PNC Park
From Ballpark Roadtrip
mike's Notes:
Tonic Bar - eating that seared tuna Ghetto around the hotel Iron City beer in aluminum bottles Everyone wearing black pillbox Pirates hats
Lumpy's Notes: Tokyo tea @ tonic bar. Willie Stargell giveaway
Bill's Notes:
Worst collapse by the Mets ever witnessed .. Very nice park tho, we should visit here again soon..!! Iron City beer rocks -- and I never did get that 6-pack to go, we left too damn early in the morning to head back to Philly..
PNC Park
New York Mets @ Pittsburgh Pirates
July 8, 2005
Contents |
The Road Trip
We arrived in Pittsburgh and checked into the Omni hotel. We had a few minutes to spare so we all met down in the lobby bar called the Tap Room. A bunch of pregaming Bucs fans were there hanging out. It was obvious that the local brew was Iron City Beer. Iron City came in an industrial looking aluminum bottle. We weren't clear as to how long Iron City had been bottling their beer in aluminum bottles, but it seemed like a trend setter.
After the game we wandered crossed back over the bridge and wandered around the river area looking for a bar. We came across this place named Tonic. Inside we all sat down and took a look at the menu. Ed ordered up some seared tuna and the rest of us passed on the food. We ordered a round of drinks. At some point someone asked what was good. The waitress jumped at the opportunity to tell us all about their "featured drink" the Tonic Tonic. A few of us ordered the Tonic Tonic. Lumpy decided to test the mixology aptitude of Pittsburgh and ordered a Tokyo Tea.
The waitress came back with the tuna and Bill stared at it the entire way from the kitchen door to the table. When the waitress finally put the plate down Bill looked at her and said "We'll take five more of those." Later, the waitress came back with the drinks. The Tonic Tonic was ostensibly a vodka tonic. When we were all at Florida Tech the Beachside Hilton in Melbourne Beach had a Thursday night drink special where if you wore a tie and paid five bucks you could get all the well drinks you wanted until midnight. We all had been to Tie Night more times than we can remember and must have drank hundreds of Tonic Tonics in our careers. The waitress then leaned over to Lumpy and asked "what exactly goes into a Tokyo tea?" She explained that they looked in two different drink books and couldn't find it. Perfect. On to Philly.
The Park
To get to the park from where we were staying you had to cross the Sixth Street Bridge from downtown Pittsburgh. They closed the bridge to car traffic on game nights so fans can freely cross and check out the sights.
PNC is a top tier ballpark. The layout, amenities and location are all premium. The park itself if located along the Allegheny River with an outfield view of the Sixth Street Bridge crossing the river and a terrific skyline shot of Pittsburgh. What makes the park seem more intimate is that it only has two decks. Most modern ballparks have three or more levels that elevate fans away from the field. In Pittsburgh, the park had a primary concourse where the seats descended down to the field in one direction and stairs and escalators take you up to the second level. Half of the fans were wearing black and yellow pillbox hats. Mike took one look and knew that he needed one.
The Game
The night we visited was Willie Stargell collectible statue night. The promoters failed to note on the packaging that some assembly was required. The figurine came as one single piece of plastic. Base, legs, torso, helmet, arms... all solidly forged. All except the barrel of the bat, which you had to screw into a threaded post molded into the gripped fists of Willie. None of us are rocket scientist (professionally) but we all agreed that the design was a bit lackluster.
