Take me out to the Ball Game...
The boys received free tickets to
a Pirates home game at school. The tickets included
discount pricing for additional tickets so of course we bought
two more and made plans for a family outing to the ball game.
Maria booked the game and soon the date came for our drive up to
PNC Stadium in Pittsburgh.
Since it's a fair distance and the
game was in the early afternoon, we mapped a number of
attractions we might visit along the way. When we took
stock of the timing we concluded that the only extra stop we
could make along the way would be to visit the
Giant Eagle Market District grocery store. This is
billed as the largest grocery store in western Pennsylvania.
From there we would finish our drive, park the Jeep and walk
over the
6th Street Bridge to
PNC Park for the game.
We hit the road and made the drive
up to the grocery store. The kids and I branched off
to visit REI
and 5 Below.
I also took a walk through the grocery store and found it to be
a dream store for people who love to cook and eat. Maria
collected a beautiful selection of cheeses. I picked up a
"duck's
back rain cover" for my camera knapsack at REI.
The kids bought prank items at 5
Below (fart powder, snappy gum, fish flavored candy, itching
powder, etc.)
Then we drove to downtown
Pittsburgh and parked the Jeep at a lot in the Cultural district
not far from
PPG Place and the
6th Street Bridge. Because it was cool, we walked
directly to the park, barely stopping to admire any of the
sights. I made mental notes of a few places I wanted to
photograph on the way back.
We soon reached PNC Park.
Ted had been holding our tickets and passed them out.
Maria, Tom and I went through the gate, and subjected ourselves
to the backpack search (I brought my camera and a few lenses...
and Maria her bag). When we got through we turned around
to see Ted fumbling through his pockets looking for his ticket.
It was no where to be found... The Provencher's have
arrived...
We gave Ted some heat but the
ticket did not appear. Maria called over one of the gate
keepers and explained what was going on. He asked for and
we provided the ticket receipt that had miraculously made it
with us and the gate keeper went off to verify our purchase
included four tickets and the missing seat "21" was among them.
He returned shortly with our tickets and a new ticket for Ted.
It was a testimony to PNC Park hospitality and efficiency that
they were able to reissue the ticket within a few minutes of
being lost, and that they knew the lost ticket had not yet been
used. It would also be interesting to see what happened if
someone found the ticket and tried to use it since it would not
work now that we had been given admission to the park.
We arrived with plenty of time to
find our seats and buy lunch. The concessions sell
wonderful food and charge about four times what it's worth.
Two foot-long hot-dogs and two orders of fries with two large
drinks was $32.00... The fries were cold but otherwise it
was almost worth the price. While waiting for the game to
start I organized my camera and lenses and decided I would shoot
the game with the
Super-Multi-Coated Takumar-Zoom 85~210mm f/4.5 lens.
Even though we were easily 300 feet from the plate, the lens
would pull it in about four-times giving a view as if we were
about 75 feet, and with the great resolving power of the camera
sensor, I could get pictures that fill the screen with the
batter. As the purpose of the trip wasn't professional
sports coverage, I was satisfied to get pictures that would be
good to remember the game.
Notwithstanding my modest
intentions with regard to photography, there were people there
who were intent on something more...
  
This is more or less what the view
looked like from our seats. In the distance may be seen
the Pittsburgh skyline. Though it was freezing cold, it
was still a beautiful day to watch the game from this spot.
We even had a little overhead cover if it rained!
 
Tom was very happy to be here!
Play Ball!
   
T-Shirt Shot Gun!
       
After the game (which the Pirates
won!) the park opened up the field to let kids "Run the Bases".
We got into a huge but fast moving line and soon Ted and Tom
were on the field running the bases.
While I was on the field I made an
image of the skyline.
On the way out of the park we
stopped to take pictures with the statues.
Sixth Street Bridge
Our walk back to the Jeep through
the Cultural district and PPG Place Plaza. This gave me my
first opportunity to try out my new lens, the
Canon
TS-E 24mm f/3.5L This lens enables making images that are
rectilinear - in other words parallel lines may be depicted
properly while recording things like tall buildings and like
items without having to correct the image later in an
image-processing program.
  
   
And finally our modest parking
spot next to an old building
We loaded up and drove home.
We weren't very hungry because of all the baseball food we ate,
so Maria prepared a beautiful table of cheeses, wine, bread,
fruit and crackers to take the edge off the light hunger and cap
a great day!
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