PHILADELPHIA -- Nick Kurtz has accomplished some remarkable feats in his young career, from becoming the first rookie with a four-homer game to tying Barry Bonds for the second-longest walk streak dating back over a century.
If you ask him, though, there might not be a moment the Athletics first baseman has taken more pride in as a big leaguer than when he emerged from the visitors’ dugout and stepped onto the field at Citizens Bank Park for batting practice on Tuesday night while his father, Jeff -- decked out in a home white No. 16 Kurtz jersey and yellow “Big Amish” T-shirt underneath -- looked on from behind home plate.
“It’s almost cooler for me than the actual stuff I’ve done on the field,” Kurtz said prior to his team's 9-1 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday. “Sharing this moment with [my family] is really awesome. They took me to games, now they’re coming to watch me play here. It’s kind of crazy.”
Kurtz, who extended his MLB-best on-base streak to 29 games with a ninth-inning single on Tuesday, was born and raised in Lancaster. His second home, however, was about 73 miles east at Citizens Bank Park, where his family owned season tickets for years just behind the Phillies' dugout in section 116.
The memories in this ballpark are endless for the Kurtz family. One that immediately jumped to mind for both Nick and Jeff was Game 2 of the 2008 NLDS against the Brewers. Shane Victorino slugged a second-inning grand slam off Milwaukee ace CC Sabathia to send the Phillies to a 5-2 victory in a postseason that ended in a World Series championship for Philadelphia.
“We sat up high,” said Jeff, pointing up to the top level of the ballpark in right field. “Brett Myers pitched for the Phillies and they won that game.”
Sitting with his dad and two older brothers, Nick was only 5 years old at the time, but he vividly remembers that day.
“That’s definitely my earliest memory going to Phillies games,” Nick said. “The whole crowd is chanting, ‘CC sucks!’ and my dad is getting mad at me for saying it because I’m too young. Then the grand slam. Pretty awesome.”
The Kurtz family’s Phillie fandom runs deep, passed down from Nick’s grandfather, who took Jeff to Phillies games at old Veterans Stadium as a kid.
Born a die-hard, Nick, his parents (Jeff and Marie), two brothers (Brandon and Logan) and sister (Grace) took plenty of road trips to watch the Phillies elsewhere. There was no shortage of options, with Washington, D.C., Baltimore and even the two New York stadiums all drivable from Lancaster or easily accessible by train.
“It was cheaper to go see Philly play in Washington than it was to come see them play here,” Jeff said. “When the kids were little, that’s just what we did. Take the whole family and load them up.”
Still, there was no place like Citizens Bank Park for Nick. He regularly showed up hours before first pitch to watch batting practice and idolized players such as Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Hunter Pence, after whom the Kurtzes eventually named their three family dogs.
The Kurtz family later welcomed a cat and named it Harper after Nick’s favorite Phillie growing up, Bryce Harper. During the first inning on Tuesday, Harper reached first base on a single and chatted up Kurtz, whom he first met last year in West Sacramento when the Phillies played a road series against the A’s.
“It’s cool just to play the Phillies,” Kurtz said. “But to talk to Harper, Trea Turner, [Kyle] Schwarber, all these guys I’ve been watching my whole life, that was really cool. Bryce signed a bat for me. I’ll have that hanging in the house for the rest of my life.”
There will be no cooler moment for Jeff and the group of around 40 friends and family members expected to be in attendance throughout the week to watch Nick play his first series back home.
“I came here to a work event in one of these suites up here last year,” said Jeff. “I was like, ‘I can’t believe that next year I’ll get to see him play here.’ It’s one of those things you kind of reflect on. This is a team we rooted for forever. We sat in so many sections and we had season tickets for so many years. … There’s really no words.”