PNC Park
Pittsburgh, PA
San Diego Padres at Pittsburgh Pirates
July 30, 2003
By
Ken Schlapp
 We
started our day, by heading to the University of Pittsburgh, which
is where Forbes Field, the home of the Pirates from 1909 to 1970,
used to stand. The brick ivy-covered outfield wall with the
436-foot marker still stands there today for fan viewing. More
importantly though, is the plaque on the ground marking the spot
where Bill Mazzeroski hit his dramatic game 7 home run against the
Yankees in the bottom of the 9th inning to win the World
Series on October 13, 1960. In fact, every October 13th,
Pirates fans gather at this spot to listen to the radio announcement
of that amazing home run. Home plate is also displayed behind glass
within the University, but unfortunately for me (not Efrem), that
part of the University was under construction an inaccessible to us
this day.
As for PNC Park, we were lucky enough
to get a tour of the stadium prior to the game. Efrem and I got to
PNC Park around noon to pick up the two tour tickets left for us by
Michael Weller of the Pirates where we were guided on a great tour
by Margie and Keith. We got to learn about the history of the
Pirates stadiums, the intricacies of PNC park and get to walk
through areas, such as the dugout, which was an opportunity that you
do not always get (without paying for a tour of course).
 To
start, I will say that PNC Park is a beautiful stadium that fits
perfectly within the city and its surroundings. In fact, I will
happily add that Pittsburgh itself was a much nicer city than I had
previously been led to believe. PNC Park has a yellow limestone
exterior that melds in with all of the yellow bridges in view beyond
the outfield walls. Specifically, the Roberto Clemente Bridge
stands out the most. The bridge is located right outside of the
stadium and allows fans to walk from downtown directly to the
ballpark (cars are not allowed to cross the bridge on game days).
Roberto Clemente is revered in many ways throughout PNC Park as well
(as he should be). There is a statue of him overlooking left field
that faces right field, which where he starred for so long in a
Pirates uniform. In addition, the right field wall is 21 feet high
in honor of his uniform number.
Although the Pirates only began
playing at PNC Park for the 2001 season, they have not forgotten
about their past in any way. In addition to the Roberto Clemente
statue overlooking left field, there is a Honus Wagner statue in
front of the home plate entrance, a Willie Stargell statue by the
left field gate and a statue of Ralph Kiner’s hands holding a bat by
left field as well. The Kiner statue commemorates his seven
consecutive home run titles as a Pirate. There was also a strange
dinosaur statue outside the stadium by the Outback Steakhouse, of
which I have no understanding. The Pirates display retired numbers
of their former greats along the upper deck façade. Some of those
retired players include Ralph Kiner (4), Bill Mazeroski (9), Pie
Traynor (20), and Roberto Clemente (21).
Our tour officially started with the
Kiner Statue, but passed through the exit walkways, which are
adorned with pictures of baseball cards of past and current
Pirates. I love the fact that this display includes the most famous
baseball card of all time, which is the 1909 Honus Wagner card, as
well as lesser-known players, such as the 1975 Topps Frank Tavarez
card. Since 1975 is when I started collecting cards, I remember the
Tavarez card quite well, not to mention that he later became a Met.
 From
there, we went up to the press area, which is located above the
upper deck or 2nd deck, since there are only two tiers to
PNC Park. Our guides informed us that the stadium was built this
way to ensure that the fans had a better view than the press, which
I think is a fantastic idea. The interesting thing about this
though is that even though we were above the upper deck, due to the
small size of this stadium, we still had a good view. At this
level, we appeared to be at a height that is lower than the upper
deck at Shea Stadium. In addition to the great view of the stadium,
you have a great view of Pittsburgh’s downtown and the yellow
bridges connecting across the river to the stadiums (plural since
the Steelers Heinz Field is next door).
In continuing on our view from the
press level, you get a clear angle on both side-by-side bullpens in
left center field as well as the batter’s eye in center field that
includes pine trees since the stadium’s location is near to where
most Christmas trees come from. You can also see the river that
some, but not many home runs end up in beyond right field. They
originally thought there would be frequent splash hit like in San
Francisco’s PacBell Park, but at the time of our visit, only Darryl
Ward had hit one in the river on the fly in 2002. You also notice
the giant jumbotron over the left field seats and the out-of-town
scoreboard on the right field wall. The great thing about the
out-of-town scoreboard is that it has a diamond for each game that
lets you know (via electronic lights) what base runners are
currently on and how many out there are in addition to the score.
This was the first of the new stadiums to include this feature,
which is great.
Then for the simply fun part, we got
to go into the Pirates
 dugout
along the 3rd base side to take pictures of us sitting
inside and get a great up-close view of the field. The tour guides
pointed out the kids section with a small wiffle-ball stadium and a
playground beyond the right field bleachers and next to the river.
Then more importantly, they told us about the food options in the
stadium. The famous spots were Willie Stargell’s Chicken on the
Hill stand and Manny Sanguillen’s BBQ, where he can often be found
signing autograph’s (and he was on this night, but I did not wait on
line to get one). Some famous local fare includes Mrs. T’s
Pierogies and Primante Brothers sandwiches, which is famous for
their meat, cheese, hand-cut French fries, tomatoes, and coleslaw
between two slices of Italian bread signature sandwich. We went for
one of those after the tour, which was quite different, but still
good.
