Roadtrip to PNC Park

Since I'm missing baseball season so much, I decided to do a retro style game entry from a few years ago, when my dad and I followed the Cubs to Pittsburgh.

Some of my friends went to PNC Park in 2006, and couldn't say enough good things about it. Dad and I already had our weekend trip to Miller Park planned as a test run. We had lots of fun in Milwaukee, so we decided to go for it the next season.

The thing I didn't like was the 8 hour drive there; four times as long as it takes to get to Milwaukee. I didn't want to be bored out of my mind, so I equipped the back seat of our van with a tiny TV and my PS2. I played a little bit just because it was there, but the drive was not nearly as bad as expected.

Instead of staying at a hotel, Dad looked up some state parks in Pennsylvania where we could camp, just like we had done in Milwaukee.  Despite sleeping on the ground and the 40 minute drive from the city, it was worth it. The hotel would have doubled the cost of the trip. Plus, it was more interesting than sitting in a boring room all night.


We had tickets for the games on Saturday and Sunday. In order to be sure we would get there in time, we left on Friday afternoon. The plan was to drive for four or five hours, and find another place to camp near Toledo to split the driving in half. Dad was confident there would be plenty of campgrounds around in Northern Ohio...or at least a field that wasn't private property where we could throw up a tent for a few hours.

Once we got to the arbitrary checkpoint, we exited the highway and asked a gas station worker where the closest campgrounds were. It never crossed our minds that some of the popular ones could be out of space. This was, after all, a perfect weekend in the middle of the summer.

We drove up to two different places, only for both of them to be roped off. They were totally full. I was getting worried we were going to end up in the van next to a Wal-Mart.

We stopped to fill up on gas and wanted to ask someone again, seeing as how we were pretty far from where we started our search. A local told us of one place he goes to just a few more minutes away. This was really our last shot; it would have been a cheap hotel if this one was full too.

Just as we were pulling out, two guys came rolling in to the station on their Harley's. It was exactly what you would see in a movie: sunglasses, long grey beards, and leather vests. From Dad's experience with taking his bike a bunch of places, he determined these guys were pretty rough. Not the guys to mess with, that's for sure.

We got out of there quickly, and followed the directions given to us by the townie. The sign at the main entrance boasted about their 800 sites. (For those of you that don't camp much, that's insane for a single independent place. At least twice over twice the normal size).

We swiftly walked into the office and told them to give us anything they had. "Oh boy, you guys just made it! We only have two sites left!"

We thought this was hilarious. We were amazed that 798 families were packed in this place. This was the largest campground we had ever seen, and we barley made the cut.

We got the tent up, and everything was fine, but I was still dumbfounded.

We knew what to expect; crying babies, screaming kids riding their bikes with no shirt, and lots of country music. But in addition to all those givens, it seems that we landed in the middle of the largest trailer park in Ohio.

Not another tent in sight.

It was still one of my favorite camp sites ever. The lake gave us a lot of extra space in the back, and was more fun to look at than a bunch of shrubs or one of those RVs up close. During the evening time, a symphony of toads played us the song of their people. I saw a few and heard them in the water, but they were too quick and it was too dark to get a picture.

Anyway, right after the tent was up, we heard a loud, distinct rumbling...one we recognized very well. We peeked down the dirt road, and who do we see? The scary bikers from the gas station. The very last spot in the entire place was claimed by them. Dad and I couldn't do anything besides look at each other and laugh. They ended up not being a problem. Then again, we never made eye contact with them.

The next morning, I awoke to Dad packing stuff up, and this:

It was game day! We had another three and a half hours until we get to the Steel City.

About an hour away from our destination, we saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

We had another good laugh when we turned around to walk back to our pulled over car, and I saw another sign within walking distance.

We were in West Virginia for about three minutes, but I was there! I couldn't tell you what road we were driving on (even after looking at a map just now), because we were on our way to the state park first.

Just two hours after that, our home for the next three days was good to go.

It was surprisingly wide open compared to the place from last night. Talk about two ends of the spectrum.

If you look to the left of that last picture we had some neighbors. They were a family from Baltimore just spending a weekend in rural Pennsylvania.

They were kind of an odd bunch, to say the least. On Sunday, the dad was bird-watching while the others were out. That was fine and dandy, but he looked like a complete goof when he started getting low and squatting closer to the ground. We didn't see any advantage that could be gained from this, and just thought he was a dork.

That's not even the best part. Before taking off on Monday, I hid behind the tent and snapped this picture of their son, who's sitting on the right side of the picnic table:

Yes, he is indeed playing a FRENCH HORN in the middle of the forest. Even better, his little brother had a trumpet. They were practicing all weekend, and actually weren't bothersome at all.

The last thing we did before leaving for the game was pick up some wood for our fire when we got back.

The main office wasn't selling any, which we found very odd. We figured there would have to be a Farmer Brown sort of guy with a pickup truck right outside the gate. There had to be one big supplier around here somewhere; who goes camping and doesn't have a fire? But alas, there was nothing of the sort. We were having a hell of a time finding anything we could burn.

This was ridiculous! How can there not be a single log in this town?! We drove around for quite a long time, until we found this sign outside of a convenience store:

We saw wood, and were relieved to find something. It took us a second, then we understood. This was the worst wordplay either of us had ever seen. We still joke about this sign today, especially anytime we go camping.

Finally, we were ready to get to the big city and see what we had come all this way for.

We went through a very long tunnel....

And popped out on one of the signature yellow bridges with a great view of some buildings.

