Don't expect to see any bushy-tailed rodents running across home plate in the City of Brotherly Love.
Busch Stadium was invaded this week by a squirrel that ran onto the field in the last two games of the NLDS in St. Louis. The animal turned into a Gateway icon, dubbed the "rally squirrel."
But the man who runs Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia says that won't happen in Friday night's series-deciding Game 5.
"We have traps set up all over the ballpark," Mike DiMuzio, Citizens Bank Park director of operations tells KYW Newsradio.
Humane traps have been set up all over the ballpark to strike out the furry rodent population. "It's amazing where you'll find squirrels," DiMuzio said. "They'll be up near the light towers. You'll see them up there. And you'll see them down on the service level, and down on the field as well."
Captured critters from the ballpark are released into Philadelphia parkland, where they are free to call sports radio talk shows and complain about the Eagles' offensive line.
As for the game itself, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa called it a "dream matchup", as Chris Carpenter goes for the Redbirds against 19-game winner Roy Halladay of the Phillies.
Should the Cardinals reach the NLCS, don't expect the rally squirrel to return. Bill Findley, head groundskeeper at Busch Stadium, tells the Post-Dispatch his crew has set up seven humane traps around the ballpark to catch the "two or three" different furry rodents that have made the Missouri ballpark their family home.
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