Baseball, fans reunite at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown

“It’s beyond words, this is a place that brought a lot of joy to me, and after the year that we’ve had, if I were a poet, I would come up with a beautiful poem for a day like today.”

05/17/2021

Is this heaven? No, it’s Allentown -- to mirror a line from the classic film "Field of Dreams."

But on Saturday, Coca-Cola Park may as well have been heaven for Riley Rich, the young man who drove four hours from Masschusetts with his grandparents to watch the spring training game between Phillies and Yankees prospects at the ballpark.

“You don’t normally get spring training games in Pennsylvania, so this is a unique moment,” Rich said.

In the first live baseball game at the park since the summer of 2019.

“We’re here, we have baseball now,” Rich said.

“He loves baseball, and he does well in school, so this is the best reward,” said his grandmother, Ana Rich.

Fans like Ricky Feliciano were lined up outside the gates before they opened for the game.

“I can’t explain how happy I am,” he said.

With COVID protocols in place, all transactions at the stadium are now contactless. The adjustments are a small price to pay for fans we spoke with, who are so glad to feel a bit of normalcy at the old ball game.

“It’s beyond words, this is a place that brought a lot of joy to me, and after the year that we’ve had, if I were a poet, I would come up with a beautiful poem for a day like today.”

Tickets are on sale now for the next two games. The two squads of prospects from the Phillies and Yankees will meet again on Sunday, April 25 and then Saturday, May 1.

The Lehigh Valley IronPigs' new season starts in May.

Credit: By Julie Parise April 17, 2021 Updated May 4, 2021 www.wfmz.com