We followed the exit signs and ended up on a block that was full of parking garages. Much to our pleasure, we found a spot that only cost us $10. It was just a short walk across the Allegheny River.

As was typical at this time, the Cubs were very well represented. We spotted groups on every street corner. Even though you can't see a whole ton here, we resembled a small army when we were all in the same place.

Being up on the 5th level of the parking garage made for some great photo opportunities.

After two days and nine hours in the car, we had made it.

We walked across that same bridge in the picture, named after Roberto Clemente, and got onto the grounds of the stadium.



We first passed Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente statues in the left field corner (I can't remember which was which.)

We then worked our way farther down the third base line towards home plate.

Overall, we were very surprised. The actual park? Magnificent. It opened in 2001, and hosted the MLB All-Star Game in 2006. Everything was relatively new, and still a little polished up from the year before. The Pirates terrible play was the only negative about the place.

A little farther down the block, there were tons of restaurants and souvenir shops on the other side of the street. That was the thing that most surprised us; the liveliness. It was almost like a tiny ballpark village. The streets around  that area were closed off, so fans were allowed to roam without worrying about traffic.

Our seats were directly behind home plate, so we headed over that entrance. (That's Honus Wagner, too.)

Dad asked someone to take one of us together. (I really wish I could go back and smile better...or exercise more so this picture looked nicer.):

I can't believe I just put this out there for the world to see....

We went right to our seats when we got inside.

Buying tickets the first day they were on sale paid off!

This is what a perfect ballpark looks like. I haven't looked at these pictures for a couple years, and after seeing other parks since this one, I really want to go back.

Our favorite building in the skyline was this one:

Referred to by us as "the building with a hole in it". What kind of crack pot architect thought of this?! If he was aiming for an original and unique building, he hit it right on the head.

Back in these days, I was never at the park early enough to see BP and get down close to the field.

Then again, whenever I tried, the crotchety old geezer usher at Wrigley would never let me this close. At the time, I thought I was being super sneaky by doing this. I now see this is the norm around the league; a policy I'm very fond of.

Carlos Zambrano would start the next afternoon.

 Here's a view in back from our seats in the top of the first, with Derrek Lee at the plate:

I really have no recollection of how game actually went, so I had to check the box score.

Ted Lilly went up against John (oh Lord...) Van Benschoten. The Cubs got out to a quick start in the 1st with four hits, and a couple RBIs from Lee and Daryle Ward. They added three more in the 3rd, including Lilly contributing to his own cause. It turns out these two innings provided more than enough offense, as the Cubs took game one of our trip 7-1.

I got a little blast from the past when looking at the lineups. Jack Wilson, Jason Bay, and even Jose Bautista (yes, Toronto's power hitter) played for the Pirates. Some of the Cubs were laughable. I already mentioned Ward, but Jaque Jones and Felix Pie got in the game too.

The trip so far was a success, and we had the second half coming up in just a few hours.

****

I added to the rear window when I woke up on Sunday.

Before the game, we did just about the same thing as the night before. On the drive in, I got a picture of Hienz Field, which is just a couple miles from PNC.

We didn't really do anything different than the first game. I even think we arrived later than we wanted to, so we hustled right in and got to the upper deck.

I liked the view of the park much better for a day game. Sunlight is the best light. Like I've said about a dozen times in 2012, it was hot as hell, and we were constantly baking out here. 

Here we are outside:

And here's where our seats were:

The scenery was much better than the night before.

The Cubs offense got stopped dead in their tracks by Shane Youman. (Almost every Pirates players has fallen off the face of the planet since this weekend. Only a few names sound even remotely firmiliar.)

He gave up two runs in six innings, while Big Z gave up three in 7 innings. Angel Pagan and Mark DeRosa had the Cubs RBIs, while Jason Bay hit a homer and racked up three RBIs for the Pirates. Things had a chance to end well, but Bob Howry blew it in the bottom of the 8th, giving up three more. Final score- Bucs 6, Cubs 2.

(Did you notice that's separate two pictures? I look out the space in-between because they line up so well.)

Seeing this next picture again gave me an idea. For every game in 2013, I want to do something with a photo from the very last, highest seat in the stadium. It's as close to an areal view of the park as I can get.

No game home runs touched down in the Allegheny this weekend.

Once we returned to our car, we had the entire rest of the day to chill out at our camp site.

Before I end this entry, I want to warn you all about the vicious raccoons that live in Pennsylvania. They're both bloodthirsty and highly intelligent.

After our first night, Dad told me how they tried to get in our food bin. They kept coming back after he scared them off, so he ended up putting it in the van after having to get up three times. He said there were two of them on top of the picnic table rocking our bin back and forth, trying to get it to fall off and crack open. When that didn't work, they took their teeth to the top and tried to gnaw through it. They were successful in getting a nice breakfast of Froot Loops and frosted donuts.

They didn't like us hiding our food to much. The next night, I awoke to Dad standing over me with his shoe. He then proceeded to smack me with it a few times.

"What....are you doing?"

"There's a raccoon in the tent!"

My response? I just pulled my sleeping bag up to protect my face and went back to sleep.

Turns out a baby racoon found it's way in through the bottom zipper we left open. Dad thought it was outside, so he kicked it, hoping it would run away. To his surprise, it jumped three feet in the air, and ran towards my head. To make sure I didn't get rabies, he grabbed the only weapon he had, the shoe, and proceeded to nudge the coon towards the door and out of our tent.

****

As you can see, I remembered more things that happened outside the park than stuff from the games. That's what's great about these trips. I could have gone without the bikers, french horn, or raccoons, but it wouldn't have been as fun without those things.