pro sports mascots on four key attributes: awareness, appeal, entertainment value and team identification [the degree to which consumers are able to associate a mascot with the team it represents]

Only Eric Darrenkamp came to Citizens Bank Park last night entirely dressed for the occasion - wearing his inflatable duck inner-tube over his swim trunks, snorkel mask and official Phillies fishing hat. He had no shirt, and no worries as he booed the Tampa Bay Rays during pregame introductions. "Whatever you do, don't run on the field," Sandy Muir, the hostess in charge of Section 138, told the 23-year-old when he first showed up. As Darrenkamp booed the Rays, a middle-aged man wearing a Ryan Howard jersey tapped him on the shoulder so he could move by, not giving the inflatable raft or the snorkel mask a second look.

The Phanatic, ever the trouper, will back in action at Citizens Bank Park this evening as the Phils take on Oakland at 7:05. "He's going to play hurt," club spokesman Scott Palmer said. On Wednesday, a foul ball caught the big green furball in the throat - and sent Tom Burgoyne inside off to a hospital with a lump over the eye and a slight concussion. It happened at the Iron Pigs game in Allentown, with the ever-dangerous John Mayberry Jr. at the plate. Let's go to the highlight reel: The mascot was planted in empty seats a couple of rows behind the first base dugout when the play-by-play announcer yells "Watch out, Phanatic!

It's true. It's been confirmed. It's gone. The Phillies' mascot has lost his head. Or somebody has taken it. Nobody seems to know. The Phillie Phanatic's head disappeared Friday from the Wachovia Center some time during the team's "Final Pieces" charity sale and auction of mementos from Veterans Stadium. Tom Burgoyne, the man behind the mask, took off his costume during a break, then realized that his head - well, the Phanatic's head - was gone when he returned to his unlocked dressing room.

A Philadelphia Police Department bomb squad detonated three suspicious packages at Citizens Bank Park yesterday afternoon at 5, according to Phillies vice president Michael Stiles. After the detonation, the area was given the all-clear and last night's Phillies-Braves game went on as scheduled at 7:05. Police said the packages simply contained hot dogs. "It appears they're the same hot dogs the Phanatic uses to shoot into the crowd," one investigator said. It was unclear how, exactly, the packages ended up outside the stadium.

He took the field and fans seemed to think their half-eaten hot dogs looked more interesting. Announcers tried to bolster fan response by announcing his arrival, and a few weak claps were heard. And so began another evening with the Phanatic, that mischievous, monotonous mascot. While kids adored his Sesame Street aura, adults seemed to care less about the legendary mascot's antics during last night's Phillies-St. Louis Cardinals game. The Phanatic, who emerged at 7:15 on his scooter to round the bases for another sparsely attended game, immediately got down to business, upstaging city drill teams during their big moment in the spotlight.

A historical marker is dedicated at Simon Gratz High School to honor Dodger great Roy Campanella. What? The Phanatic a Dodgers fan? The Phanatic yesterday helped Garrett Bagley, dean of students, with the unveiling. Campanella, after all, was a Philadelphia native. He got his first taste of stardom at Simon Gratz.

THE PHILLIE PHANATIC may soon find himself in court - and not just over a stolen base. The Phanatic has been sued in Philadelphia Civil Court by a 75-year-old woman who claims that he injured her knees when he climbed through the stands at a 2008 Reading Phillies minor league game. Even the woman's attorney, John Speicher, of Wyomissing, said that people around him have said that "this is like suing Santa Claus. " "I'm expecting him to come to a deposition, stick his stomach and his tongue out at me and not say anything," Speicher said.

As a postscript to the surprising third-place finish of the former cellar- dwelling Phillies, it seems only fair that some credit go to a heretofore unrecognized contributor. (Hint: He's green all over.) It is now clear that it was no accident that the Phillies played so much better at home (46-36) than on the road (32-48). At home they've got a 10th player on the field - the Phanatic. Witness the final two wild innings of last Friday night's must-win game against the devilish New York Mets.

We have surveyed what's new and exclusive to the Citizens Bank Park Majestic Clubhouse Store this season. And we can assure you of this: The "Hug-A-Phanatic" plush ($29.99) will be the runaway hit in the Daddy I Need That category. It's big. It's plush. It's the Phanatic. And beyond that, it's interactive. A child puts her hands into the Phanatic's own fuzzy green paws, and whenever she claps he claps. Genius. Our own SportsWeek mascot Jessica Berkery (left in photo), got the hang of it in, oh, a second and was last seen leaving the Daily News premises with the Hug-A-Phanatic glued to her person.

