Phillies host lunchtime rally in Center City

About 200 people with Phillies fever - and all sorts of team apparel - turned out today for a noon pep rally near City Hall.

The main whoop-de-doo was a ribbon-cutting followed by a crimson Phanatic - his getup for the team's Paint the Town Red Week - reacting to the unveiling of a statue of himself.

He kissed it, then hunched over and pretended to sob.

Repeatedly.

"Makes you a little weepy, a little emotional," said broadcaster Scott Franzke.

The fanfare was minimal outside the Citizens Bank at 15th and Market Streets. Although no one sang "High Hopes," super-sized fan Monty G. started shaking his shaggy red wig as he played a tune on his boombox.

The wig had a white "P" and his big white shirt asked, "Are you ready 4 some baseball?"

Soon fans spontaneously started to cheer - "Let's go, Phillies. Let's go!" - as they continued accepting small posters and pocket schedules being given away.

Kami, McKenzie and Katelyn passed around their autographed ballgirl cards.

Cody Gilbert, 11, came all the way from Levittown.

"His pop and me brought him on down," said Cody's grandmother, Mary Borneo, adding, "He's not playing hooky. He's on spring break."

He was in the event's one long line - waiting to add a rally towel to his "tons" of Phillies gear - mostly shirts, hats and other apparel, he said.

He's "pretty confident" the team will win another World Series, he said.

This Phanatic statue was "designed to celebrated the history of the Phillies," Franzke explained before the unveiling.

Twenty of the 6-foot-tall fiberglass figures, handpainted by 20 artists, were being installed around the city this week.

Nearby in Love Park, Elliot Thomas, 6, of Roxborough posed with a new yellow-shirted, reddish-brown mascot copy.

Other locations include Rittenhouse Square, the Comcast Center, 30th Street Station, the Franklin Institute, the Central Branch of the Free Library, Citizens Bank Park, the Afro-American Museum, the Please Touch Museu, Love Park and City Hill. The team-and-tourism promotion project will continue through most of the summer, before the artyphacts are auctioned off for charity.

The team will be back in town Friday and Saturday for exhibition games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The first regular-season game is Monday in Washington, D.C., with President Obama throwing out the first pitch.

The home opener is at 3:05 p.m. Monday, April 12.

For more information, go to www.phillies.com.