Hundreds of people waited in line for hours on Thursday to get the best seats.
Among them were Robert Melreth and his cousin, Chuck, who arrived at Citizens Bank Park around 5:00 a.m., eager to be first in line to buy tickets to a few Phillies home games.
Actually, they showed up Wednesday night but when they realized no one else was coming, they went home and came back.
"We're going to get them back to the World Series and win it all!" Robert said.
They soon were joined by other Phillies fans willing to wait, even on a cold winter morning, for a chance to see the boys of summer play in person.
The Clubhouse Store opened at 7:00 a.m. so fans could check out the latest merchandise and this year's game giveaways, including a Roy Halladay bobblehead, the opening night T-shirt, and a Ryan Howard MVP baseball for kids' opening night on April 17th.
Many found precious few seats left as tickets sold at a record pace. Before today, 2.7 million Phillies tickets had sold so far compared to 2.4 million this time last year.
Some were disappointed, but many others walked away with those hot tickets in hand.
"I got my tickets for the NY Mets in May and again in August," said John Andrews of Georgetown.
"I got the April 17th game for my son's birthday. 13 of us are going," said Jennifer Eels of South Philadelphia.
The Phillies said, within nine hours, more than 45,000 tickets were sold.
To date, more than 2.8 million tickets have been sold for the 2010 season.
