I went to Pittsburgh on Memorial Day Weekend for a couple Dodgers-Pirates games. Of the top 17 in my stadium rankings, the only ones that I hadn’t been to more than once were PNC Park, Kauffman Stadium, Great American Ballpark, Safeco Field, and Busch Stadium. Of those, PNC was the highest ranked so I definitely wanted to get back and the Dodgers were playing there on a holiday weekend so it worked out (I’d love to get back to Kauffman Stadium and I think the Dodgers are playing there next year so that might happen). So I was off to Pittsburgh on an eight-hour bus ride on Saturday morning. I got to Pittsburgh around 4:40 and considered going to a vigil mass, but my bus got in just late enough that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the 5:00 mass at the church closest to my hotel. So I relaxed for a little bit and then headed to the ballpark.
The forecast for both days was questionable. It wasn’t raining when I got there, but after taking a lap around the ballpark, I went to my seat close to when the game was supposed to start and they still had the pitcher’s mound and home plate area covered. Nobody was warming up so I knew the start would be delayed. They probably could have started the game on time and played an inning or two, but the rain did come. There definitely would have been a delay and both teams might have lost their starting pitchers because of that. So I figured I might as well get some food while I was waiting for the game to start. I got boneless wings from Quaker Steak and Lube, which was on the Adam Richman Pittsburgh episode of Man vs. Food. I got the wings with the Louisiana Lickers sauce (partially because they were listed as LA Lickers and I was rooting for the LA Dodgers). The wings were pretty good (I liked the LA Lickers much better than the LA Lakers), but they could have been a little bit hotter (as in temperature). When the rain came, I moved up to covered seats but the wind kind of nullified the point of sitting there, but I had a poncho that I bought at a Notre Dame football game years ago that came in handy. They were showing the Braves-Cardinals on the video board during the delay so that was cool. When the rain stopped, I watched the grounds crew get the field ready for a little bit. They took off the tarp and you could see the infield dirt stuck to the underside of the dirt. I’ve seen that before, but what I don’t think I had ever seen before was the grounds crew salvaging the dirt (I tried to find the clip of Kramer salvaging the barbecue sauce, but that doesn’t appear to be on YouTube). They used leaf blowers, shovels, and wheelbarrows to recover the dirt from the tarp. I timed my trip for a beer so that I’d be at my seat in time for the start of the game. I got a Firehouse Red from the North Country Brewing Company in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. It was pretty solid, but I do have a criticism of PNC Park’s beer selection. It’s not bad, but there weren’t enough options on the upper level where I was sitting. There’s one bar behind home plate that had a pretty good selection (it could be better, but it definitely wasn’t bad), but that was pretty much it. On the lower level, there were little stands that had other options. They could use that on the upper level as well.
This was the second straight game that I went to with Hyun-Jin Ryu facing the Pirates. In Los Angeles, he gave up two runs in seven innings and got the win. He gave up one run in his next start and was coming in with 31 consecutive scoreless innings. He got to 32. The Pirates scored two in the second to take a 2-1 lead. Ryu allowed ten hits in six innings, but those were the only two runs he gave up. Ryu gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead with an RBI double on a deep fly ball to right center in the fourth. He didn’t miss a home run by much. The Dodgers took control of the game in the fifth. They started the inning with back to back to back doubles by Max Muncy, Corey Seager, and Cody Bellinger. The Dodgers ended up winning 7-2. This was a weird game for 2019. The teams combined for 24 hits, no home runs, and only eight strikeouts.
