Been a whirlwind weekend here at BWTP headquarters. My wife and I had a little party for some friends and coworkers Friday. Yesterday I spent the whole day in Pittsburgh seeing the Little Mermaid with my daughter and then meeting a friend to watch the Buccos game. The Pirates decided not to blow this game and pulled out a close win!
Here area few pics from when I was walking across the Clemente bridge.
Pretty good seats down the third base line.
Nice picture of a guy taking a picture.
Celebrating the win!
Today was a nice day filled with way too much food in celebration of Father's Day. Tomorrow I will be heading out to opening day of the Black Bears as my Father's Day gift from my wife and daughter. Word on the street is that the Black Bears may be starting top pitching prospect Mitch Keller who is on a rehab assignment. This is kind of a theme as the Black Bears two years ago started Tyler Glasnow in a similar situation.
One of my favorite things in the world is spending the day at PNC park. An ongoing joke in my house is that my wife will never make me as happy as going to a baseball game and I can never compete with a good piece of chocolate. Baseball and chocolate were part of our lives long before we ever met.
With this in mind my wife decided to surprise me with Lexus Club tickets as an early birthday present. The Lexus Club is an all inclusive ticket (minus alcohol, but I decided to include it!) with seating right behind home plate. It is something I've always wanted to do, but carries a high financial commitment. It is a much easier decision when someone buys them for you! The tickets came with one condition, I had to take her. After hours of deliberating the pros and cons I decided that it was still worth it. I kid, I kid...I was super excited to finally get to have this experience.
So classy!
I probably should have stolen a glass.
The formal dining area is huge. Since this was an afternoon game it was a brunch buffet. I don't think I've ever had a meal with so much protein. I have no shame.
After dinner you go upstairs to another lobby area. This area has all your normal ballgame food like hot dogs, pretzels and nachos. A full service bar was right next to this area. I need to get that Pirate Pretzel holder for my basement.
This was the view from our seats. It was absolutely perfect weather.
The Nationals got super pissy at Jung Ho Kang for pretending to catch a ball at third which induced a Bryce Harper slide. During the slide Harper hurt his hand and would later leave the game. Dusty Baker was shouting at the Pirates bench after checking on Harper. I guess I didn't really see the big issue as this done all the time at second base. Dusty is a big unwritten rule guy.
When Jung Ho Kang came up to bat the Nats pitcher threw one over his head. The umpire immediately threw him out and the benches cleared. For the most part it was a stupid baseball fight except for Sean Rodriguez (on the ground on the far left of the picture) had to be held back.
Cutch at the plate.
A picture of the pregame meal. Should have stolen a plate too.
Here are some pictures that I got on my phone. They will be much worse than the ones above.
Hey its Jesus....nope just Jayson Werth.
Fight!
The Pirates went on to lose the game, but it didn't really matter. This was all about the experience. I hope the opportunity comes up again soon.
Today my wife and I drove up to Pittsburgh to celebrate a friends birthday. We did a little tailgating and then went to the Buccos game. The weather was a little on the hot side but that is what you expect for July baseball.
Our seats were on the Clemente wall in left field. These are nice seats that give you a perched view of the action below. If you ever go to PNC it is definitely a unique perspective to watch a game there that I highly recommend.
As for the game itself it continued the trend of shitty pitching in the series. Jon Niese was abysmal while John Lackey was just a tick better. The Cubs would go on to win 6-5 thanks to a late inning single from Kris Bryant.
Yesterday my buddy and I decided to take the day off and head to Pittsburgh for some day baseball. Nothing beats having a Ferris Bueller day. We've done this several times over the years without a hitch. It is one of my favorite things to do in all the world.
The day turned out to be one that challenged our normal sunny outlook. First, the drive in was plagued by torrential downpours. Being that I'm from West Virginia I'm use to driving in all types of inclement weather, but this rain was so hard that it basically killed your visibility and traction. About 45 mins into the trip we were witness to a pretty serious 5 car wreck. It happened about 30 seconds ahead of us. The person in front of me hit their brakes hard so I had to do the same and cut really hard left so I wouldn't rear end them. Thankfully we came out unscathed. It was one of those moments where you don't say anything for a few minutes and then let out a deep breath. We continued to drive in torrential rain until we arrived in Pittsburgh.
With the close call behind us we were ready for an early lunch.
A Bloody Mary calms the nerves.
The extra bonus for this game was that it was a bobblehead giveaway.
Gerrit Cole camo!
The game itself was kind of a dud. The Pirates are in quite a tailspin. Both starting and relief pitching has been sub par and McCutchen has been a shell of himself so far this season. The Pirates really need to go on a nice run before the All Star break or else they will become sellers at the deadline. I guess the silver lining is that the core is all signed and the Pirates will probably call up a good bit of their young pitching.
Some pics from our seats. I was kind of surprised how good the crowd was. 30k for getaway day is top notch for the Buccos.
Since the game was over a little before 4pm we figured we head home before rush hour. It was a poor choice. Between what was likely another wreck and road closures it took me over an hour and fifteen minutes to reach the highway. The distance was probably the equivalent of two miles. Between the shitty weather and more road closures it took me over 3 hours to make it home. Normally the ride home is just a shade over an hour.
The experience didn't change my view about games, it is still my favorite thing to do. I guess if you do something enough you will always have that one time where things don't work out. Such is life I guess. Next time I'm going to casino right after the game and letting traffic die down. I might be broke by the time we leave but I won't be sitting in my car!
