Posted By Jeff Fletcher on November 2, 2009 12:09 pm

After two days of little but sleeping, eating and going to the ballpark in Philadelphia, I decided I should get out and see something. Turns out that my hotel is just about eight blocks away from the birthplace of our nation. How bout that!

For starters, it’s hard to believe that I voluntarily went to see a historical site (and more than one). Growing up as the son of a history professor, I spent much of my childhood complaining about going to see boring forts and museums and other relics that meant nothing whatsoever to me. So today, when I was looking at all of the written exhibits (well, some of them) on the way to the Liberty Bell, and seeing all these school-kids just running by so they could get it over with, I decided that education is wasted on the young.

Started out my journey at the Liberty Bell. (Fun fact: The word “Liberty” does not refer to our independence from England, as I had always assumed. That word actually came into use with this bell in the early 1800s when it became a symbol for those looking to abolish slavery. See, you are going to learn something by reading my blog today.)

Another fun fact: The thing was broken long before 1776. So they couldn’t ring it when they signed the Declaration of Independence.

Next I walked over to Independence Hall. You needed to get a ticket (a free one) to get in for a tour, and the soonest one they had available was in about two hours, so I didn’t go in. This is the view from the outside.

After that I wandered by a graveyard where Ben Franklin was buried. Believe it or not, I actually  paid two bucks to walk over and see Ben Franklin’s grave. I figured out afterward that I could have actually seen it through the fence from outside for free. Oh well. (Fun fact: Ben Franklin was 80 years old during the Constitutional Convention, mixing it up with all those youngsters. He died a few years later.)

Across the street from ol’ Ben’s grave was the U.S. Mint. Now, that was something I really wanted to see, and it was free. However, they don’t really show you much of anything, and you can’t take pictures in there. It’s a self-guided tour, which means you walk down a corridor reading information on the walls and looking through windows that overlook the area where they make the coins. It was hard to really see much of what was going on, but I could tell there were coins down there. I actually ran into another baseball writer there. I thought I was the only one geeky enough to do stuff like this, but he was there because he was also bored in his hotel.

The final stop in my tour was the Constitution Center, a museum ostensibly dedicated to the creation of the Constitution. They had a nice little presentation in there and then a circular room full of exhibits. It was pretty much the Readers’ Digest version of US government history from 1760 to the present.

I gotta say, it’s pretty incredible when you think about it. In just four months, these guys created a whole new form of government that was not really like anything else that existed. And it still works. Sure, there are some flaws to it (like the stupid electoral college), but mostly it’s pretty good. (Fun fact: The last state to ratify the constitution of the original 13 was Vermont. Took them about four years. What the hell? You suck, Vermont.)

There was a pretty cool room that had life-size statues of all of the delegates at the Consititutional Convention. (Fun fact: Thomas Jefferson was not one of them. He was in Europe at the time.) You could walk through it, like being at a cocktail party. George Washington, who was actually pretty tall, stood over the table in the middle. There was a “Constitution” that guests could sign.

I also learned today that there’s a 27th Amendment, which was passed in 1992, after I graduated from college and thus stopped having to know such things. The 27th Amendment basically says that if Congress gives itself a pay raise, it can’t take affect until after the next election. I never heard about that one. Was it in the papers?

Satisfied that I had learned enough for the day, I then walked back toward my hotel, looking for a cheese steak for lunch. I had one the other day, but was disappointed. This time it was better. Got it at some market under an office building.

After that, I was compelled to get a donut. There is a Dunkin Donuts on every street corner in Phildelphia, and I could no longer resist the urge. I only got one, and I walked it off on my way back to the hotel. (Not really.)

So now it’s back to the subway to the ballpark for what could be the last baseball game of the year. It’s a tough spot for me. If I want to go home tomorrow, the Yankees have to win the World Series tonight. Well, the good news is I don’t have to make that choice, because whether or not the Yankees win really has very little to do with what I want.

Oh, here’s last night’s story on Brad Lidge’s meltdown.