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| It would have been nice to watch some of the game from this view before the sun set. You can see the Roberto Clemente Bridge crossing the Allegheny River. |
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| This is what it looked like by the time of the first pitch. |
On Sunday, I went to the 10:30 mass at St. Peter’s in Pittsburgh. Again, the forecast was bad. It rained during mass, but that was done by the time mass ended. After mass, I walked down to PNC Park and took pictures of the statues outside the park. They have statues of Honus Wagner, Bill Mazeroski, Willie Stargell, and Roberto Clemente. The game didn’t start until 1:35 so I got a ride to the Church Brew Works, which was on the Casey Webb version of Man vs. Food. The building was St. John the Baptist Catholic Church until it was closed in 1993. In 1996, the building became the Church Brew Works. They kept all the stained glass windows. To drink, I had the Pious Monk Dunkel. I think a Dunkel is pretty safe. I’m probably going to like it, but I probably won’t love it. It was good, but nothing special. To eat, I had the same thing Casey had, the buffalo chicken pierogi sauté. It was pretty tasty, but it could have used some blue cheese chunks in there.
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| Honus Wagner is a Hall of Famer. He was the anti-Ty Cobb, but he's probably best known for having the most valuable baseball card of all time. |
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| A meal straight out of Man vs. Food. |
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| It's sad when a church closes, but at least the building is being put to good use. |
Then I headed back to the stadium. The forecast kept improving. On Saturday night and Sunday morning it had been like 80-90% chance of rain/thunderstorms in the afternoon and cloudy when it wasn’t supposed to be raining. My bus back to New York wasn’t until 11:00 so a rain delay wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world, but the rain held off. Actually, there was a decent amount of sun. After the second inning, I had to buy overpriced sunscreen at the team store. I had packed sunscreen, but I didn’t bring it with me and I didn’t think to put it on because of the forecast. It was definitely needed.
Anyway, this game was Kenta Maeda vs. Chris Archer. I saw the Dodgers beat Archer in Los Angeles so I was hoping for the same result again. I was also hoping that Clayton Kershaw would be pitching. Maeda was on the injured list (his injury was that the Dodgers had four off days in two weeks and only needed four starters) and this was the first day he was eligible to come back. Kershaw would have been on regular rest. So I figured they’d either bring back Maeda as soon as possible or they’d wait until they needed a fifth starter again. But they went with Maeda and Kershaw pitched the next day back in Los Angeles. The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead on a home run by Corey Seager in the second. Again, the Pirates came back and took the lead. Josh Bell hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the second. Again, the Pirates couldn’t hold the lead. Matt Beaty had a two-run single in the fifth and Corey Seager followed with an RBI groundout. Chris Archer was fortunate to only give up four runs in five innings. He allowed six hits and six walks. The Dodgers took control in the sixth. They scored six in an inning that featured a Joc Pederson home run and consecutive batters being hit by pitches with the bases loaded. The Dodgers ended up winning 11-7. Justin Turner had five singles in five at bats plus a walk. I’ll just note that I like Dave Roberts, but I have my questions about the lineup. Cody Bellinger has been hitting fourth pretty consistently. That’s better than when he was hitting sixth in Chicago, but you have to make sure he comes up in the first inning. Also, in this game Matt Beaty was hitting ahead of Corey Seager. Both are left handed, Seager is starting to hit (he was struggling for a while), and Matt Beaty has never done anything in the Majors.
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| My view on Sunday |
I didn’t have anything to eat or drink at the game because I went to the Church Brew Works before the game and I was planning on going to another Man vs. Food spot, Primanti Brothers, after the game. There’s one across the bridge and fairly close to the stadium. That’s the one Jon took me to seven years ago. I decided to take the longer walk (about a mile and a half) to the original location because I figured there wouldn’t be as big of a crowd. I had the same thing Adam had (the same thing I had seven years ago), the capicola and cheese with a fried egg. Like Lucky’s in Chicago, they put fries and coleslaw on the sandwich. It’s very good, but the egg doesn’t add a whole lot because it pretty much gets overwhelmed by everything else on the sandwich.