I went to the second half of the doubleheader on Tuesday against the Cubs with one of my bosses. Our original plan was to see about half the first game, but work obligations kept us in Morgantown too long. Either way it was a perfect day for a game.
I was able to get really nice tickets for the game so the pictures are a better than usual. My favorite part of the evening was watching David Ross. Ross doesn't play too much for the Cubs. He is to the point where he catches Jon Lester and is a defensive replacement. Boy does he love dropping the F bomb. At one point in the game he was trying to get to third base on a sac bunt attempt by Lester. It was a close play but he beat the throw to third. He would score soon after and upon returning to the dugout he screamed to his teammates "how bout that fucking slide bitches." It was hilarious and he had his teammates cracking up. A few parents in the front rows were not pleased, but they are idiots for not expecting that stuff from a major league dugout. Personally I thought it was a nice fucking slide too.....
Nice picture of Cutch at the plate.
I didn't realize I took some hipster black and white shot. Maybe I should do weddings.
I was digging the Kang-Ho shirt. Little did I know that Kang's season would end with a devastating leg injury thanks to Chris Coghlan two days later. I'm not that mad at Coghlan as baseball allows the runners to do that for some odd reason. Just upset that the Pirates have lost arguably their second best hitter this year for the playoff run. I'm glad the Pirates didn't start some kind of bean ball war. Unwritten baseball rules are stupid.
Nice view of the outfield. Like I said above, it was a perfect night.
Javier Baez and Addison Russel coming out of the dugout.
Jon Lester on deck.
The Pirates would lose the game, but it was a great night. I was hoping the Pirates could get into the weak Cubs bullpen, but Lester was very efficient. It pays to have big time starting pitching and the Cubs have two really good ones on top of their rotation.
Here are some pics of the Pirates game last night. It just so happened that it was Star Wars night as well! Lots of fun costumes could be found all over the stadium. I took the pictures from the stands, but stole a few pictures from the local news for some of the better costumes. I tried about a dozen times to take pictures of some good costumes, but it was just too crowded in the concourse.
Couple nice shots from my seats.
This picture cracks me up. My brother and a friend of mine have this ongoing battle to find obscure jerseys. I felt this was a rare find. It you notice right in the center their is a guy wearing a Nick Leyva jersey. Leyva is the first base coach for the Pirates! I feel this has to be one of my greatest finds.
Little Darth Vader was a couple rows in front of me.
Creepy mini Darth Maul.
Lots of Storm Troopers.
Kind of a cool shot of the skyline with a dressed up Parrot. My brother and law got this shot.
Pirate announcers.
Overall it was a great day. The Pirates won 4-1 behind some solid pitching and I even won a few bucks at the casino. Pirates start a big 4 game series with the Giants this weekend in which two games will be nationally televised. Pennant chase baseball!
This past weekend was a whirlwind. Right after work Friday I drove to Canaan Valley which is a ski resort about two hours away from my house. My wife's family gather there every year to hangout for a long weekend. While my time was short there it really is a beautiful area untouched by most commercial elements. It is the kind of place you want to go if you are looking for some isolation or possibly avoiding a warrant for your arrest.
I stole this picture, but this is a nice shot of the lodge.
My daughter approved of the swing. Even in the middle of summer it can get pretty cool in the evenings, hence her jacket.
The worst part of the weekend was the driving. On Saturday my wife and I hopped in the car and left Canaan to head to Pittsburgh. Mapquest said the trip should take a tad over 3 hours but it was closer to four when it was all said in done. The Pittsburgh area has a lot of major construction going on right now so in order to avoid even longer delays you have take a lot of back roads. While it was a little bit of an adventure we made it in plenty of time for the game.
It was a really nice day for a game. I'm a huge fan of the 4pm start times on Saturday. Good bit of Dodger fans at the game as usual when they make their yearly trip to PNC.
The game itself was very wild. Both Mat Latos and Francisco Liriano had command issues. The good thing is Liriano was able to do this....
If you don't follow the Pirates then it might be hard to fully appreciate this moment. Let's just say Francisco doesn't take his hitting that seriously. The homerun was his first ever extra base hit.
Good as time as any to show the Liriano silver frame. Liriano has so done a good job of justifying the 3yr 39mil contract the Pirates gave him. Every so often he'll have an outing like he did on Saturday, but for the most part he has given the Pirates some pretty dominating starts. The biggest downfall is that being a strikeout guy he often doesn't make it past 6 innings as the pitch count goes up.
The Pirates would go on to win the game 6-5 as the bullpen held the Dodgers to one run.
After the game we were treated to a show by O.A.R. They played for a little over an hour which gave them enough time to hit most of the songs you would want to hear from them. If you haven't seen or heard O.A.R before they are one of those bands that sound better live than on an album.
I pulled both pics from the bands twitter account. The stage is set up right behind second base.
The games had a lot of national tv exposure this weekend so of course you get a blimp.
After the game my wife and I went to Jerome Bettis's restaurant for some drinks. It was a pretty cool atmosphere as he was getting inducted into the Hall of Fame that night.
This is the mural that is hanging outside.
While it was an exhausting weekend, I did have a blast. With my work schedule and the craziness of every day life, my wife and I rarely get time together. This was a welcome mini vacation. The Pirates were able to cap off the weekend by completing the sweep on Sunday Night Baseball last night. The only frustrating thing is that the Cardinals sold their souls to the devil in order to win every game this year. You would hope to gain a game when you go 7-3 in your last ten, but the Cardinals also went 7 and 3.
