PNC Park and Pedro

by | Jun 30, 2006 | Uncategorized

I’m back from vacation, and the Red Sox are doing exactly what they were doing when I left: winning.
I went to Pittsburgh on vacation with several friends and while the city was lacking, I was able to take a tour of PNC Park, and I have to say, it’s an amazing park. It definitely deserves the label of the best baseball stadium. I have yet to see Camden Yards, however, so that technically is still up in the air. It’s an incredible stadium, it’s beautiful, it’s spacious, but it lacks that panache that Fenway has.
You can find pictures here from the tour that I took at PNC.

PNC PARK – JUNE 2006 Willie Stargell statue, Owner’s Box, Pirates’ Clubhouse, PNC Park Background from Press Box, PNC Park View of Field, Boat on the River, Front of PNC Park, Down by the banks of the … Allegheny, Outside PNC Park, RF bleachers at PNC, PNC Batting Cages, View from Dugout, There’s no one here because they’re all busy losing, More from the Dugout, PNC readies for Ozzie’s boys to come to town, What a view!, The great Roberto Clemente

What’s pretty cool about this is that I got to see the entire White Sox team walk into the lobby of my hotel later that day. I saw people such as Jose Contreras, Mark Buehrle, Paul Konerko, Freddy Garcia, etc. The next morning, I saw Ozzie Guillen at the conceirge’s desk, and I went over, said hello, and shook his hand. A stroke of luck that I happened to be in the lobby at those times.
I also got to attend the game two days ago where Pedro made his return. We greeted him with eight runs in three innings, but it was still special to have Pedro on the mound. Even with him on an opposing team, Pedro pitching was still an event, and no other Sox pitcher has replicated that feat thus far – and perhaps never will.
There are pictures and videos here for your viewing pleasure. I was also able to nab a picture of Gable Kapler, who was introduced to cheers. I was at the game where Kapler made his Fenway return, but I didn’t have my camera on me. Kapler got a long and rousing ovation and was actually pretty similar to the one we gave Pedro, but we gave Pedro three large ovations, while Kapler was just one.

NYM@BOS – June 28, 2006 Pedro waves to the crowd prior to the game, Wally and Mr. Met dazzle fans, The hot bat of A-Gon stands in, Kapler waits for the pitcher to get ready, The silver slugger bat of Delgado (and bronze glove) awaits the pitch, What a game as it signified a changing of the guard: Pedro to Beckett, A two-run blast by Gonzalez must have hurt Pedro, Javier Lopez is starting to play an integral role in the bullpen, Manny Delcarmen finishes the ninth up (and I had a movie of the final strike, but it’s too big!), Maybe these Manny for Milledge rumors will start dying down now, The best 3B in New York, MOVIE: Pedro Pitches to Papi, MOVIE: Pedro Warms Up, MOVIE: Beckett Leaves to a Standing O

That’s all I have for today. Check back Sunday for the Month By Month statistics for our Red Sox – this will take quite a while, so hopefully these pictures can tide you over today.
Jason Johnson will make his debut in Florida for us today – the final game in June. We’re about to find out if we can make his sinkerball tendencies work for us, where they did not work in Cleveland.