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| Another meal right out of Man vs. Food. |
After going to Wrigley Field in April (for the first time since the renovations were complete), I said I had to wait and see if I would put it ahead of PNC Park. My stadium rankings are not based on any mathematical formula or anything like that. I might have explained this on the blog before, but here’s how I rank them: Imagine that all 30 teams were eliminated and replaced with 30 completely new teams using the current stadiums and I own one of the teams. Which stadium would I want my team to play in? The obvious answer would be Citi Field since I live on Long Island, but let’s assume I can live anywhere I want. Which stadium would I pick? That’s based on location, design of the stadium, food and beverage, history, atmosphere, and whatever else I want to throw into the mix. Based on all that, PNC Park is the best one built during my lifetime. But I’m taking Wrigley Field ahead of it. So since my last rankings, I’ve moved Wrigley Field ahead of Kauffman Stadium, Petco Park, and PNC Park. The renovations were helpful. They definitely improved their beer selection (which could still be better). The history isn’t as great as you might think since Wrigley Field went 101 years between championship baseball teams playing there (the 1915 Chicago Whales of the Federal League and the 2016 Cubs), but it gets points for being around since 1914. Since the Cubs have been good for a while now, the atmosphere is definitely better than the three that I moved it ahead of. Petco Park and PNC Park both have great locations, but so does Wrigley Field. The ivy gives Wrigley Field something unique.
Other than the Dodgers, I want to see teams with good stadiums do well and make the playoffs because I don’t want to watch playoff games at Tropicana Field or wherever. So here’s my ideal group of playoff teams:
NL West: Dodgers
NL Central: Cubs
NL East: Nationals Park
NL Wild Cards: Pirates and Padres (the Giants would be next according to my stadium rankings, but they’re still last on the list)
AL West: Mariners (it’s been a long time)
AL Central: Royals
AL East: Red Sox
AL Wild Cards: Twins and Yankees (I do have Camden Yards one spot ahead of Yankee Stadium, but come on, the playoffs are more fun with the Yankees involved, and my dream World Series would be the Dodgers beating the Yankees, followed by the Dodgers beating the Red Sox)
It was a good time in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is an underrated city. They have a great ballpark. I went to my first college football game there (a 42-21 win for Notre Dame over Pittsburgh to start the 2005 season). And it was Gotham City in the Dark Knight Rises. It was fun to be back. I’ve now seen the Dodgers play in 10 National League stadiums. The ones I haven’t seen the Dodgers play in are Marlins Park, Suntrust Park, Busch Stadium, Great American Ballpark, and Miller Park. I don’t really need to see the Dodgers play in any of those stadiums, but it would be cool to see Dodgers-Cardinals in St. Louis. Maybe if they play the Cardinals and Royals on the same road trip and it’s during the summer next year, I might have to make that happen.
I’ll finish up with this. It was just announced that the Braves are getting the All Star Game in 2021. The Indians have it this year and the Dodgers have it next year. The Phillies get it in 2026 to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday. Here’s how I would do the next decade plus of All Star Games:
2019: Cleveland- this was already decided. The last All Star Game in Cleveland was in 1997.
2020: Los Angeles- this was already decided. Dodger Stadium is overdue as the last one there was in 1980.
2021: Atlanta- this was already decided. The last one in Atlanta was 2000, but that was at Turner Field.
2022: Baltimore- the last one there was in 1993.
2023: Wrigley Field- I would have had this in 2022, but I decided not to go with three straight in NL stadiums. The last one at Wrigley Field was 1990 and the last one in Chicago was 2003.
2024: Texas- the last one there was in 1995. This would be the fifth year of their new stadium.
2025: Boston- the last one there was 1999. It would also mark the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War in Massachusetts.
2026: Philadelphia- this was already decided. The last one there was 1996.
2027: Seattle- I wanted an AL stadium and I didn’t want three straight in the Northeast. The last one there was 2001.
2028: Colorado- It’s a nice stadium even though baseball at altitude doesn’t work. The last one there was 1998.
2029: Yankee Stadium- It will be the 20th anniversary of the new Yankee Stadium. The last one at the old stadium was 2008. The last All Star Game in New York was 2013.
2030: Pittsburgh- I certainly would have used Pittsburgh earlier, but I was ending some longer All Star Game droughts. The last one there was 2006.
2031: Expansion city or new stadium for the A’s or Rays
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