Another tidbit that we learned on the
tour was that the seats are blue to match those that were in Forbes
Field, which is where the Pirates played prior to Three-Rivers
Stadium or two stadiums ago. The seats are also curved and cozy and
offer a good view from any location. The stadium lights were also
styled to look like those in older stadiums.
Once the tour was over, we took a walk
around the stadium, across the Clemente Bridge, and into the city.
The first part of walking around the stadium was to walk to the
parking lot between PNC Park and Heinz Field, which was the Location
of Exhibition Park, where the Pirates played from 1891 to 1909.
This was where the Pirates played the very first World Series in
1903 against the Boston Pilgrims. There is a painted marker of a
home plate in the parking lot to signify this historical event on
the spot where home plate was believed to be. In addition, there
are the other three bases to form the baseball diamond approximately
where it had once been. For me, the most fun about stopping here to
take pictures was the argument discussion I had with Efrem
over stopping here and taking a picture. He does not care at all
about this and only wants to see existing stadiums, while I want to
see the old sites as well. He was stuck several times with me
dragging him to the old sites, and I honestly did not feel bad about
it. The sad thing though, was that there was absolutely nothing to
commemorate or mark the spot of Three Rivers Stadium, where the
Prates played from 1970 to 2000. Therefore, Efrem got off easy!
Aside from the stop at old Exhibition
Stadium, the walk across the bridge allowed us to get great views of
PNC Park and Heinz Field from both the bridge and across the river.
Walking through the city was nice too. I will reiterate that I
really liked Pittsburgh, when I was led to believe it was a dump.
After our walk around the city, we
headed back to PNC Park about 1.5 hours prior to the game, which is
when the gate opens. This gave us the opportunity to walk around
the wide concourses (which all of the new stadiums now have) and see
the team banners and all the food stands that our tour guides told
us about, before we sat down in the great seats (right over the
Pirates dugout) that the Pirates gave us to watch the game.
The Padres opened up the scoring in
the top of the 2nd on 4 singles by Phil Nevin, Rondell
White, Sean Burroughs, and pitcher Brian Lawrence, who drove in both
runs with his single. Lawrence was pitching as well as he was
hitting until the 4th inning, when the Pirates got to
Lawrence on a single by Abraham Nunez, a double by Matt Stairs and
a 3-run home from Reggie Sanders, which set off the stadium
fireworks and gave the Pirates the lead. Nunez started another
rally in the 6th with a walk in front of Brian Giles home
run, which was quickly followed by another Stairs double and another
homer from Sanders, but of the 2-run variety this time. This final
blow by Sanders knocked Lawrence out of the game after giving up 7
runs on 3 homers, 6 hits, and 2 walks, while striking out 6. The
Padres would do little else the rest of the way other than pitcher
Jaret Wright striking out the side in the 7th inning.
The Pirates Kip Wells got the win by
allowing only 2 runs over 6 innings on 4 hits, 2 walks and 3
strikeouts. However, Reggie Sanders was clearly the star of the
game with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. Strikeout king Jose Hernandez came
through with flying colors by whiffing in all 4 of his at bats and
Brian Meadows closed things out with a rare 3-inning save. Some
other interesting in-game features included:
A hearing-impaired board in right
center field
Their fan patrol shooting hot dogs
instead of T-Shirts
The Pirates had a parrot mascot
They have a K-Corner that would have
been more interesting tracking the Pirates batters 11 Ks rather than
their pitchers 5 Ks
Bottom line – PNC Park is one of the
most beautiful and cozy Stadiums that exist. This will clearly rank
very high on my list. From the coziness of the stadium, to the food
options and the surrounding view of the city, this is a great place
to see a game.
Basic trip facts:
-Stadium # 30
-Old Stadium Sites visited – Forbes Field & Exhibition Stadium
(Total – 21)
-Under construction Stadium Sites visited – None (Total – 2)
-Miles traveled – 27 via Car (Totals: Driving – 17,872, Subway - 20,
Air - 3,196, Total – 21,088)
-States, provinces, Districts and/or commonwealths passed through –
Pennsylvania (Totals: States – 48, Provinces – 2, Districts – 1,
Commonwealths - 1)
-Seats – Section 11, Row J, Seat 12 – Right behind 1st
base dugout
-Prices: Parking – $15.00, Beer – $5.50, Hot Dogs - $2.00 - $3.50,
Program (including pencil) - $6.00, Souvenir Soda Cup – $3.00 -
$5.50, Turkey Sandwich - $5.75
-Credit Card giveaway – 1887 Pirates T-shirt
-First Pitch - 7:05 PM
-Attendance – 23,709
-Results – Pirates 7, Padres 2, W – Kip Wells, L – Brian Lawrence, S
– Brian Meadows
-Home team record to date – 20 wins, 14 losses
-Record of “team I was routing for” to date – 15 wins, 19 losses
-Lodging – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
