PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Potential free agent Kyle Schwarber is having a season to remember with the Phillies, and fans near and far are hoping the slugger remains in red pinstripes.
So much, that fans from about two hours away spent a rare trip to Citizens Bank Park in early August walking between section 109 on the concourse to about the home plate area, collecting signatures on a clever poster they created with their friends.
Inquirer sportswriter Alex Coffey brought their story to light in a column published Aug. 21.
Rebecca Hummel and McKenzie Buehner of Pottsville, Schuylkill County, are lifelong fans who make their way to South Philadelphia for a game a few times a season. That includes an annual girls' trip with fellow fans Amanda Curran, Amy Doyle and Stef Free. They’re loyal Phillies fans who watch the games together and talk about them in a group chat.
It was Free who came up with the idea to make a Declaration of Independence-style sign about Schwarber so the friends could get on PhanaVision. Buehner and Hummel then executed their friend’s vision, with all of them collaborating on the key phrasing, “We the People of Philadelphia didn’t fight the British just to lose Schwarber!! #Re-Sign Schwarbombs.”
The sign was a hit when they arrived at CBP on Aug. 2. Buehner and Hummel slowly made their way through less than half the stadium and wound up with a poster full of signatures.
They wanted Schwarber to see the sign, but no Game Day employee was able to deliver it. So they dropped the poster in the camera well by the Phillies' dugout and went on their way.
Then, Coffey became aware of the sign, contacted the Pottsville natives, found out where they left it, and 17 days after the game, Phillies All-Star bat boy Adam Crognale found the sign stashed on top of what appeared to be some sort of electrical unit in the camera well. Coffey alerted Schwarber, who told her it gave him goosebumps.
Hummel and Buehner were ecstatic.
Who knows what will happen with Schwarber’s contract situation once the season is over. But one thing that is certain — five friends from multiple counties northwest of Philadelphia went to great, creative lengths to reemphasize what the town thinks of Schwarber.
They knocked their idea out of the ballpark just like Schwarber does at the plate.
🎧To hear more from Hummel and Buehner, take a listen to the latest edition of KYW Newsradio’s Philadelphia Sports Fan of the Week