Burgh

So I'm in Pittsburgh for a couple weeks, and last night I made it to PNC Park. Upper deck, behind home plate. Basically, everything I've heard about this park is true - it's a fantastic place to catch a baseball game, and the view is probably the best in baseball.

The game itself was...pretty good too. Starting pitcher was a AA callup, and was giving up runs pretty much constantly. By the 7th the Pirates were down by six. But then they tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, scoring 3 off Isringhausen. The crowd quickly shut up as Glaus got a go-ahead HR it the top on the 10th, but Jason Michaels (weren't the Sox looking at him some years ago?) got a two-run HR in the bottom of the 10th to win it. Pretty wild - I've never been so excited about a game I couldn't care less about.

It's official: the Pirates are now my NL team. Fifteen years of losing seasons gives you som,ething to root for.

Random notes:
- Both the Cards and the Bucs bat their pitchers eighth. Someone explained to me that La Russa does it because Pujols gets a tiny bit more at-bats (2.84 vs 2.83) by having three real hitters in front of him. That makes no sense to me since La Russa hates numbers; but also, why not just bat Pujols fourth?
- La Russa had his pitcher bat in the top of the 10th rather than use a PH. But then in the bottom of the 10th he took out the same pitcher after one batter. Now, I know nothing about NL baseball, but that seems completely, utterly stupid to me.