Twice a season, the Phillies offer women an intensive daylong course in being a more knowledgeable baseball fan. Tickets go on sale by phone at 9 a.m. Tuesday to this season's first Baseball 101 Clinic & Luncheon for Women, which will be held May 30. Guess it's too long to include everything in the title, because then it would be: "Baseball 101 Clinic & Luncheon & Pre-Game Party & Red Sox Game. " It starts with coaches covering the basics about how to play. "We went in the batting cages.

There's a new dangle hat in town. First came the Phanatic. Now Swoop. The Eagles mascot has landed on the heads of fans at the Linc, where it sells for $24.99 at kiosks and the Eagles Pro Shop. Daily News street fashion photographer Reuben "Big Rube" Harley asked local celebs to rock the rookery look for us. Vote for who wore it best at philly.com/swoophat.  

A typical crowd at Citizens Bank Park is so saturated with team merchandise that it sometimes looks as if a red-and-white flavored scene has been staged for a Phillies commercial. The ballpark's parking lots, where Phillies flags flutter like the banners of a great army, are filled with cars bearing team decals, license-plate frames, antenna pennants. Thousands of fans who emerge from those vehicles are wearing team jerseys or T-shirts, and many are additionally equipped with club-related products from their tops (the familiar red hats or the newest sensations, Phanatic dangle caps)

Winter is coming: That ominous theme pervades HBO's medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones. Winter is when the usurpers invade. It is a season of privation and suffering, when faith and loyalty are tested. Nobody knows when winter will arrive or how long it will last, but everyone knows it will be miserable. Like the Sword of Damocles, winter also hangs over the Phillies. The thread holding it has weakened with each troubling addition to the disabled list. Barbarians from Atlanta, Washington, Miami, and New York have girded for war to break the team's hold on the division crown.

A Montgomery County woman has sued the Phillie Phanatic, alleging a slew of injuries as a result of the mascot's tossing her into a swimming pool at a Jersey Shore hotel in 2010. The suit, filed last week in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, says that Suzanne M. Peirce of Abington was seated in a lounge chair at the Golden Inn Hotel & Resort in Avalon when the Phanatic, who was performing, "picked up her chair and threw plaintiff and her chair into the pool. " As a result of the incident, the suit says, "plaintiff suffered severe and permanent injuries to her head, neck, back, arms and legs, bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and tissues of her head, neck, back, arms and legs, including, but not limited to, a herniated L5-S1 disc, aggravation and/or exacerbation of all known and unknown preexisting medical conditions, internal injuries of an unknown nature, severe aches, pains, mental anxiety and anguish, and a severe shock to her entire nervous system and other injuries, the full extent of which is not yet known.

THIS ISN'T the first time the Phanatic's been accused of being too fanatical. In 2010 the Daily News found he'd been sued at least three other times in the previous decade, once for hugging someone too hard. One woman attending a Reading Phillies game with her church group claimed he sat on her legs, making her arthritis act up and leading to a knee replacement, a lawsuit alleged. The resolutions of the lawsuits could not be determined Tuesday. Nor is he the only mascot sued.

HE'S BIG, GREEN and usually just a little goofy, but an Abington woman claims that the Phillie Phanatic turned into the Incredible Hulk at the Jersey Shore when he tossed her into a hotel pool.   Suzanne Peirce claims that she was attending her sister's wedding at the Golden Inn in Avalon on July 17, 2010, and was poolside with the Phanatic, who was "engaging in various antics" during a comic routine, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Common Pleas Court and first reported by Courthouse News Service.

Broad Street Billy, who bleeds red pinstripes like all Fightin's die-hards, felt as if he got smacked in the head by a foul ball when he read that Mr. Met beat out the Phillie Phanatic in a national popularity poll. A company called the Marketing Arm just announced that the 1,000 people polled nationally in its Celebrity Davie Brown Index were more aware of Mr. Met than the Phillie Phanatic, and found Mr. Met more likable. "That's blasphemy!" said Francis Winkey, Aramark merchandise manager at Citizens Bank Park, where the wildly popular Phanatic has two stores of his own stuff — the Phanatic Attic and All Things Phanatic.

Lots of love to the Phillie Phanatic, who's belly-shaken his way through 34 years of Phillies games as of Wednesday. Few in this city can generate the adulation and love that this OG Green Man can. And there's no sign that Philly's favorite son is slowing down. Check his recent cameo on "30 Rock," where star and Upper Darby gal Tina Fey literally jumped for joy when she saw the Furry One in the flesh, for further proof of the Phanatic's star power. WIP "Professor" Glen Macnow talks his way to 57 Monday.