Take Me Out

Two members of Carmen's congregation, Kathy and Doug, go to Pittsburgh to see Pirates games fairly frequently. They learned that I have been watching their games on TV as often as I can, so they invited us to join them. We were excited about the prospect of a fun trip to Pittsburgh, so we jumped at it.

Knowing that the game would likely end around 10:00, and possibly much later, we decided to spend the night. Kathy is a Groupon whiz, so she got us a great deal on two rooms at the Wyndham, in addition to discount game tickets.An overnight stay meant making some sort of arrangements for Grace. As members of the Conneaut Lake Bark Park, we knew that we could put her up in their kennel and that she would be well cared for. We had done that for two nights while I was having my hip replaced, and she had survived it just fine.

So Wednesday morning we made ready for our first great fun adventure in many years. To start with, I let Grace take me over to her best friend Mocha's house, where they played and ran and wrestled for nearly an hour. This always puts her in a good mood, and helps her to sleep through the day. I showered up and dressed in clean jeans and one of the Pirates tee shirts scored for us by Kathy. We loaded the car with our overnight bags, one for Carmen, one for Grace and one for me, and off we went.

It's hard to leave our little girl with strangers. Grace looked reproachful as she watched us walk away. But we soldiered on back to the car and drove away with a mixture of sadness and feeling free. A two hour drive, guided by Hermione the GPS, brought us to the front door of the Wyndham. Kathy was out front having a smoke when we pulled up. We checked in and took our bags up to the room, then hurried back down to their car. They had scoped out a Mexican restaurant earlier that day, and made reservations for four of us. As it turned out, we were the only ones there at 5:00. After a very yummy dinner, we hurried back to the hotel to catch the shuttle van to PNC Park.

It turned out to be a long wait for the van. She had just left for PNC a few minutes before we got back. But we waited. Of course, the game was under way when we were dropped at the near end of Roberto Clemente Bridge. We joined the crowd walking across. The bridge is closed to vehicles on game nights. We walked around to the far side of the stadium, to section 108, waited for a break in the action, and made our way down to row D. Excellent seats.

Things have changed in baseball stadia since 1973, the last time I attended a major league game. At Memorial Stadium in Baltimore there were lights, speakers and a mechanical scoreboard. Now it's all about electronics. The scoreboard is a huge screen that shows pictures of the batters, pitchers and whoever else they want to show, runs replays in slow motion and includes stats and bios. Between half-innings there are goofy things going on, such as air-powered bazookas that shoot hot dogs or tee shirts into the crowd. Potato Pete won the pierogie race, narrowly beating Oliver Onion, Chester Cheese and Jalapeno Hanna. Oh yes, and there was a baseball game going on as well.

 Our favorite player, Andrew McCutchen was still out with a cracked rib, and Kathy's favorite, Neil Walker, was still out with lower back pain and tightness, but Gregory Polonco and Josh Harrison both continued to take up the slack and drive the Pirates to a 7-3 victory. A good time was had by all!

 Then we had to get back to the hotel. The plan was to take a cab, since the hotel shuttle van's last run of the night was at 9:30. We were unsuccessful snagging one on the traffic-clogged streets behind the stadium, but a policeman directing traffic suggested we try the nearby hotel driveway. We walked over there and asked the valet parking guy if taxis came through here. He got on the phone and called his buddy, who drives a Cranberry cab. Twenty minutes was his buddy's ETA, and we said that was fine. We stood around/sat around chatting for about an hour. A couple of times he had to go inside, and he begged us to please wait for his buddy. Several cabs came and went, and even a pizza delivery vehicle came asking if we needed a ride someplace. We turned them all down. Finally,after an hour or so, he called his buddy again. When he disconnected, he apologized and said that we should get back however we can. Traffic was much better by then, and Doug just walked out to the street and snagged a cab. Minutes later, we were back at the Wyndham.

 There was a doorknob-hanging breakfast menu in the room. If we hung it on the outside of the door before midnight, breakfast would be delivered to our room at the time we specified. We marked up our order to be delivered between 9 and 9:30. We were awakened at 9:00 by a call letting us know that breakfast was on its way up. It was very yummy and the coffee was extra good. We showered and dressed and slipped out of town before lunch time traffic started up.

 Two hours later, a forlorn little dog saw me through the glass of the daycare room.We took her for a nice long walk around the Bark Park, and headed home, twenty four hours and many fun memories later.