Veteran Stadiums' Greatest Moments
1. The most notable event in the Vet's history was Game 6 of the 1980 World Series.
In that game, the Phillies clinched their lone world championship with a victory over the
Kansas City Royals in front of 65,838 fans.
2. The Phillies also went on to clinch the National League Championship Series at The
Vet twice; the first was in 1983 over local legend Tommy Lasorda and his Los Angeles
Dodgers. The second came in the 1993 National League Championship Series over
future divisional rivals the Atlanta Braves, which was the last LCS with a two-division
format.
3. The Phillies hurled two no-hit games, the only nine-inning no-nos in stadium history
and both coming against the San Francisco Giants: the first by Terry Mulholland on
August 15, 1990, in a 6-0 Phillies win[1], the other on April 27, 2003, by Kevin Millwood
in a 1-0 win[2], upstaging the Phillie Phanatic's Birthday promotion that afternoon. A
five-inning no-hitter curtailed by rain in 1988 by Montréal Expos pitcher Pascual Pérez
was not recognized after the 1990 season due to rules changes requiring that
no-hitters had to be at least nine innings and a complete game. These are now listed
as a separate section in the MLB record book.
4. The most notable football game ever played at The Vet took place less than three
months after the Phillies' title, and was the Eagles' 20-7 victory over the hated Dallas
Cowboys in the 1980 NFC Championship Game, actually played on January 11, 1981
in front of 71,250 fans. This game has sometimes been referred to as the "Blue Jersey
Bowl" because the Eagles chose to wear their white jerseys in the game. That forced
the Cowboys to don their blue jerseys, which they always seek to evade wearing.
5. The final football game played at the Vet was the Eagles' loss to the Tampa Bay
Buccaneers in the NFC Championship game on January 19, 2003, as the team moved
into Lincoln Financial Field the following autumn.
6. In 1971, Willie Stargell hit the longest home run in stadium history. The spot where
the ball landed was marked with a yellow star with a black "S" inside a white circle until
Stargell's 2001 death, when the white circle was painted black. The star remained until
the stadium's 2004 demolition.
7. During the 1998 Army-Navy game, a serious accident occurred when a support rail
collapsed and eight West Point cadets were injured. That led to the call for new
stadiums for football and baseball for the main stadium tenants.
8. Another game that is best remembered by Eagles fans was known as "The Body
Bag Game", which took place on November 12, 1990, when the Washington Redskins
visited The Vet for a Monday Night Football game. The Eagles' head coach at that
time, Buddy Ryan, was quoted as saying that the Redskins' offense would "have to be
carted off in body bags". The Eagles number-one defense scored three touchdowns in
a 28-14 win and knocked nine Redskin players out of the game, including both of their
quarterbacks. The Redskins were forced to finish the game using running
back/returner Brian Mitchell (who would become an Eagles player over a decade later)
at quarterback.
