Thursday, August 16, 2007

Game #1- Mets @ Pirates, and the drive to Cleveland

As for the game itself (Mets @ Pirates in PNC Park), well it's like we're back in Gettysburg because I am shooting bullets:

  • The whiteboard attempt was in full effect, but hindered by our donning of the enemy's clothing. We took a ferry to the stadium and, on the ferry, Abie held up a "We Need Free Tickets" sign and right there, on the ferry, some woman handed him a ticket.
  • Roldie signed up to potentially be the Aramark Designated Driver of the game. For signing up, he was entered in a drawing and was awarded a free coke. At the time, I had already consumed two beers, but the deal seemed good enough…
  • This was a beautiful baseball stadium. And you get an unreal view of the rivers, the the bridge, and the downtown. I am assuming it is the best we will go to. It is elegant, and friendly; ostentatious and homely. There isn't a bad seat in the house. If Citi Field is like this, I'll be ecstatic. Of course for Citi to be like that, they need to turn the stadium around to face Manhattan. And build more intersecting rivers.
  • Tonight was Ralph Kiner commemorative coin night. This was great because Kiner is both a Pirates and a Met great. It was very considerate of them. In fact, I think the Mets should repay the favor. The next time the Pirates come to Shea, I would like to see a Bobby Bonilla giveaway night.
  • What’s Jason Bay’s at bat song? I’m glad you asked… it’s “Get this party started” by Pink. Insert your own punch line here. (the word “pink” may come in handy)
  • A day camp from Deal was at the game in PNC Park. Abie knew every person (Syrian Jews are people too) in a 4 row cut from the section next to ours. I’m assuming they were all exactly like Abie and didn’t notice him because they were playing gameboy.
  • Before the bottom of the ninth, the Pirates put up a scoreboard video in which a fat lady got up to sing an opera note. Mid- singing, the Pirates mascot (some sort of deformed Phanatic-like parrot. Think “Death to Smoochy mixed with a ninja turtle. I wish I had the Best Week Ever math capabilities…) blows up the fat lady. I am assuming, the attempt was to fire up the crowd with a new take on “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” The problem was that the opera lady had already sung. Sure, she hadn’t finished her solo, but the saying is not “it ain’t over till the fat lady finishes singing.” Even in their promotional videos, the Pirates can’t beat the Mets.
  • Last story, and it’s a Boochzy (a Booch doozy-?): Booch had a Frisbee in his bag and security would not let him carry it in to PNC Park. (fair enough… it’s designed for throwing long distances) So Booch hid the Frisbee under a garbage can at the entrance to the stadium. That’s not even a Booch plan. I think that was smart thinking. On the way out of the stadium, we debated whether the Frisbee would still be there. When we walk out… not only is the Frisbee not there, the garbage can has been removed as well. Let me just check wikipedia for one second… Oh yes, “Good Shtick.”


Arrival in Cleveland

We got to Cleveland, despite some road work. For the record, where we’re going we don’t need road work. We were greeted by Stark at his home at about 1 am. If you know Stark, this is significant for a number of reasons:

  1. Stark Exists
  2. Stark said he would be in Cleveland and was actually in Cleveland
  3. Stark lives in a house

The night was perfect – the six of us chilled in Stark’s hot tub with a few cold ones. For our arrival that night, Stark bought 36 beers. That seems like it was just the right number… Theme for Cleveland: Starkus to the Maximus. Stay tuned…

2 comments:

Danny said...

OK, I just stayed up for this. I feel like those guys who dressed up as Harry Potter and waited online for 4 days to buy the iPhone at the first possible opportunity.

As for the posting:

Were they more fearful that Booch would toss the frisbee onto the field than the fans throwing Kiner's coin (like McCovey's Cove) onto the field?

So I checked out the team's official policy on this. It states, "Hazardous or disruptive items cannot be brought into the ballpark. Samples of items that are not permitted include boom boxes, inflatable balls, balloons, Frisbee discs, laser pointers, fireworks, footballs and weapons of any kind. The Pirates reserve the right to inspect and remove any packages and/or containers."

Good thing Hal didn't try to sneak in that musket he got at the Gettysburg gift shop.

Dan

matt said...

Etan- I think I may owe you for that yuengling at PNC. At the time it was assumed that I would get the next round. Oddly, I ended up drinking vastly fewer beers ont he road trip than initial corporate estimates predicted.