Tuesday, March 29, 2011

#4 PNC park in Pittsburgh

From the desk of the CEO of Folan.com, for everything:

Baseball trip park number four is surprisingly PNC Park in Pittsburgh!



There are very few rules in the baseball trip but one is last guy on board picks the park and I'm not sure who picked this one but I do know that I was surprised by the selection but it made its way to the top 5 so what do I know!! The other travel rule at Whitley Travel is last bag out of the baggage claim that guy pays the cab, believe me when I tell you the airport to the hotel ride was EXPENSIVE! Anytime you're on the highway for as long as we were I knew I was screwed!! It was so bad when we actually got to the hotel D actually said you want to split it but I declined cuz  I WAS ON VACATION( Beverly Hills Cop reference) !!

A key to a good baseball trip is your hotel is close to the park and this hotel was a Smiddy throw away and we know that kid's got an arm like a broad! We were right next door!! This trip was looking good already! Speaking of looking good Derek bet me I wouldn't keep a stache the whole trip, I thought Pittsburgh was known for staches so I walked around like I was Sid Bream the whole trip and D bought me starbucks each day I kept it!!

 Winning before Sheen knew what winning was DUH! Chrissy, Derek and myself came together and then Smiddawg and Jeffrey on a later flight so we had a full crew! I'm the ticket guy so I bought sweet 26 dollar tickets for all ( yup 3 rows from right field for 26 bucks haha!!) The night of the game we had all been out during the day taking in lovely Pittsburgh. Heinz field was within walking distance from PNC park (The Penguins arena is in the middle of the ghetto, we only saw it when driving by in a taxi) and our hotel so we checked out the Steelers stadium, we had to hold Smiddy back from trying to burn it to the ground. Smiddy and Chrissy left the bar earlier(by at least 45 minutes) than the rest of us so they could shower and get ready.

When we finally finished our drinks and headed back to the hotel to get meet up, changed and pick up the tickets,  Smid was taking a little too long getting himself Smiduated so D says we cant wait any longer and we headed outside the room to get an elevator. Well what seemed like an hour could have been 15 mins but we waited and the group decision was made to leave Smid and Chrissy their tickets ON THE FLOOR OUTSIDE THE ELEVATOR and Jeffrey, D and myself head off to the game! 


We grab our Rennie Stennett bobblehead ( went 7-7 in a 9 inning game and basically was a solid player that Pittsburgh loved) I  was ready to go!! We text Smid and Chrissy and apparently someone took the tickets ( oopsy) so they checked the front desk and no-go and either out of anger or cheapness they decided not to buy another 26 dollar seat so they headed out and met Sammy Hager at Cabo Wabo or something and we went in and saw the park and a wonderful game!!
 
    A great part of going to another city is seeing what they have to offer and D is big into the cooking shows and Man Vs Food so we had to check out the original Primanti Brothers. I'll be honest I'm not the food guy Smiddy is ( you've seen his reviews for this very blog) but  I like a good sandwich so I was excited. We show up and its sort of a hole in the wall but that doesn't bother me I'm looking for a menu and the old rough waitress comes over and says its on the wall you guys ready and stares at me! Not going to lie I was hung over and just blurted out I'll take the bologna and cheese cuz it was first thing on the menu!! For those that don't know Primanti  Brothers comes with the meat, fries and cole slaw all in some great fresh bread this is one of the best sandwiches I've ever had!! Definitely a highlight!! Couple more non baseball items being the first to a Gentlemen's Club is not a creepy as it seems and the employees at such clubs are friendly although a member of the crew was FALSELY accused of dehumanizing an employee? Sometimes Boston humor is only funny in Boston I guess? 
 
Also there's a Jerome Bettis restaurant, Grille 36, that serves deep fried hamburgers ( heard they weren't that good) and they have 24oz glasses you could buy or if you"re adept at forgetting to leave the glass on your table you could acquire it as a keepsake! There is also a bar in this lovely city that has a resident midget. YOU HEARD ME.  The bars are filled with people and  are very accommodating (full disclosure on the next trip) and willing to talk to you  even invite you to an after hours place with poker machines that pay out!! Good luck trying to collect on one of those in Boston if you win like a member of the crew did. All in all the night life there was superb!! We also were able to get game day tickets for another game as Mannywood has just started and the Dodgers were in town!!  LF seats few rows from Manny 35 bucks day of the game! Suck that Sox Nation!!
 
 
  Chrissy hadn't made it into the park so this was a great chance for him to see PNC( kind of the reason we came ha) so we snatched up some tickets. Jeffrey and Smid had an earlier flight out so Smid never did get inside the stadium. We had hit Pittsburgh pretty hard and me and my stache were feeling it so we went to the game and I was dragging. We checked out our seats- AWESOME and then I look over and see a kid about 14 trying to reach for a ball about 10 ft away on the field during bp. Look I'm no saint but wtf I'll help him out so I head over and D and Chrissy stay at the seats. I say hey Ill hold your legs reach over and grab it. (everyone knows or so I assumed that as long as your feet aren't on the field you're good). Junior isn't having it, says no way he can reach it. I say I'll get it hold my feet and me and my stache make an attempt, no go so I take off my hat and reel it in with that!! Feet on the railing  the whole time, feeling like a king I turn to hand the kid the ball and I hear yelling! 5-0, Po-Po, Pittsburgh's finest coming my way!! Now Im standing there kid takes off and these two hardasses come over to me. First guy "whats going to stop me from taking you to jail?" I said excuse me? for what?  Second cop " trespassing sir, you went on the field" I said no I reached over and got this ball for that kid (who's now gone) First cop repeats and would continue to repeat "WHAT'S GOING TO STOP ME FROM TAKING YOU TO JAIL"?   I look over at D and Chrissy who are laughing and Chrissy snapping pics like he works for TMZ. I said look I dont know what to tell you, fields empty and there's not a person around, I didn't go on the field I reached over if you want me to leave the park or something I will. Officer One asked me again and the second cop says stay off the field or I'm going to jail. This ordeal seemed like it took an hour. They asked to see the ball I said I'm keeping it and Cop one said its not even a good one probably trying to goad me one last time, I said yup and walked over to the boys. I saw the young kid he watched from the tunnel and said "they let you keep it" I nodded and said sorry buddy went thru too much to give it to you now. 
 
The ball, rennie stennett, the jerome bettis glass and a ton of laughs made it safely home from an excellent trip! Up next San Diego..........................

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Smiddy didnt even get in the stadium? Some baseball trip!!

Chrissy said...

Having "the bus" walk by us at his place was cool but how could you leave out meeting the other famous bar owner?? Steve MacDonald, jeffreys idol, who was the 8th ranked strongest man competitor!! Fucking passport issues cost him the championship