The Phillie Phanatic might be the best, but he wasn’t the first.
Before this city birthed a giant green dancing blob, it had twins: Big-eyed, doll-faced, wrapped in blue colonial jackets and tricornered hats.
Philadelphia Phil and Phillis.
Introduced along with the opening of Veterans Stadium in 1971, the 15-foot animatronic fiberglass mannequins were intended to connect the team and its fancy new stadium with the city’s revolutionary past.
But somewhere along the way as the team grew from perennial losers into eventual World Series champions, the twins were abandoned and history was made without them.