The Bucs are going all the way!

Down the drain this year.

Well maybe not-they are 500 early in the season, in second place and they beat the Reds three straight. I got to see the game on Saturday night.

Turns out we got a triple good deal. For one thing-it was Irish night:

Let’s go on inside the park!

As you can probably guess by the low hanging clouds the night was gray and cold. (37 degrees). But PNC Park itself is a beautiful-the best park a team that has not won a pennant in over 20 years can extort from a city with 10%+ unemployment.

Complete with Jumbo screen:

In theory every seat is a good seat:

Which enabled the Buccos to fight their way to a 3-3 tie for most of the game and were down one run by the 6th inning and the Perogi race. You could SMS in who thought was going to win and maybe get a free ticket. I lost:

After which the Perogis came to visit the fans in the stands. ( P.S. for those who have been deprived of the knowledge of a what a perogi is, definition here.)

And the Pirate parrot was giving away T-shirts with his cannon:

The game was rather lackluster after the first three innings-but became a nail biter in the last two. Pirates entered the bottom of the 9th down 4-3. Fortunately, with one out they got on base and then loaded the bases. They sacrificed in the tying run-then put another runner on. With two out and 3-2 count, a base hit off the RF wall and the game was over. Bucs WIN! Bucs WIN! Bucs WIN!:

To top off the evening-they had a super fireworks display at the end of the game:

Maybe, just maybe-this could be the year? Still too early to tell. But oh how I would like to see my Pirates back in contention.