A Sign Of Spring: Phillies Truck Day
by Mike DeNardo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's a day baseball fans mark on their calendars.
It's the day the Phillies equipment truck leaves Citizens Bank Park, bound for Clearwater, Florida.
It's a sure sign of spring: Crews loading pallets onto a 53-foot truck headed for Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Florida.
"It's still baseball equipment, mostly. Boxes full of T-shirts and socks and jocks and hats," says Phillies equipment manager Dan O'Rourke
O'Rourke runs down the numbers: 2400 baseballs, 1200 bats, 600 pants and hats, and 10,000 Powerade cups. All necessary, for spring training 2017.
"It's special for the fact that it's a new year. We can turn the page on 2016 and look forward to 2017. We get to see the new players and meet the new players," he said.
This is the 17th "truck day" for O'Rourke. He says it's a little different load with a young team.
"The only thing different is that we have a lot of single players, or players with not a lot of children. So we have less bicycles and little tricycles and stuff like that. So we do have less personals with a lot of single players," O'Rourke said.
The truck will be unloaded in Clearwater Friday, with pitchers and catchers reporting on Monday.