PNC Park – beautiful place for a ball game.
The programs and (dutifully completed) scorecards continue to mount up, as our BPT trek has moved on – through Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. In addition, our band of bus riders continues to move through its on-trek reading material. In this blog, BBRT will give you a look at the middle of this baseball tour, as well as what baseball fans (at least this group) choose to read.
In Pittsburgh, we witnessed a 7-2 Twins loss to the Pirates, followed by a 2-1 Twins win (on an eighth inning home run by Josh Willingham) and a 9-1 Twins loss on the final day (which prompted one of our group – in about the 7th inning – to proclaim loudly, “In the name of humanity, stop the game.”) While we lamented the losses, we had plenty of company, as the stands held a large contingent of Twins-attired fans.
PNC Park, with the Roberto Clemente Bridge in the background, provided a beautiful setting for baseball. We enjoyed different seats, with different vantage points for each game (down the third base line, behind the first base dugout and second deck behind home plate). This gave our group a real flavor of the park and a chance to interact with a diverse range of Pirates fans.
Unique food flavors included stuffed Pierogies (dumplings with sour cream) and the delicious Primanti Brothers sandwiches (a meal between two slices of bread) that features your choice of cheese steak, ham and cheese and capicola and cheese – with the coleslaw and French fries mashed right into the sandwich.
Cold beer helped take the edge off the 90+ degree heat (and the Twins losses). To add more local flavor, we were in Pittsburgh for “Pup Night” – lots of cute dogs at the ball park – and members of our group got their choice of a Roberto Clemente jersey or a Pirates hat as a group gift. There were the usual between-inning stunts (still a sore spot with BBRT) including a Pierogi race, T-shirt toss and even the firing of hot dogs into the stands. All in all, a good ball park experience.
The Pittsburgh front office staff showed a sense of humor, picturing Minnesota players on the big scoreboard next to snow globes encasing the Twin Cities skyline, and playing “Let it Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” between innings.
As usual, we stayed at a hotel close enough to downtown to enjoy the culture of the city. I chose the Andy Warhol Museum, but other BPT-ers took bus, boat and even Segway tours. In our free time, trekkers also visited the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Phipps Botanical Gardens, the Heinz Museum and Pittsburgh Zoo (among others); rode the popular “inclines” for a better view of the city and its rivers; took the water taxi to the game; and shopped and dined at spots like Station Square, Market Square and the Strip. My lunches (all three games were evening affairs) included a spinach salad with hazel nuts, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and feta cheese on one day, and a baked stuffed clam on another.
Basically, we enjoyed not only a great ball park, but an interesting and hospitable city.
Now, for a little on-the-bus culture. BBRT did a survey of our BPT group, to find out what’s being read on the bus. The results back up baseball as the most literary game, with the most literate of fans.
Here’s the list (14 non-fiction / 9 fiction) – judge for yourself:
Non-fiction
– Baseball in the Garden of Eden – Secret History of the Early Game (John Thorn)
– The Lady in the Tower – The Fall of Anne Boleyn (Alison Weir)
– Big Russ & Me (Tim Russert)
– On the Ground – Illustrated Annotated History of the 60’s Underground Press in the United States (Sean Stewart)
– Freakonomics (Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner)
– Bill Veeck – Baseball’s Greatest Maverick (Paul Dickson)
Destiny of the Republic – A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President (Candice Millard)
– Moneyball (Michael Lewis)
– The First Girl Scout – The Life of Juliette Gordon Low (Ginger Wadsworth)
– Mayflower (Nathaniel Philbrick)
– Health and Wellness Newsletter
– D-Day (Stephen Ambrose)
– Lone Survivor (Marcus Luttrell)
–October 1964 (David Halberstam)
Fiction
–The Art of Fielding (Chad Harbach)
– Hold Tight (Harlan Coben)
– The Mangrove Coast (Randy Wayne White)
– 63: A Novel (Stephen King)
– Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (Arthur Cannon Doyle)
– Good Omen (Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett)
– Alias the Saint (Leslie Chartiers)
– Crewel World Framed in Lace (Monica Ferris)
– Kill Shot (Vine Lloyd)
Yep, no Fifty Shades of Grey. Maybe they all read it already.
Scorecards piling up.
More to come.
