June 14, 2005

Can Anyone Stop the Pittsburgh Juggernaut?

Over the weekend I made my first-ever trip to Pittsburgh (or anywhere in Western Pennsylvania, for that matter). It’s a beautiful, very unique city, and the layout of it reminded me more of Jerusalem than it did any other American city. That’s probably because the entire downtown is visible from the top of a mountain (which we traversed, on the famed Duquesne Incline.)

Have you noticed that all of Pittsburgh’s sports teams (Pirates, Steelers, Penguins, Pitt, etc.) use yellow in their colors? Everything in Pittsburgh is yellow. Even the bridges. Even the traffic signs.

Downtown Pittsburgh has clearly seen better days, though there are signs of a renaissance. My favorite non-baseball site? A hot dog stand/window, situated inside a Presbyterian Church. The name of it? Hot Dogma.

Saturday night we hit PNC Park for Pirates-Devil Rays. Not exactly a marquee matchup, though PNC’s a great, great park- up there with the best of the recent new ones- better than Cincinnati, and about even with Philly. The park’s best feature is an open outfield which showcases the downtown skyline- one borrowed in the design for the still-hoped-for Twins park.

As for the game itself, we were treated to the Pirates dominating- something unheard-of since the days when Barry Bonds played for them, and was thin. The Pirates crushed the Rays 18-2, with unheralded stars like Rob Machowiak and Ryan Doumit coming up big, and even ex-Twin Michael Restovich getting a hit. And be happy, Mets fans- the first 8 of the runs (and 9 hits) were given up by alleged “phenom” Scott Kazmir.

In addition, we were treated to Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski throwing out the first pitch, after a video played on the scoreboard of his Game 7-winning home run in the 1960 World Series. I also was at Maz's Hall of Fame induction in '01, and it was good to see him- though a few nights before the first pitch at PNC had been thrown out by legendarily wild pitcher Steve Blass who, at 63, got the ball over the plate.

Next on the ballpark tour: San Francisco in August and the ‘Dome in September; I’ll be at Twins-Yankees at the Stadium on my birthday (July 28), and I’m sure I’ll make it to Shea at some point as well. As we anxiously await the new Mets/Olympic stadium in Flushing.

Posted by Stephen Silver at June 14, 2005 01:03 AM
Comments

Steve:

I have a sister and her family who live in Pitt...I look forward to our yearly trips there. It is a beautiful area and city, and yes, the downtown area is being revived the last few years.

I will have to look for 'Hot dogma' when we go to Pitt in July.

Posted by: John B. at June 14, 2005 09:10 AM

i've been to pittsburgh twice. the second time I was at an event with Monica Lewinsky. (well, not *with* per se - it was Tuggie's graduation from CMU as well as her brother's. she was in the skybox and from what Tuggie reports, not sucking any dick.) It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

Posted by: LilB at June 14, 2005 02:12 PM

Pittsburgh is a great town. Though I wouldn't necessarily call it the Jerusalem of the US, I love it. I grew up there, and wouldn't have wanted it any other way! I always meet people from my hometown in other cities and we're always friendly and down-to-earth people. Though I've never been to Hot Dogma, Mineo's Pizza, Primanti Bros., and the Dirty O (also known by it's real name, The Original Hot Dog Shop) are the best places for real Burgh food.

Posted by: yinz at June 14, 2005 03:30 PM
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