I haven’t been to Pittsburgh since sometime around 1971, when we ventured down from Canfield (bedroom community for the GM-Lordstown execs and Americana with a capital A) to see Grand Funk Railroad in concert. All I remembered about the city from that long-ago visit is the geography – hilly. I now have a new appreciation for that assessment. It’s really pretty cool – you enter and leave the city via tunnels – coming in, there are big green rolling hills and scattered developments. Then you enter a tunnel, come out the other side and, bam, Pittsburgh! Overall, it is very impressive. Apparently, a street grid was not high on the planners’ minds when they laid out downtown, but it wasn’t really a problem. There is a subway system that is remarkably clean and easy to use (free, within the downtown area, and $1.50 to get to a tourist area known as Station Square where we had to go to get our Hard Rock fix). There, we also took the Monongahela Incline up to a little neighborhood that overlooks the entire downtown area, all three rivers and both stadiums ( or is it stadia?). We ate lunch at a very good, and friendly bar/restaurant called The Shiloh Street Grille and Upstairs at the Shiloh, watched some Cubs on TV and then headed back to the hotel. (Commercial interruption – I’d like to give a brief plug to Hotwire.com. Yes, I’m clearly a late-adpoter – never used it before. We took a flyer this time and ended up with a home run. We stayed at the Omni in downtown, a classic old hotel, also known as the William Penn, for a rate that I won’t print that, let’s just say, was less than half to a third of the regular weekday rate. Outstanding!) Through our friend Jeff in Chicago, we also got to spend a little time with San Diego Padres pitcher Mike Adams. We met him at the team hotel and talked baseball, traveling, and stadiums (Mike’s favorites, away from home, of course, St. Louis, Pittsburgh). With a 19 month old daughter and wife at home, traveling isn’t great, but Mike says he is doing what he loves and he really likes life in San Diego. We presented Mike with some PEAKS to try out and must have brought him good luck, because he pitched nearly two solid innings in relief and helped protect the Padres’ win.

PNC Park was, in a word, great. On game days, the city closes the Roberto Clemente bridge (not to be confused with the Roberto Clemente river walk, the Roberto Clemente Dipping Dots stand or the seventh inning stretch, brought to you by Roberto Clemente) to cars, and you absolutely have to walk to the field across it. There are statues to Clemente, Willie Stargell and Honus Wagner situated around the park and, like Cincinnati, the feel is open and light. The main concourse is open to the field all around (a feature that we are coming to require if the park is to get a favorable rating from us), and there is an excellent view of downtown, the river and the RC Bridge from many areas inside the park. The Royals scoreboard still rules, but PNC has a nice feature in right field that shows every game in progress with a combination of old-style manual plaques and electronics.

I was psyched to try the local perogies, apparently a Pittsburgh staple, only to find them sold out by the 6th inning. I settled for a very good Keilbasa with peppers and onions (and woke myself up all night). I’d have to say the fans here were not as friendly as at Cincy (I think there they secretly sensed I was a native Buckeye). We didn’t really talk to anyone during the game (maybe it was the peppers), but we had a great game overall. Next up, we traverse the Keystone state and head for the land of crabs, Maryland.

THE PNC STADIUM EXPERIENCE
Home Runs
The Park – for all the reasons above – the views, the sight lines, the open concourse, the scoreboards
The City – Pittsburgh, like Kansas City, lives on a river, three in fact but Pittsburgh, unlike KC, actually uses its rivers – there are riverboat cruises, river taxis, and general personal watercraft sailing all the time – it really defines and enhances the personality of the city. Plus, the streets are very walkable, if not a bit convoluted and things like the subways and inclines are nice additions
The Omni – classy hotel, made even better by a great deal

Passed Balls
Not much to complain about here – Kudos to Pittsburgh and the Pirates

TRIP STATS

Cumulative Miles Traveled - Pittsburgh – 888
Mileage to date - 27.5

Free hat night!