Philadelphia sports mascots become first to cross reopened bridge in city

Recently, the city of Philadelphia suffered a terrifying infrastructure tragedy. A bridge on I-95 in Philadelphia collapsed. Now, less than two weeks after that, the bridge was able to re-open.

Philadelphia, a city that has long since embraced its sports and its teams’ mascots, celebrated the bridge opening in a similar way. The city had sports mascots become the first to cross the re-opened bridge.

Watch the Philadelphia mascots cross the I-95 bridge, here:

The Philly mascots were the first to cross the reopened I-95 bridge.

What a city.pic.twitter.com/l5xzzEgSvg

— Barstool Philly (@BarstoolPhilly) June 23, 2023

Mascots from the 76ers, Union, Flyers, Phillies, and Eagles were all there to celebrate the bridge’s re-opening. On the top of a firetruck, they clapped and waved at onlookers.

In many ways, this is an incredibly Philadelphia story from top to bottom. The city rebounded quickly from a tragedy, finding a way to repair a collapsed bridge in just 12 days. It decided to celebrate that resiliency by sending out the Phillie Phanatic and Gritty, a mascot straight out of a nightmare, to celebrate the accomplishment.

Maybe the only real surprise was that locals weren’t caught climbing street poles to celebrate the bridge.

The Philadelphia Phillies are set to play in London

Over the weekend, the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals brought their rivalry to London to play a brief series. MLB, happy with how that series went in promoting the game across the pond, has already planned a series of games in London for the 2024 season.

In that series, the Philadelphia Phillies and rival New York Mets are going to take their talents to England. The series will take place in London Stadium next June 8-9, 2024. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred explained why these two teams make sense for the series.

“We think our game is at its best when we have traditional rivals playing and we want to show the fans here in London the very best form of baseball,” Manfred said.

Unfortunately, both New York and Philadelphia have struggled this season. That’s despite having two of the highest payrolls in all of baseball. The Phillies came out of the Wild Card to win the NL Pennant in 2022. All the Phillies did was add Trea Turner on an 11-year $300 million deal. Meanwhile, the Mets brought in players like Justin Verlander.

At 40-37, the Phillies are in third place in the NL East. The Mets, meanwhile, are in fourth place at just 35-42.

“We want to show our best when we come someplace special like London,” Manfred said. “We do regard London to be special – of strategic importance to us.”