Phillies fans, young and old alike, have been celebrating the Phillie Phanatic since it’s (his?) debut in 1978. They have even held yearly Birthday Parties (except for 1984) for the lovable mascot. Those days are a sight to behold for fans, players, opponents, broadcasters and anyone who just happens to wander through the gates that day.
And more the important thing is, the Phillies win on those Birthday Party days. A lot.
They are 29-11 on games played on the Phanatic’s Birthday celebrations, a .725 winning percentage that would produce 117 wins over a 162-game season.
And there have been some real memorable games along the way – a no-hitter, nine-run innings, three consecutive home runs, walk-off homers and even the first Triple Play in Veterans Stadium history.
Here is the year-by-year list of those games and below that a list of Phillies highlights from each game:
(Runs Scored: 209, Runs Allowed: 147)
1979: Manny Trillo has an RBI single in bottom-of-ninth walk-off victory . . . 1980: Mike Schmidt and Greg Luzinski belt back-to-back solo homers to lead off a six-run second inning . . . 1981: Mike Schmidt hits two homers, including the go-ahead solo shot in the seventh . . . 1982: Bo Diaz’ two homers, two doubles, four RBI go to waste . . . 1983: Larry Milbourne and John Denny knock in second-inning runs . . .
1984: No game, although Phillies do win a Phanatic T-Shirt Giveway Game 9-0 in July (not included in win-loss total) . . . 1985: Larry Andersen throws three innings of one-hit relief . . . 1986: Juan Samuel knocks in four runs and scores three . . . 1987: Lance Parrish hits a grand slam to cap a six-run first inning . . . 1988: Chris James has two hits . . .
1989: Von Hayes had two homers and all three RBI . . . 1990: Ricky Jordan caps a six-run seventh with a grand slam . . . 1991: Randy Ready and Ricky Jordan pull off the first Triple Play in Veterans Stadium history in the top of the first. Charlie Hayes has a three-run home run in a five-run bottom half . . . 1992: Mariano Duncan has a three-run homer . . . 1993: Pete Incaviglia has a homer and three RBI . . .
1994: Tommy Greene knocks in the GW run with a third-inning single . . . 1995: Charlies Hayes’ two-run single caps a four-run first inning . . . 1996: Mike Lieberthal has a solo homer and sacrifice fly . . . 1997: Darren Daulton knocks in the Phils’ only run in 18 innings . . . 1998: Mike Lieberthal homers and knocks in four runs . . .
1999: Doug Glanville (solo homer) knocks in three runs and scores twice . . . 2000: Curt Schilling strikes out eight in six innings . . . 2001: Bobby Abreu has a three-run double in a nine-run second inning . . . 2002: Tomas Perez has three hits and three RBI as Phils overcome a 4-0 first-inning deficit . . . 2003: Ricky Ledee’s first-inning home run holds up as Kevin Millwood tosses a no-hitter. . .
2004: Tomas Perez has a two-run homer . . . 2005: Bobby Abreu hits three-run home run in five-run first inning . . . 2006: Ryan Howard hits a two-run homer . . . 2007: Jamie Moyer takes no-hitter into the seventh inning. Greg Dobbs has a pinch-hit three-run double in the eighth . . . 2008: Ryan Howard has a two-run home run . . .
2009: Raul Ibanez launches a two-run walk-off homer after Phils trail 4-0 in the fifth inning . . . 2010: Cole Hamels had eight strikeouts in eight innings . . . 2011: Placido Polanco (solo homer) had three hits . . . 2012: Ty Wigginton kocked in the ninth-inning run . . . 2013: Erik Kratz’ three-run homer caps a four-run eighth inning . . .
2014: Phillies belt four home runs . . . 2015: Ryan Howard has a first-inning three-run homer . . . 2016: Freddy Galvis delivers a 10th-inning walk-off RBI double off of Jonathan Papelbon . . . 2017: Cesar Hernandez, Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera connect on consecutive home runs in the eight inning . . . 2018: Aaron Altherr has three hits and scored the Phils’ only run.