Lehigh Valley Native Matt McBride On Returning Home to Play at Citizens Bank Park

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Lehigh Valley Native Matt McBride was called up to the big leagues for the first time by the Colorado Rockies a few weeks ago on August 4th, becoming just the third Lehigh Mountain Hawk to play in the Majors. McBride grew up a Phillies fan and returned to Philadelphia over the weekend to play his first MLB game at Citizens Bank Park.

We had the chance to talk to him this afternoon about what the experience of returning home to play in front of so many friends and family was like and what he thought of Cole Hamels' stuff.

McBride told us that he went to a decent amount of Phillies games at Veterans Stadium growing up, a big fan of the entire 1993 team led by Dutch Daulton, but he actually spent quite a bit more time at Reading Phillies games as a youngster because they were much closer to his childhood home.

McBride had a rough go of it at the dish when he got the start at first base in the first game of yesterday's double header. Lots of rookies will tend to have that problem when facing Cole Hamels.

"He's got a very good change up," McBride said of Hamels. "He was using both sides of the plate with his cutter. I was trying to stay balanced."

The biggest difference for McBride playing in Philly was all the familiar faces who hadn't had a chance to see him play in the bigs yet. He said he was super excited to get called up again in time to play at CBP.

"It was a lot of fun getting to play at Citizens Bank Park. Most of the games I've played with the Rockies this season have been on the West Coast, so friends and family never really got a chance to see me play out there. It was nice being able to play close to home where all my friends and family could come out and watch the games."

So with so many friends and family in town for the game, McBride must have had to leave a ton of tickets at will-call?

"Not as many as I thought, actually," he said. "A ton of people bought their own tickets when they found out I was coming back to play in Philadelphia."

Tickets are a little easier to come by this season at Citizens Bank Park.

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