Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Boys of summer

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.

9 comments:

Zack and Jenny said...

"Let's Go Bucs!"

petecobb99 said...

few things compare with going to a big league ball game...

amy said...

how fun! who are the bucs?

amy said...

BTW, I was so ticked when the Sox let D. Lowe go. Bad move.

Moody Family said...

I won't leave you hanging even though I don't know who the Bucs are either. GO BUCS!!!!!!

Maggie said...

That stadium is so cool! It looks like you had lots of fun. Did you see how many beers the guy in front of you had? I hope it was a lot, or else that makes the story a whole lot worse.

cee.dub said...

to answer all the questions...bucs is a nickname for pirates. they are also referred to as the buccos.

and the 'Lets Go Bucs' guy didn't have any beer the whole game...i know, its unbelievable.

The Breadmaker said...

I just love it when I see you having fun!!!! The Breadmaker

gardenboy said...

For those of you who don't know I have been a Bucs fan since the late 60's. I am very jealous you got to go.

Of course the Pirates did have at one time Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Jason Kendall, and many other players who went on to be great somewhere else.

Oh well I still cheer for them.

GO BUCS.......