It's Been One Week, Volume 5

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It's Been One Week, Volume 4

Ok, this would have to rank as one of the best baseball days of my life.

We went out to Queens for an afternoon game between the Pirates and Mets. It was a crisp, sunny day.  The Bucs laid the smack down 13-1. We bought a couple of cheap tickets and sat behind a hippie who aired twenty years worth of grievances against the Mets. He was a funny guy though and it was like having a tour guide from an era when Strawberry and Gooden were kings. This was my 100th big league game that I attended and it was a perfect afternoon for it.

Afterwards we took the 7 train to Grand Central Station where we connected to the 4 for another trip up to the Bronx. Our seats for this game were in the top row of the stadium. I lasted for all of about fifteen minutes before I had to come back down a little closer to the earth. Holy hell is it steep up there. From our seats in we could actually see the Empire State Building!

I scurried down to section M16, where I seat hopped for the first few innings. I finally ended up sitting across the aisle from an older Yankees fan. He struck up a conversation when he saw my Mets bag of goodies (program, a 2008 Topps Mets team set, with their special logo silver foil embossed, and a nifty wool cap with said logo on it) and we ended up chatting most of the game. For the record, I can now say I've met one (1) cool Yankee fan. 

The Tigers won 6-2. The Tigers were trailing 2-1 after four innings, when I decided that I needed a rally beer. I hadn't taken three swigs when Marcus Thames homered off of Ian Kennedy. I hadn't taken three more swigs when it dawned on me that Andy Pettitte was pitching, and not Kennedy. You see.....Kennedy was supposed to start.....I wasn't paying attention during the pre game lineup announcements.....I've never seen Kennedy before and didn't know that he isn't a lefty......well you get the gist of it. I didn't know until we got back to the room that night that Placido Polanco had hit the home run that I could've swore Pudge Rodriguez hit. I even thought it was Pudge running the bases. I learned two lessons here. One, start wearing my glasses to games and two, start drinking before the first pitch.

I'm pretty sure I consumed 6 hot dogs throughout the day. Which is about the same number of beers I took back on the train to Irvington, NJ after the game. My last night and finally found out that little tidbit. Sure would've made the first night easier if I had've known.

For the rest of my life the Tigers will have a 2-0 record in games I attended at Yankee Stadium. That's pretty hard to beat on my all-time list of baseball memories.

It's Been One Week, Volume 1

This time a week ago my buddy Chris and I were enjoying a lovely afternoon watching the Philadelphia Phillies take on the Pittsburgh Pirates at the most beautiful ball park in the majors, PNC Park. It's a great park with a great view of downtown Pittsburgh. (insert your own joke here, but downtown is actually a very nice area) 

There are cool statues all over the place, including Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and a collection of Negro League stars such as Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, and Satchel Paige. 

There are cheap seats a plenty at PNC Park, and we got to see several of the Pirates stars of tomorrow shine. Paul Maholm pitched a complete game two-hitter and Nate McLouth hit two home runs as the Buccos won 5-1.

It'd be a crime if I didn't mention the awesome chili cheese fries I had from Pop's Potato Patch in Pop's Plaza. For $6.75 you get a bowl that is large enough to feed a family of eight and it's very tasty. I ate on it for close to an hour and ended up throwing half of it away. This is definitely the fare to check out on a visit to PNC Park.

I picked up some cool souvenirs, including a program, a scorecard, a cool little A-Z guide of the park, a pocket schedule, and an official Topps team set of 14 cards in the blister pack. (more about these cards at the end of the week)

Here's a little video I took.

It was a fantastic experience and a great start to our road trip. I can't wait to make my next trip back whenever the Tigers are in town!!!

Vacation...all I ever wanted.....

No silly, this isn't about The Go-Go's. I'm really going on vacation!

I'm leaving tomorrow with my pal Chris for a week long baseball road trip. The schedule looks something like this:

Sunday April 27: Philadelphia Phillies @ Pittsburgh Pirates

Monday April 28: Pittsburgh Pirates @ New York Mets

Tuesday April 29: Detroit Tigers @ New York Yankees

Wednesday April 30: Detroit Tigers @ New York Yankees

Thursday May 1: Pittsburgh Pirates @ Washington Nationals

I'll have all kind of stories, pics, and video when I return!