Took a little day trip to Pittsburgh yesterday to take in my first Pirates game at beautiful PNC Park. And for my first game of the season, it was really exciting. Here is a pic of our crew before the game started.
PNC Park is a really cool stadium. You'll often hear people say that they like a place because "there are no bad seats." At PNC this really is the case. Officially, the park can hold 38,496; however, it seems much smaller than this. I think it is because there are not many seats in the outfield. As the picture below shows, it really opens up nicely for views of downtown Pittsburgh.
And it is pretty cheap to catch a game. For $26, we sat in the 4th row of an outfield box. I was - as I am at every ball game I go to - certain I would catch a foul ball, but, as always, it didn't happen. Here is one of the view from our seats. Like I said, very good view from here.
And once night falls, the views are even better, as the following pic demonstrates.
The game itself was really exciting. Derek Lowe took a no hitter into the 7th inning before almost giving back all 5 runs the Dodgers had built up for him. After the first 5 innings I was starting to get pretty convinced that he might do it because he was rolling through the Pirates line-up. The defense behind him was both really good and really bad at times. Rafael Furcal made an incredible play on a ground ball up the middle to keep the no hitter alive in the 6th, I believe. The third baseman, however, was of no help; as he had 2 throwing errors in the same inning. The Pirates made a furious comeback, but fell a little short. They had men on the corners with nobody out in the 9th down by 2 runs, but could only get one across.
The only down side of the game was this guy:
A few times early on in the game he tried to get the "Lets Go Bucs" chant going, but nobody around us was all that interested. So it seemed he had let it go. But once the Pirates started their rally, he was back at it with a furry. I would say that for every Buccos batter from the 7th inning on he would yell: Lets....Go...Bucs. And I mean every single batter, and he would pump up the volume a little bit right before each pitch. But it was a little slower than it should be. When they tried to get the "Lets Go Bucs" chant going using the sound system, he couldn't quite keep up with everyone else. His wife tried to get him to stop a few times, but he wasn't having any of that. His voice is ingrained in my mind and I'm not sure it's going anywhere anytime soon.
But even with "Lets Go Bucs" guy trying to make me go crazy, it was a really good time and I can't wait to go again.
The State College Spikes - our fine Pirates A affiliate and member of the New York Penn League - had probably the greatest promotion ever at last Saturday's home game. To celebrate our new skipper - and former Pirates outfielder - Turner Ward, the Spikes brass decided that a bobblehead was in order. I know, this itself is great news. However, the Spikes decided to kick raise the ante on bobblehead promotions everywhere by designing a bobblehead to commemorate Turner's legendary catch at Three Rivers Stadium. 
