By the time this posts, it’ll have been two weeks since I
headed to Pittsburgh for the first stop on my Cubs themed vacation. Avoiding
tolls, the route I selected was slated to come in at just under 5 hours. With a 7:05 PM start time, we hit the road at around 11 AM to give ourselves a bit of a cushion and some time to wander around a bit.
PNC Park was a new stadium for me. I had been to Three Rivers Stadium as a kid in the ‘80s but
hadn’t been back to Pittsburgh since.
One of these days I’m going to have to sit down and figure out where I’ve
already been because it seems I have a few defunct stadiums on my list.
When I go to a new ballpark, I like to check it out from various vantage points. My plan usually involves buying the cheapest seats, sitting there for a few innings and then wandering around to better seats once the lollygaggers are done rolling in and the ushers become less insistent about checking tickets.
I did not pre-purchase any of my tickets for this trip. Because of the
tight schedule and me being the only driver, I wanted the freedom to be able to
skip a city and move on to the next one should we fall behind schedule. The two
MLB games were midweek (Tuesday and Thursday) and the rest were minor league
games so I didn’t really fear any sellouts. I did however check Stubhub and eBay the two weeks leading up to the trip for the
two MLB games on the off chance I could beat the box office with some rock
bottom prices. I didn’t see any particular steals so I risked getting something
at the stadiums. For this matchup, I failed to consider the impact of a division rivalry, let alone the playoff implications with the Cubs
being in contention for the second wild card berth and the Pirates
holding down the first spot. Not to mention the rain out from the night before. Luckily things worked out though.
After finding a reasonably priced parking garage, we headed towards the stadium. This is the view from the far side of the yellow bridge that you'll see in a later picture. The bridge is just out of the picture on the right.
PNC Park from across the river |
After crossing the bridge (and even before it) you may be shocked to know there were several guys along the way offering to sell (or buy)
tickets to the game. With a little bit of a line at the box office, one of the
guys got my attention and I listened to his spiel. His tickets weren’t the
cheapest available from the box office but they were the second cheapest. With
a little negotiation, (and confirming they were tickets to that night’s game in
that stadium with those teams) we settled on a price somewhere in between. I saved a couple bucks off of the face value but between taxes and a possible transaction fee at the box office, maybe I did end up
with a better deal anyway.
After gaining entry to the ballpark, (yay, the tickets
worked!) we hung around the centerfield gate to watch the Cubs take batting
practice. Nothing really came close to us, though a few Cubs pitchers tossed
some balls into the crowd.
I have no idea who this kid is but he must have been very excited to have Michael Morse join his team at the deadline. This appeared to be a photocopied Morse nameplate affixed to a Jose Tabata jersey with Scotch tape. This wouldn't be the last time on this trip I'd see such a thing but I'm not sure I took a photo of the other instance. But when I get there, I'll at least mention it.
We wandered around a bit more, taking in the stadium and
looking for a place to get something to eat. In my research for the trip, I
found an article ranking the MLB stadiums and among other things, the list
included things to try at each stadium. PNC offered something called the Brunch
Burger, which sounded simultaneously disgusting yet intriguing. Individually, I liked
everything on it, but would it taste good together?
At this point the games kind of ran together so I don’t remember what we ended up eating at that particular game, just the disappointment in not getting the Brunch Burger. I also neglected to take any photos, but it was probably standard stadium fare.
We made our way to our seats only to discover they were already taken! Not only that, but the rest of the section was pretty crowded too. We really didn't mind though because as I mentioned, we play musical chairs at the stadium ourselves. We moved a couple of sections over on the same level, closer to home plate and sat there for a few innings. I can't complain about the "upgrade" we found.
The yellow bridge I mentioned earlier out past center field |
With the zoom on the camera, I could see right into the Cubs dugout, too!
After a few innings of those seats, we also watched from the rotunda in the left field
corner for a bit.
This photo was from pregame as it was starting to get dark by the time we watched from here. You can see the stadium is still filling up at this point, with empty seats on the foul side of the pole.
As I mentioned, the first game of the series, Monday night’s
game had been rained out after two lengthy delays. Weather was another thing I
didn’t factor into my decision making (hindsight really is 20/20!) when I first
brainstormed this trip a few months ago. But on this night, we had nothing to
worry about. It was sunny and hot early on but the breeze coming off the river
was great. And as it cooled down a bit, we headed to the cheap seats in left
centerfield to finish the game out. Those seats were pretty cool because it
almost felt like we were on the field with the left fielder!
Chris Denorfia |
As for the game itself, the Cubs piled on 15 hits on route
to a 5-0 victory. Cubs starter Jake Arrieta allowed only 2 hits and 3 walks
over 7 innings. The losing pitcher, J.A. Happ was making his Pirates debut
after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners the previous Friday.
The Cubs jumped out to an early lead with three consecutive
singles followed by a bases loaded walk, but Happ was able to escape to the
first inning trailing only 1-0. The Cubs tacked on two more runs in the third
with a pair of doubles and a single. An RBI double by Starlin Castro in the 5th
inning and a single by Jorge Soler in the 6th plated the Cubs final
two runs.
Every Cubs starter reached base at least once, including the
pitcher, Arrieta. The downside to 15 hits, 5 walks and only 5 runs is that the
Cubs stranded 15 base runners, including leaving the bases loaded twice. But overall, I
couldn’t ask for a better way to start of the road trip! As bad as the bats had been prior to this trip, things were looking up.
Overall, PNC was a pretty nice ballpark. I had heard good things about it and I'd say it lived up to the hype. The weather was perfect and the views from all of our seats were gorgeous. My only knocks against it are that it is a Coke ballpark (I'm a Mountain Dew drinker, which is a Pepsi product) and I wish I could have crossed the Brunch Burger off my list. So not too bad in the grand scheme of things.
Oh well, on to South Bend!
I love the skyline from PNC Park and walking across the Roberto Clemente bridge is one of favorites since I took on the task of visiting every MLB park.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you didn't get to try the Brunch Burger. That would have been awesome, but it also may have had some hidden consequences upon consumption. . . so maybe it was better they were out?
I'm looking forward to the rest of this series!