Game 8: Pittsburgh Pirates

We didn’t arrive to our Motel 6 until about midnight or 1 after an exhausting day of driving and baseball on my birthday (which was wonderful by the way – thank you so much Katie!!).  But since we were so close, we were able to sleep in before heading to the Pirates stadium.  The book helped us, yet again, as we found $5 parking across the Clemente Bridge from PNC Park.  Despite the Pirates being 1 game out of first place behind the Cincinnati Reds on a Sunday day game, we knew the game would not be sold out.  After a good start in the early 90s, to say the Pirates have struggled would be an understatement.  They have 19 consecutive losing seasons to date, the longest in North American professional sports history.  We quickly found a scalper and paid $10 a ticket for the 3rd deck.  We only made it to the top deck for the last 2 innings of the game, however, and sat our first 3 innings on the 3rd base line, and, after frying in the 80 degree sun, moved to the 1st base line in the shade for the middle 3 innings.

View of PNC Park from our parking structure across the Clemente Bridge

The park was really nice – much like Kansas City, the outfield was very wide open and provided a beautiful view of the Pittsburg skyline.  Speaking of the city of steal, PNC Park was opened in 2001 and the designers sought to infuse the city’s rich history with steal architecture throughout the park.  We were delighted to see little Disney-like “Pirates of the Caribbean” memorabilia about the park.  In fact, the park designers sought to make every aspect designed around the game itself.  There is little foul territory, allowing fans to feel that much closer to the action.  The seats are all angled toward home plate.  And to top it all off, the press box is above the highest seat in the ballpark.

We made it to the 3rd deck for the last two innings to enjoy the view of the Pittsburgh skyline

Side note: We don’t get what the hype is with this Carly Rae Jepsen’s song “Call Me Maybe.”  Without fail, we have heard this song at every single ballpark we have been to thus far.  It was even Jeff Francoeur’s song when he came up to bat at Kansas City.  Granted, in terms of baseball, this song was popularized by the Harvard Baseball team – where I can’t tell if they are mocking it or not. See http://www.longislandpress.com/2012/05/09/harvard-baseball-call-me-maybe-video/.  But it was the song of choice here in the middle of the sixth inning at PNC park.  People throughout the park could be seen doing the same “dance moves” as the Harvard team in their video.

Clemente Statue outside the stadium at the foot of the Clemente Bridge

The game itself was awesome.  Pittsburgh’s A.J. Burnett didn’t surrender a hit until the sixth inning.  The Pirates had taken an early 3-0 lead off of McCutchen’s RBI double and his two-run home run.   While the Pirates bullpen struggled, they held off the Royals and secured Burnett the victory he deserved.  After the game we headed to Primanti Brother's for one of their famous coleslaw and french-fry-infused sandwiches.  An awesome meal after a great game!

Primanti Bros

Final Score: Kansas City Royals 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 3.