PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Phillies don’t make the World Series often. So, a six-hour time difference, 4,000 miles, the Atlantic Ocean and multiple flights could not keep this baseball family from attending a rare Fall Classic game at Pattison Avenue and Citizens Bank Way.
This is the story of Wendy Rose and Ethan Green — a mother and her 22-year-old son.
Rose, of Northern Liberties, grew up in this area, but not as a big sports fan.
Green, a rising college senior majoring in sports management and marketing, is a huge sports fan — notably, baseball. His mom calls him a student of the game who breathes sports. Rose developed a love of baseball through her son.
“I always thought it was cute that they had such a strong love for baseball knowing that my wife really was not into sports in the beginning,” said Rose’s husband and Green’s dad, Dennis Green.
Their mother-son bond has turned into a tour of America.
“He was such a big baseball fan as a kid — playing, watching, gaming — pretty much 24/7 baseball,” Rose said. “And we decided early on, I think 2009, to start to follow the Phillies a bit at other stadiums.”
There are 30 Major League Baseball teams, each with their own stadium. Aside from the Texas Rangers’ new ballpark, Globe Life Field, Rose and Ethan have been to every active ballpark in the league. They don’t always see the Phillies play at these out-of-town games, but over 12 trips and 13 years, they have seen a ballgame in just about all of them.
“I enjoyed watching the camaraderie between the two of them,” said Dennis, who likes sports, but not baseball, and tags along on these fun trips to experience the various cities. “As [Ethan] approached [high school] graduation, getting ready to go to college, [Wendy] had mentioned to him, ‘Oh, you know, one of these days, I’ll take you to a World Series game.’”
Ethan graduated high school in 2020 during the early months of the pandemic, which is where this promise began. It was difficult to celebrate properly because of the restrictions in place. So, the promise was a gift from Rose – and one that did not have to be a Fall Classic game that included the Phillies. Again, this team doesn’t make it that far often.
Fast forward to 2022. The Phillies ended a decade-long postseason drought. They had an improbable ninth-inning rally in St. Louis. Rhys Hoskins slammed his bat after a home run. J.T. Realmuto hit an inside-the-park home run. Kyle Schwarber sent “Schwarbombs” to the moon. Nick Castellanos made game-saving catches. And Bryce Harper created bedlam throughout the Delaware Valley.
Ethan was attending college in Providence, Rhode Island. Rose had a great opportunity to fulfill the promise she made to her son, and do so with his hometown team.
There was one slight problem: Rose was living in Prague.
She always had aspirations to live abroad, and she was able to work remotely for a number of months in Europe. It just happened to coincide with the 2022 World Series. But nothing would keep her away from the Fall Classic.
“She started talking about coming home for the World Series and I’m like, ‘Yeah right. Get out of here. You know how much that’s going to cost?’ And low and behold, next thing I know, who’s walking through the door? It’s my beloved wife,” said Dennis.
Rose flew home from Prague and flew Ethan in from Rhode Island to go to Game 4 of the World Series, originally scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 1. Dennis knew this idea was out there, but he didn’t think it would actually happen.
“My wife’s an organizer, so she will make things happen,” he said.
Rose said it was too good to pass up. “The closer they were getting, the more we were joking about it until it sort of ended up being like, is this it? Is this the reality? How could we not go.”
Everything was set up. Then, Mother Nature butt in.
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Game 3 of the series, Halloween night, was postponed because of the weather, which pushed the rest of the Philadelphia games back by a day. While Rose was surely not the only person who traveled from afar to attend these games, she had a strict travel schedule and the postponement meant her flight back to Prague was now the same day as their game.
This new hurdle didn’t stop her, though.
“I was like, ‘You are out of your mind,’” Dennis remembered.
Rose went on the secondary market to buy tickets for Game 3, and simultaneously listed her original Game 4 tickets for sale, hoping they would resell. And they did – during Game 3.
“The whole thing was just a comedy of errors, but it worked,” she said.
With the series tied at 1, the Phillies pummeled Lance McCullers Jr. and the Astros. Harper started a home run barrage, the first of five on the night for the Phils, who won the game 7-0 to take a 2-1 series lead. Yes... we know the Phils lost the next three games to eventually lose the series to Houston 4-2, but that didn’t take away the magic of the Game 3 moment.
“Oh my God, it was one of the best evenings of our lives,” said Rose.
They like to call it “The Home Derby Game.” Rose considered it the best of the series; Dennis called it once in a lifetime; Ethan was extremely grateful.
“I truly think my mom was as excited as I was that the Phillies made it all the way to the end,” Ethan said via email. “Once she started talking about flying in, it just took on a life of its own. It turned out to be such an amazing night!”
This was quite the experience for a pair of baseball fans who have taken their fandom throughout the country. And Dennis hopes it’s just the beginning for his son as he embarks on what will hopefully be a post-college career in the industry, after he took an interest in something and then made a fan out of his mom.
“I hope that [Ethan] has the opportunity to be part of a Philadelphia sports team [in his career after college],” Dennis said, “because I know that he really enjoys being a Philadelphia fan. … I really would love for him to be a part of a Philadelphia sports team or a baseball team so that he can continue his passion for the sport.”
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