Clearwater Threshers Permitted to Play in Stadium Not Decimated by Tropical Storm
By Justin Klugh
A simpler time. Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE
It wasn’t too long ago that we were anxiously awaiting our star players’ arriva from the rehabilitating fresh air of Single-A Clearwater, Florida. Why, it was even less long ago that the 2012 season was still young, and the hopes of the Phillies defending their divisional crown weren’t laugably tragic. Back in those days, Bright House Field was a sun drenched baseball wonderland, where players would go in the last phase of their return, and young bucks would frolic with fantasies of getting that call from warm coastal Florida to New Jersey, or central PA.
Then the rains came.
Tropical Storm Debby blew through town, blasting most walkable surfaces with relentless downpour and frightening thunder strikes. Only Justin De Fratus was brave enough to immortalize the destruction with an iconic snapshot. It was the last time anyone would ever hear from him. Until he tweeted again.
He seems fine.
But with Spring Training a mere several weeks away, the Phillies have got to do something to repair the damage to the Threshers’ home field. Surely, this has been robbing you of sleep and sanity. Can you imagine if a collective of actual thresher sharks were wondering the streets without a home? My god, it would be a massacre.
Fortunately, that conjecture is pointless and irrelevant. I mean, they’re sharks… they would just die from not being in the water. These baseball players, though–they need a home field to have an advantage in. And thankfully, the city of Clearwater has approved the funds necessary to put this horrifying chapter of Phillies farm system history behind us. Hopefully, Debby’s ruthlessness doesn’t exceed the $400,000 the team received to finish repairs by December.
And let this be a warning to all those who walk the streets of Clearwater, living a charmed life and not assuming that at any moment a baseball field could be flooded: The rains will come again. And next time, they may not be so gentle.