READING, Pa. – Baseballtown is celebrating a championship more than 30 years in the making.<\/p>\n
The Reading Fightin Phils swept the Erie SeaWolves in a best-of-three series, winning 13-4 Tuesday night to capture the Eastern League championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe excitement level was certainly something I will never forget,\u201d said Matt Hoffmaster, the Fightin Phils\u2019 assistant general manager.<\/p>\n
Hoffmaster has been with the organization for 21 years and watched the team put together a run that culminated in its championship victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team was ready. They definitely entered the playoffs as the hottest team in baseball, and their offense was red hot since the middle of July,\u201d Hoffmaster said.<\/p>\n
The celebration extended beyond the players and into the stands, where fans packed the stadium for the championship game.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking to guys after the game, they definitely fed off the energy from the fans. They really were excited for how much we packed the place,\u201d the general manager said.<\/p>\n
The championship trophy is expected to remain in Reading.<\/p>\n
Reading City Council President Donna Reed has been attending games at the stadium all throughout her life.<\/p>\n
Reed said the championship comes during a milestone year for both the country and Berks County. The United States is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year, while Berks County is marking its 275th anniversary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to next season already,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n
For Reed, the significance of the stadium extends beyond baseball.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the local kids who then can look at the R-Phils and the Philadelphia Phils, Major League Baseball, they can celebrate in their own ways,\u201d Reed said. \u201cIt\u2019s generationally wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reading Mayor Eddie Moran told 69 News the city will light City Hall in red this week to mark the championship. He also added that a celebration is being planned for the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
For fans who want to celebrate now, the Fightin Phils have posted championship merchandise online for fans to preorder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – Baseballtown is celebrating a championship more than 30 years in the making. The Reading Fightin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[214,5114,128,130,129,44158,213],"class_list":["post-293273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-instagram","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-fightin-phils","tag-reading-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}