I returned to the city of my first college football game

I know I've been slacking on the posting lately.  I was down after the Celtics missed their chance to get to the Finals.  Maybe I'll have more to say about that later.  But it was quite a run by Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen the last five years.  I'll always be thankful for 2008.


Anyway, for my latest trip, I returned to Pittsburgh, the city where I attended my first college football game seven years ago.  The other thing I always think about when I think about Pittsburgh is the confluence of the three rivers.  I remember John Madden saying, "Whenever you come to Pittsburgh, you have to talk about the confluence because that's the only time you'll ever get to use the word confluence."


I took the bus because I got a round trip for $45.  It was a long bus ride, but that was fine because I brought season 1 of Man v. Food on DVD.  Between two eight hour bus rides, I was able to watch all 18 episodes.  It was awesome.


When I got to Pittsburgh, I met my friend Jon and his girlfriend Maggie and we went to Primanti Brothers, one of Adam Richman's favorite places in Pittsburgh.  I had the same sandwich that Adam had on Man v. Food and Best Sandwich in America, capicola and egg.  It was different from any sandwich I've ever had with the fries on the sandwich.  That was a nice touch.  The egg didn't add much though.  I didn't really taste it on the sandwich with so much meat.

Capicola, egg, cheese, fries, and cole slaw all on the sandwich

On Saturday morning, Jon and I got breakfast before heading downtown.  I had blueberry pancakes, which were excellent.  We went downtown and enjoyed some Summer Ales before the game.  It was the first afternoon game I've been to this season, so that was good.  As we walked across the bridge to the stadium, a guy on the bridge with a saxophone noticed the Notre Dame hats that Jon and I were wearing so he played the Victory March.  That was pretty awesome.  We got to the game early so that we could walk around the stadium.  We got Bud Lights as our Walking Around the Stadium Beers.  They were filled up from the bottom.  It was pretty cool.  When I was almost done with it, I spilled what was left because I was playing with the cup and trying to figure out how it was filled up from the bottom.


We had another Summer Ale in the bar on the club level before the game.  For the game, we were supposed to be out beyond third base, but we sat behind home on the club level.  The view of the city was awesome.  Brad Lincoln started for the Pirates against Max Scherzer (most famous for having eyes that are two different colors) for the Tigers.  Lincoln had a no hitter until Ramon Santiago led off the sixth with a single.  When do you start getting excited about the possibility of a no hitter?  I think we were right there.  Once a pitcher gets through five with a no hitter, he's more than halfway there.  I think it's appropriate to start getting excited at that point and you keep getting more and more excited as the game goes on.  So yeah, I had started to get excited, but that didn't last long.  Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run homer in the fourth and that was all the Pirates needed.  They ended up winning 4-1.

Great view of the city

After the game, Jon and I had dinner at Finnigan's Wake, a bar and restaurant where I went with Jorge, Mike, and Dane to celebrate Notre Dame's 42-21 win over Pittsburgh to start the 2005 season.  That was one of the best nights of my life.  This trip was a good reminder of that weekend.  And PNC Park ranks very high on the list of stadiums I've been to so far, which now stands at 14.  I've been meaning to do a few posts that rank the stadiums, and hopefully I'll get to that soon, but PNC Park was great.  Next up is Phoenix.

Hopefully the next time I see Jon, we'll celebrate a victory over Michigan.