Park #2

August 3-Pittsburgh, Pa.
Well, after yeasterday's brush with superb mediocrity, I was looking for a big show, and I GOT IT. PNC Park is great. You get within a half mile of the stadium, and everything is sports. Much to my happiness, there are statues all around the park, of Clemente, Stargell, and Honus Wagner, absolutely fantastic. The whole motif (spelling) is great; all baseball all the time. The park itself is beautiful, let me tell you something, being able to look out into center field and see the whole city's skyline is a beautiful thing. The only thing better is a plateful of chicken wings covered in nacho cheese. seriously, its a wonderful thing. Furthermore, the left-center field wall is 410 feet, which means that it is ideal for triples; and if you didn't know, the triple may be the most exciting thing to watch in sports (with the exception of the loch-ness monster of baseball, known as the inside-the-park homer). Also, its only 315 down the right field line, which is abutted by an 18 foot scoreboard, which means that lefties get plenty of homers and doubles. quite awesome to say the least.
So, anyway, I went to the game with my brother, who lives in Pittsburgh. We get to our seats, and who is seated 5 rows behind us, but Richard Schiff, a.k.a. Toby Zeigler from the West Wing. We got pictures with him, fantabulous!!!!! Then, you wouldn't believe it, my grandpa shows up at the game (after declining an invite from me), and was there with 2 of his friends. He brought us over to his seats, which were about 8 rows behind the dugout, OH MAMASITA, what fabulous seats.
Now, onto the important stuff, the FOOOOOOOOD. Well, Pirmanti brothers has a stand at the game. For those who dont know, Pirmanti brothers are the originators of the panini-style sandwich, and Cleveland's Paninis is nothing but the bastard child of those style sandwiches. These Pirmanti brothers sandwiches are grizz-eat. mmmmmmmmm. Well, i also had a hotdog, it was one of those dogs on the grills with the peppers and onions. Definitely the right color, and all the flavor.
In addition, the Pirates won over the Padres 9-8 on a dgame winning double by Brad "Big Country" Eldred. Also, your pal and mine, Jose Mesa got the win. And with other players like Brian Giles, Dave Roberts, Damian Jackson, and Jody Gerut, it definitely felt like Chief Wahoo was in the air (or that may have been the hot dog making a second appearence).
However, the MVP of the game would have to be the Pirates First base coach, not only did the 4 calls he made to have guys stretch singles into doubles help the Bucs win, but his name is Kuntz. I mean, that guy is my hero.
So, between the great park, fantastic food, West Wing encounters, and the walk-off double, I'm gonna give PNC park an "A".
Well, pictures will be up in the next two days. Stay tuned. I'm heading to Cleveland tomorrow for a couple days, then it's off to Detroit.
2 down, 18 to go.
LAZ

Park #1

August 2-Stop one of my baseball tour: Cincinnati, Ohio. To be blunt, the Great American Ballpark is somewhat impressive from the outside, but that is it, everything else about it was decent at best. Let's start with the one redeeming quality, the exterior. As you approach the main gate of the park, there is a small courtyard with statutes of Joe Nuxhall and Ted Kluzewski, always a plus for a stadium. Plus they have a small structure called "The Reds Hall of Fame" which wasn't too impressive, but a good thought. You could really tell that the surrounding area of the park was really dedicated to baseball. As you go in the park, all you see is concession stands, which is normally a good thing, makes you feel like you are at a county fair, but there was really no baseball memoribilia, fanfare, or pomp, which in direct contrast to the exterior of the park, quite weird. Now lets get to the food. $3 for a skyliner, COME ON. They cost $1.19 at home, and they are $3 a pop in the city where they were born; that's like paying $26 for a lobster in maine when they only cost $12 in Missouri. However, I did have my hot dog (which i plan on having one of at every park). oh my god, this was the worst hot dog ever. It was, and i wish i was kidding, the color of human skin. Pink and just gross. Of course i ate it within about 8 seconds, because it's still food, but it was awful. I did notice that the park had a rather large picnic area in right field, with tables and cutouts of players you could get a picture with, but this was so far off of right field, that you couldnt see anything about the game if you were over there. It seemed kind of pointless, and basically just a glorified smokers lounge. In addition to all this mediocrity, the Reds lost to the Braves 12-2, Ramon Ortiz gave up 6 runs in an inning and a third, and I think there as many Braves fans there as reds fans. On a good note, we did have some good seats, you know, buying the $5 seats and then sneaking into the right field stands, 10th row or so. It's not stealing!Also, I stayed with my friend, who you may know is married and has a baby due in a few months, WOOHOO!!!! It was a great time catching up with him and hearing about how responsible he has, which is contrasted with me, who is becoming a travelling hermit for six months, oh, don't you love a good dichotomy.However, i dealt with it when Ben got married, I'm doing fine with Ben having a baby, but Ben just bought a minivan, that may be the last straw, I think we may need an intervention. So, to recap, good company, good seats, not-so-great stadium, horrible food. Laz gives the Great American Ballpark a "C". Stay tuned for more stadiums, and i'll attach a link to the pictures when i get them posted. 1 down, 19 to go.LAZ