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PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — If you followed the 2020 Phillies closely, you likely learned the story of the Phandemic Krew.
That group of Phils fans craved baseball so much during the first summer of the pandemic, they gathered beyond the centerfield gate at Citizens Bank Park to watch and listen to Phils games from afar, whether home or away.
They brought airhorns to make noise and used a ladder to help their view. They made friends, as well as a name for themselves.
Through their name, they created a bobblehead that helped raise money for charity.
In essence, they became unofficial partners with the Phillies — who embraced their fandom from Day 1.
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When the ballpark re-opened to fans in 2021, they found themselves at first on the scoreboard porch and then in section 301.
That’s where the Phandemic Krew will be sitting for 2022. They are this week’s KYW Newsradio Philadelphia Sports Fans of the Week.
I had the chance to talk with their founders, Oscar Alvarado, 40, and Brett MacMinn, 45, of Audobon, learn how they met, and see what they felt about the 2022 season and the chances for the Phillies to end their decade-long playoff drought.
Uram: How did you become a big Philadelphia sports fan and Phillies fan?
Alvarado: I became a Philadelphia sports fan just off the base of my large family…I have a huge family. We're all based out of North Philadelphia. Four for four. (Eagles, Flyers, Phillies and Sixers.) Myself now, it's five for five supporting the Philadelphia Union.
My grandma used to take me to church every Sunday, sometimes two masses on Sundays. And from her house to church, you would have to go past the corner pub, and all my uncles will be in that pub with their Kelly green jerseys.
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So as a kid I used to be like, “Man, why do I have to go to church and my uncles get to watch the Eagles game?” So it started from there. And then, as a Philly fan, I believe I'm probably the biggest Philly fan in my family. I mean, they're all Philly fans, but I was the one that at a very young age to start going to games by myself. So, it all started from my family being big Philadelphia sports fans.
MacMinn: Like Oscar, it was sort of a birthright. My father is a huge Philadelphia sports fan. Phillies are the number one, though. He has had tickets since about 1971-72, and they'd go to a handful, 17 to 20 games a year. So of course it was just always something I did.
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The Phillies were sort of like a way of life, the thing I did with family, a thing I did with my friends, and it just carried over. And then there was a point in my life where I'd really didn't have anybody in my life that wanted to go to 50 games a year with me. I can get my wife to go to a few, my kids to go to a few, or this or that.
What I'm just going to do, go by myself and I'll meet friends when I get there, and I did.
Uram: And one of them I guess was Oscar, right?
MacMinn: So Oscar and I are both big collectors (of memorabilia), so we kind of met through the collecting community.
Uram: How exactly did that happen?
Alvarado: It was actually Brett's Instagram page. I believe the story goes where his fiancé hijacked his page and put up some stuff because, listen, when you go to Brett's house, it's a museum and he has a lot of stuff. So I guess they were running out of room and she's trying to get rid of stuff.
I think she put some [Phillies] mugs [up] and she was like, “Just submit your name and this and that.” And I did it and I won. So a couple days later, Brett dropped it off at the apartment I was living in, in South Jersey, and we actually ran into each other at a game, and it was like, 'Hey man, you're the one that you gave me that mug and everything,’ and that's how our relationship started from there.
Uram: So how long have you two known each other then?
MacMinn: Five years or so.
Uram: And could you ever have imagined both of you would have a well-known fan group at some point in your adult lives?
MacMinn: Oh hell, no. Definitely not.
Alvarado: No, not at all.
Uram: It's been 10 years without postseason baseball, without Red October in Philadelphia. How confident are both of you that the drought is going to end this season?
MacMinn: Highly confident. I think the Phillies made a lot of good moves. Some of the things people are talking about, ‘Oh, the defense is going to be terrible.' No offense, our defense was terrible last year. We have added three arms in the bullpen that have serious closing experience. The bullpen seemed to be an issue these past two years. We added some sluggers. The Phillies seem like they're focused on putting a contender in. I have high hopes. The NL East is very strong though, but it's not unusual for all the wild cards to come out of one division, and once you're in, you're in.
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Alvarado: I think we have a great chance. What I like the most is that [President of Baseball Operations] Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies organization put winning minds, like someone like [Kyle] Schwarber and someone like Nick [Castellanos] — he has that confidence and he has that swagger that, “Hey, I'm not here for no regular-season baseball. I want to go all the way.” And we already know what Bryce [Harper] is about -- reigning MVP. And then the arms they added to that bullpen, and even our lineup, if you go top to bottom, man, that's going to be some serious bats.
Yeah, I have no doubt that they're going to make the postseason this year.
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