54 years old, born in NYC, raised in Mercer County, N.J. where my older brother and I gravitated to the Phillies in the late-'70's. Saw my first Phillies game at the Vet in 1977. Usually went to one game per year through the '80's until the late '80's when I started going to multiple games per season. Went to college in Philadelphia from 1987-91 (SJU, see my avatar), lived in the USVI for a year, back in NJ for four years before moving to Philadelphia (city resident) in 1996. Partial season ticket holder since 2002.
Worked as a computer lab monitor in law school which gave me a good bit of technical know-how and savvy though I am no IT expert.
I appreciate the intelligent conversation here though I think there's a bit of groupthink on certain subjects which makes free thinking difficult. As for the December 2006 schism, I would agree that most of the younger people left and, fortunately, they took the bro culture with them. A lot of their so called "just ballbusting" was really cyberbullying. I've been a member of other sports boards and it does seem that with most, due to the male-dominance of sports fan communities, it's generally a matter of time before the bro culture takes root.
Interesting how someone mentioned the old Hank Davis listserv. If listservs were so '90's, it could well be that message boards were so '00's. Social media media became king in the '10's and remains king. I donāt know if social media is the end of history or if The Next Thing will ultimately come along. Even with social media, there is a great deal of age segregation. Xers, Boomers and tech-savvy Silents are on Facebook, Instagram is the Millenials' domain while Gen Z is increasingly becoming the Tik Tok generation.
I never laid eyes on Connie Mack Stadium even though its burned out shell remained standing until I was seven years old. Question: Can anyone here claim to have seen a game there when it was still called Shibe Park?
