Outdoor Baseball

Being a baseball fan, it was kind of sad that I’d never been to a major league game in a stadium other than the Metrodome, which is certainly one of the worst baseball stadiums in the country. So I decided to remedy that situation on Friday night by going to Pittsburgh to take in the Twins-Pirates game at PNC Park, which is absolutely gorgeous and widely regarded as the best baseball stadium in the country, with Daniel, Kerrie & Steph. There were a lot more people at the game than I was expecting, and so our first few attempts to purchase tickets in various sections were rebuffed by the “sorry, that section’s sold out” mantra. And then here’s a funny story: once we were in the stadium and Steph stopped off to get some food on her way to the seat (Daniel, Kerrie & I just went on ahead to our seats in right field), she was having trouble finding the section we were in — because she was looking at her ticket for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts! Ushers at various sections were giving her a hard time and telling her that the General Admission section was upstairs (yet they also didn’t notice that she wasn’t even showing them a Pirates ticket), so after she called us to find out what section we were in and then told us all about her ordeal, she finally realized that she had a Boston MFA ticket and that her Pirates ticket was in her purse. Sigh. 🙂 But the game was a lot of fun, a good pitcher’s duel (Francisco Liriano had 11 K’s for the Twins) and some late scoring, leading to a 4-2 Twins victory. I had even made a sign for the game too, in the hopes that I’d get on FSN North back in Minnesota, but as far as I know I didn’t make a cameo on the tele. And then after the game there was a fantastic Zambelli fireworks show over the river right behind the stadium, with the beautiful Pittsburgh skyline as a backdrop. The whole evening was fantastic apart from PennDOT closing I-376 for a couple miles out of downtown Pittsburgh, causing such a nasty backup that it took us an hour to go one mile, resulting in it being 3am before we got back to State College. I was soooo tired the whole way back…
Saturday afternoon and evening it was time for Chris Allen’s farewell party, as he moved down to Raleigh, North Carolina yesterday to take a job. It was a fun time watching the USA-Italy game end in a 1-1 draw, and then doing some grilling and whiffleball games in Jeff’s backyard. We’re definitely gonna miss Chris around here though, but at least he’s promised to start up a blog once he gets an internet connection, so stay tuned for that.
Last night I drove over to Unionville for the church softball game vs Berean Bible Fellowship, and I went 1-for-2 in the first half of an 11-8 loss. It was a fun game though, and at least they didn’t have their really tough pitcher I’d heard so much about.
I’ve really been enjoying watching the World Cup so far this year, and I’m really encouraged by how the USA played against Italy, being shorthanded due to the red-card-happy ref. I think they really have a good chance to make it to the 2nd round too, by beating Ghana on Thursday morning (can you say Sports Cafe?) and having Italy beat Czech Republic. Australia’s playing really well too, even in their 2-0 loss to Brazil (the refs and American commentators have been nauseatingly pro-Brazil, by the way), and they’re in very good position to move on to the elimination round in their big game coming up against Croatia. If Australia and the USA somehow wind up meeting in the elimination rounds at any point though, I really don’t know who I’d cheer for, I’d be in quite a pickle…