I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to attend quite a number of out-of-town ballparks. Despite it’s geographical proximity, I’d never been to Pittsburgh before. An easy five hour drive from central New Jersey, my cousin and I picked this year to have a dad’s weekend in Pittsburgh when the Mets were in town. We brought the kiddies but didn’t bring the wives. What a cool city – and what a great ballpark.
I am not even going to tell you how much our upper deck tickets were; if you really want to know you can look up ticket prices yourself and throw up.
Here’s another thing that will make New York sports fans crazy – you can take the subway “The T” to the game for FREE. Yes, on gamedays the trains run to the ballpark for free to encourage mass transit. Of course, if you need to drive, parking will cost you five whole bucks.
PNC Park has a rotunda at the main entrance, where a statue of Honus Wagner greets you. And just like at CitiField, there is no Mets stuff there either. Buh-dum-dum.
PNC Park presents the best backdrop for a baseball game of any baseball stadium I’ve been to. A gorgeous skyline, with interesting architecture, and complete with the Allegheny River and the Roberto Clemente Bridge. So even when the Pirates are awful, their fans have something nice to look at at the stadium. However, there is some plexiglass to deal with at PNC Park too. It was a packed house on this date – the Pirates 8th sellout of the season so far.
To announce the lineup, the Pirates created a video which imitates the Saturday Night Live opening theme, with all the players dressed in street clothes enjoying the Pittsburgh nightlife. It is actually really well done, and not corny at all. Whoever is behind it did a terrific job.
http://youtu.be/BDKYaIwequ8&w=320
PNC Park opened in 2001, so it’s a new-ish stadium. The most obvious difference between this era of ballpark, and the latest stadiums, is the size of the concourses. Standing in line for food in the narrow concourses reminded me of Shea Stadium, as opposed to the “food court with a baseball field attached” design of CitiField. Actually the only negative thing I can really say about PNC Park is they have no idea how to make an Italian Sausage hero. It was terrible, with no flavor and barely warm enough to be considered safe to eat. Beer nerds will be disappointed with the selection of brews, though the charm of Iron City Beer and “ICL” makes up for its lack of robustness.
Like any city, Pittsburgh has no shortage of characters. One of these characters is a stadium vendor who sings his way through the stands, putting on mini-concerts as he goes. His schtick appears to work for him, as his “CHILL” Italian Ices seemed to be selling quite briskly. I think Shannon should come out of retirement and bring this kind of entertainment to New York.
On this Saturday in July, the Pirates put on a fireworks show after the game – honestly it was one of the better fireworks shows I’ve seen, and definitely the best I’ve ever seen at a sporting event. Having such a cool backdrop didn’t hurt.
Matt Harvey was supposed to start this game, but he didn’t… because of a terrible, terrible, blister. Luckily he recovered from this career threatening injury to pitch in Queens the following Tuesday, but he missed this start and the Mets lost, 3-2. We had a great time anyway, and if the Mets play a weekend series in Pittsburgh in 2014, I hope to attend and bring the whole family. Nice city, nice ballpark. And the fans treated a bunch of Mets fans really graciously as well. Heck, even Ralph Kiner has his own Korner here.
Have you bought Shannon’s book yet?
