How rally towels became a Phillies playoff staple and led to madness at Citizens Bank Park

The Phillies were preparing for another September surge when a group of board members gathered in the Citizens Bank Park conference room. They had important things to discuss.

“When will you bring the rally towels?” said Pat Gillick, the team’s general manager at the time.

The team first handed out towels in 2001, but they didn’t become popular until 2007, when the Phillies were chasing the Mets for an unlikely major league title and fans were whipping and waving the towels for six straight games.

A year later, Gillick – the Hall of Fame baseball executive and architect of three World Series champions – had to meet with them again. Gillick signed Jayson Werth, traded Brad Lidge and brought home Jamie Moyer. He also saw the value of rally towels.

“Being a general manager is a lot of things,” said Dave Buck, the team’s executive vice president. “It’s also about the pulse of the city. That’s why Pat is in the Hall of Fame. He cared about the rally towels for what they do to the fans, for completely firing up the crowd. It’s phenomenal.”

Rally towels have become an integral part of Citizens Bank Park, appearing as the weather worsens and the pressure increases. A piece of cloth that could dry dishes hangs over a fan’s head like a helicopter propeller while the crowd roars with the roar of a fighter jet.

It turned out to be the perfect addition for October, and it’s hard to imagine they ever played postseason baseball in Philadelphia without it. The Phillies didn’t invent rally towels, and they’re not the only team giving them out. But there’s something different about the way they wave them in South Philly.

“They know this is their role. That’s how they participate,” said Mark DiNardo, director of the broadcast and video services team. “Other than picking up the bat and going into the box or coming out of the pen and throwing an inning, that’s how they get their job done when they come to games.

“I’ve been to a lot of stadiums in the postseason and no one did it as well as our guys. They do it as if it was their job and as if their lives depended on it. Other people just don’t attack with the same passion. I’ve seen a lot of limp wrists. Many times I have seen you wave goodbye to someone going on a cruise. It’s pathetic. But our fans do it like it’s their job.

Red towels for Red October

The era that sparked Philadelphia’s interest in rally towels was reminiscent of ancient history when, in 2016, Major League Baseball adopted a rule banning the use of white and light-colored towels, believing they made it difficult for a player to track baseballs.

Six years later, the Phillies finally returned in October and needed rally towels. But they couldn’t be white anymore. Powder blue wasn’t allowed and navy blue looked too much like the Dodgers. The year before, they had handed out red towels on opening day, but didn’t like the look of them because so many fans were wearing red, so the towels didn’t visually resonate like the old white towels did.

“They didn’t pop,” said Scott Brandreth, the team’s director of promotions.

But the Phillies didn’t have much of a choice. The new towels had to be red. This time they got it right.

“It’s one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen in my life,” said managing partner John Middleton. “People wear red. They wave towels. This is crazy. It really is.

“I was at a bullfight in Spain. There’s nothing like our fans. I’ve been to soccer matches in Europe. But I think Red October might just be the best sporting event you can watch live, for any sport, for any team. It’s spectacular.”

The Phillies handed out towels for September games at Veterans Stadium in the early 2000s, following a trend seen in professional sports. It seemed like every team was handing out rally towels. But they disappeared. Some bands handed out inflatable sound-generating devices called Thunderstix that fans could bang against each other. The Rays handed out cowbells in 2008 when they lost to the Phillies in the World Series. The Phillies didn’t need noisemakers. They clung to towels, which fans held like batons, conducting a deafening symphony.

“When you look at 45,000 people wearing red, waving rally towels and screaming, the stadium is literally moving,” Middleton said. “That tells you this is why it’s important to sign players like Bryce Harper. That’s why you’re paying Zack Wheeler over $40 million a year for three years. It’s because that’s how fans react. It’s important to them. They appreciate it. They recognize it. Love it. I have other owners who look at me and say, “We don’t understand this.”

“That’s why I keep telling everyone that this may be a private company that we own, but it is not a private organization. It’s a very public organization. It’s management. We have a duty. We are responsible to the fans and the city. If you don’t approach it this way, I don’t think you should be an owner.

» READ MORE: “It’s John Middleton!” Why the owner of the Phillies is always hanging around Citizens Bank Park.

It’s different in Philadelphia

The Phillies sold out 41 postseason games at Citizens Bank Park, and no National League team has had a better postseason home winning percentage (.683) since 2007, when the Phillies hosted their first playoff game in their new park. Since returning to the postseason in 2022, the Phillies have won 12 of 16 home games with red towels.

Yes, the Phils had no success in the 2022 World Series and were eliminated at home in the National League Championship Series last October. But the scene in Philadelphia – which Nick Castellanos once called “the jungle” and compared to an English soccer match – often feels like an advantage. You get the impression that a baseball match is taking place against the backdrop of a rock concert. The energy level is as crazy as whipping rally towels.

“It’s Philadelphia. It’s different,” Buck said. “I’ve been in league meetings where other teams have said, ‘Oh, we don’t like rally towels because you can’t clap.’ We say, “Man, come to Philly.” There’s no way to explain it other than it’s Philadelphia and it’s different.

During a 2008 meeting, Buck and the other executives told Gillick that the towels would be back soon. The Phils came close in a four-game series against Milwaukee, which earned them a wild-card spot. If the Phillies could get past the Brewers on Sunday, the towels would be in order.

“It just took off and told its own story. That’s pretty cool,” Brandreth said. “People started to expect it at the gates. Sometimes I was there when people came and they were waiting to grab it. They were ready to go.”

The Phillies tied the Brewers on Sunday afternoon, then played them again three hours later in the second game of the day-night doubleheader. Brandreth called the team’s giveaway staff – a group of volunteers who hand out promotions at the gate – and rushed them onto the field. They had boxes of towels waiting to be opened.

Fans didn’t have towels for daily games, but they waved them on the night when the Phillies ended their four-game series. Six weeks later, the Phillies were world champions, and the rally towels were flying throughout October. Without them, there would be no postseason baseball in South Philly.

“It’s a really special thing,” Middleton said. “It excites me, not that I generally need more excitement to excite me. I am grateful. I’m really grateful that the fans are reacting this way.

“My God, can you imagine 19,000 or 16,000 people in the stands? I mean, it’s almost a bad spring training game. I don’t know what I would do if I had to work in a market like this. I probably wouldn’t own a team. That’s for damn sure.