Pittsburgh

We got to Pittsburgh around 1 pm and parked not far from the ballpark. Seeing as we had 5 hours to kill we walked across the Roberto Clement bridge an d into downtown Pittsburg. There wasn’t much to do in downtown except walk around, but we were able to find a tourist destination across the river with a HardRock Café and Joe’s Crab Shack.

Come close to game time we walked back across to the North Shore and walked around PNC Park and the river shore. The park was constructed using Casota Limestone from Minnesota. Once we got into the park I went and sat out in left field for the Nationals batting practice. The left field bleachers in Pittsburgh are closer to the field, lower to the ground, and have a lower fence than the Metrodome, yet they aren’t required to rope off the first two rows like the Twins are which makes no sense. After BP I walked around the interior of the stadium to our seats down the 3B line. We happened to have seats 50 rows up for the game, but it really didn’t matter because there are no bad seats at PNC.

The game we saw happened to between the pitiful Washington Nationals and the longtime cellar-dwellers Pirates. There really are no marquee players on either squad, so had to be satisfied with the Ian Snell vs Ryan Zimmerman matchip. It actually turned out to be an entertaining game as the Pirates won in walk-off fashion. During the game, I noticed that the Pirates have a much cooler team song than I have ever heard.

The best part about PNC Park is clearly the view of the city skyline as the park is right on the river just across from Downtown. Some of the negatives of the park include the fact that the concourses were actually pretty small for a new ballpark, with another being the food selection. There wasn’t much for unique selection, and the traditional stuff wasn’t all that great. The hot dog I had was the same brand as in Cleveland, but it was undercooked, or boiled. It was however cheaper.

Part way through the game, we decided to move into the upper deck to get an even better view of the city, and a better view for the fireworks after the game. After the win, the fireworks show was pretty good. As part of the show, there were fireworks shot over the river from a barge, as well as from one of the skyscrapers in downtown.

Getting out of the ballpark was a breeze, but we had trouble getting back on the expressway. Only cost us a half hour, but frustrating nonetheless.

Onto Baltimore…