After four decades with Phils, she hangs on tightly to game's rituals

It was two hours before first pitch and Jane Sorendino, 90, was busy in her Frankford kitchen getting set for the ball game - getting set for her 40th season at the ballpark.

"I'm awfully excited," she said, her Phillies backpack stocked with grapes and crackers, her season ticket tucked inside her Phillies hand purse, her Phillies jacket draped across her wheelchair, which she needs sometimes now to get around, and, which, of course, is Phillies maroon.

"Let's go," she said. "I'm looking forward to my first hot dog."

Growing up, the 11th of 13 Sorendino children, Jane had no use for baseball.

Westerns captured her imagination, not the sports pages.

As WWII raged, an Army nurse came to speak at St. Hubert's High. After graduation, Jane joined the Army Nurse Corps.

In Korea, she treated wounded soldiers seven miles from the front.

In the officers' club, she rooted for the Yankees, who were always on.

"I didn't have any idea of being a fan of anything."

In 20 years of service, she saw Italy and France.

She never married.

"I was a career woman."

In 1972, Lt. Col. Sorendino retired and came home to Frankford.

Lucy up the block liked to go to ball games and had an extra ticket. Jane had been taking care of ailing relatives. She was looking for some fun.

On that afternoon in 1976, Jane Sorendino of Leiper Street, who had been halfway around the world but never to a baseball game, stepped out of a Veterans Stadium tunnel and saw the prettiest sight she had ever seen: a baseball diamond. Even in the artificial sheen of the AstroTurf, Jane saw beauty.

"I never expected to see anything that beautiful. I thought if it impressed me that much, I had to keep going."

And she did. Section 324, Row 5, Seat 5. Behind home plate.

"The best seat in the world."

She loved Tug McGraw ("after watching him, I decided I'm going to become devoted"), turned up her nose at Mike Schmidt ("he was too aloof"), and feels Pete Rose got a bum deal ("he should be up there in the hall with the rest of them").

Her favorite all-time player is Pat Burrell ("even though he was a handsome Apollo, he still was friendly with the fans").

When Citizens Bank Park opened, she came with it.

Section 122, Row 29, Seat 2. Behind home plate. "The best seat in the world."

She drives to games in her 2013 Cadillac. Her grandnephew Tyler Dimter, 20, comes most nights. It's Tyler's job to get the hot dogs and to return them if they are too cold.

On Friday, as it always does, it took them a while to get to their seats, what with all the staff who wanted to say hello.

"When I see you, I have to run over and give a hug," said hostess Lynne Bryson.

Kathy Killian, Phillies VP of customer services, teared up when she talked about Jane.

"She spreads the Phillies joy around by just naturally being Jane," she said.

As a surprise, in December, the team sent the Phanatic to Jane's 90th birthday party.

"I'm a VIP," Jane said. "They think it's really great that I go to these ball games."

She has rituals - and rules.

Each season on fireworks night, she buys tickets for her many grandnieces and grandnephews.

When the national anthem is sung, she always gives a crisp salute.

She doesn't ever boo a Phillie.

"These people are trying very hard to hit that darn ball," she said.

During games, she prays to St. Anthony, patron saint of lost things, hoping he may find her Phillies a hit or a strikeout pitch.

(As any true Phillies fan would, she rolled her eyes when I told her I grew up in New York and root for the Mets. "No reflection on you, but they're all drunks," she said of Mets fans.)

All the empty seats the last few seasons have made her sad.

"I watch them whether they are winning or losing," she said. "They are out there trying to make good - and I'm with them."

On Friday, after eating her first hot dog (it was hot), Jane smiled and clapped along for the first pitch, a called strike. And when the rain came a few innings later, she headed for cover, and waited patiently for it to pass so she could catch a few more innings at the ballpark.

mnewall@phillynews.com 215-854-2759