OK, this post is a couple of weeks late, but I've been busy. Schoolwork n'at. A chance encounter at Starbucks today reminded me that this post needed to be done.
So basically, as everyone knows, I moved to Pittsburgh in the end of January. I was semi-perched on the Pirates bandwagon before it was cool. By semi-perched, I mean that they were my favorite National League team long before I moved here. I had the hat already. The rest came later. And I had my first game ticket - for a game against the Astros in May - before the season even started. I actually grew up a Yankees fan, and now...I don't know if it's because I actually live here now or what, but baseball is more fun as a Pirates fan than it ever was as a Yankees fan. Maybe it's because I live a mile away from the ballpark. Maybe it's because the Pirates are more unpredictable than the Yankees have ever been (although the Yanks did actually miss the playoffs this year). Maybe it's because Pittsburgh is smaller than New York City, the ballpark is practically downtown, and the fanbase is, on the whole, probably smaller. Maybe it's because with the Pirates, it looks more like a game, and less like a business. I mean, they have pierogi races at PNC Park. And fireworks. There's a shark tank in the clubhouse. We're not constantly hearing about the players' exploits in the news (Ahem, A-Rod), or how much money they make, how much money they want (Robinson Cano, I'm looking in your direction on that one). And I loved Joe Torre to death, but did he ever show emotion in press conferences and the dugout? Ever?
And then there's how you can just randomly meet the players on the street. Andrew McCutchen stops in at the Starbucks I go to on a daily basis. I found this out 20 days into the season, and it led to a summer and baseball season that I will never forget. And no, I didn't actually meet him - although I have since had coffee next to him and his girlfriend and today, he held the door open for me. I met someone else very special because of him.
I attended my first game on April 19th, against the Atlanta Braves. This ticket came with my attendance of a career fair at PNC Park earlier that day. The next day, it's business as usual. I run errands, and then go to Starbucks with the intention of getting a cafe mocha and crashing with a book for a couple of hours. I'm putting sugar in my mocha when I hear, "Andrew McCutchen was in here this morning." I turn around, like, "Come again?" Barista tells me and that someone else that he's in there all the time. One thing leads to another, and I find myself invited to the Pirates game that would start about an hour later. We only stayed for five innings, because it was so cold, but the three of us - myself, Michael, and his friend who showed up at Starbucks after parking the car in the "Jack Reacher Parking Garage" - landed at Dominic's to finish the game off. Somewhere in those five innings, though...I got my first kiss. Ever. And it just so happens it was in a Major League Baseball park. I can also say I've made out with someone in the parking garage where one of the opening scenes of Jack Reacher was filmed. And to this day, I can't hear "Sweet Caroline" without thinking of that night, as the Pirates paid tribute to Boston that night (they would use it again after the game against the Rockies - Bethany and I were singing on the way out, I remember). By the way, he and I have been talking and whatnot ever since. We'd go to one more game (Dodgers in June. We lost), meet up after the Wild Card game (more on that later), and now...thinking about a hockey game in January. Even though he is a Sabres fan. I don't care. Baseball season will be rolling around again soon enough.
I went to my first Sunday game in May. Had arguably the best seat in the house, although there is NOT a bad seat in that ballpark. The Pirates, they do things for the kids. They show highlight reels edited with movie clips on the Jumbotron to get people going. They have giveaways, they get the fans involved in a lot of stuff. There's a trivia thing where the person gets to choose between something like a sweatshirt or a jacket...basically something great...and a mystery box. I'm always like, "Don't take the box," but this one time, a kid picked the box and got a ton of autographed stuff. I think that was the game against the Rockies in August. On a related note to the game against the Rockies, during each game, they ask the players a question, and their answers are recorded and broadcast on the Jumbotron. The question during the Rockies game was "What's your favorite cereal?" Turns out Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the most popular among the Pirates, but someone needs to tell some of them that Chex Mix is NOT a cereal.
August, as baseball fans know, is after the All Star Break. In the past twenty years, the Pirates have typically imploded after the All Star Break. People kept telling me that was going to happen again. I thought otherwise, because I always do. Heck, when the Pens were down to the Bruins 3-0 during the Eastern Conference Finals last year, I still thought they had a chance. When I went to PNC Park to get my ticket for the game against the Dodgers in June, KDKA was there, interviewing people. I got a 5-second soundbite on TV that evening, in which I said I had a good feeling about this year. And it did turn out better than it had. I knew it would, really, after this one game when the Pirates were down a whole bunch of runs in the fifth inning and they would come back to win. I think I knew then. And no, I didn't go to that one. I only saw people pouring out of the ballpark and across the bridge...I thought it was over. Turns out it wasn't. Anyway. I was laid up most of September, but I still managed to make two games - one against the Cardinals before all hell broke loose, which we lost, and then one against the Reds after with my mom (thanks to one of the home nurses), which we won. And the Pirates were still in the hunt for the division title at that point. They would eventually land with the Wild Card.
The Wild Card game against the Reds was here, because we had won the last series against the Reds. Michael and his friend went to the game. I went to BZ, a bar across the street from the ballpark. We met up afterwards. Let me tell you about playoffs in Pittsburgh. Playoff anything. It's a party. And a bar is the next best thing to being at the game itself. When Russell Martin hit his second homer that night, we actually heard the fireworks in the bar before we saw the play on TV. When the fireworks went off, everyone started SCREAMING. That would be our first playoff victory in twenty years. We would not only snap the streak of the losing record, but we would win our first playoff game in twenty years as well - hence why Michael would always text me with "1992 r.i.p." Fireworks go off at the end, and people just poured out into the street - and Michael and I would still manage to find each other. In the series against the Cardinals, with one exception, I watched all the games at Mullens. Best pierogies in town, by the way.
And when Game 5 was over, it was like a funeral around here for about a week and a half. They say that when you play Pittsburgh, you play the whole city. This is absolutely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, true. It only started feeling normal again about a week ago when the Penguins were playing here, Pitt was playing here, and the traffic was snarled. Everyone was complaining, but I just felt everything was back to normal, back to the way it should be. Same with the next day, with the Steelers playing here. The souvenir stands were back on the corners of Fort Duquesne Boulevard and the scalpers were hanging out downtown and by the Roberto Clemente Bridge. Just like baseball season. The only thing that was missing was the closing of the bridge and the Sax Man playing on the bridge. But March 31st, it will all start again. Raise it.
