A Night at the Ballpark

OK, the adventure that ended late last night with Andrew McCutchen's dramatic 12th inning walk-off game winning home run against the Diamondbacks actually began the night before, shortly after the Bucs dramatic 8th inning rally sparked a come from behind win over those same D'Backs. Shortly after that game ended, the phone rang - who calls anyone after 10:00 at night? - and it was SABR/Facebook friend Dan Bonk, who practically screamed into the phone "c'mon, a bunch of us are gonna go down to the game tomorrow (Weds.), you wanna come?"

So it was that Len Martin, Jim Haller, Dan, and I met up at the Honus Wagner statue (a tradition, I might add, that dates back to the days when this statue sat in Schenley Park outside of Forbes Field), bought tickets for section 318, and headed into PNC Park. First of all, I can't remember the last time I was part of such a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to a Pirates game, which made the whole deal all the more fun.

By now, those who are interested know the outcome of the game. It was a great ball game that the Pirates won 3-2 in twelve innings. There were heroes galore: Paul Maholm throwing six shutout, one hit innings, reliever Tony Watson making his MLB debut by coming in with one out and two men on base and striking out Arizona's #3 and #4 batters, Neil Walker getting a clutch two out single in the 10th to tie the game after Arizona took the lead, the nifty 3-6-3 double play the Bucs turned in the 11th, and, of course, Cutch's walk-off dinger to lead off the 12th that put the Pirates at .500. The excitement in the ballpark and among the crowds as you walked out of the park after the game was unlike anything I've seen at a Pirates game in years and years. The game also officially marked the Jumping on the Pirates Bandwagon of Dan Bonk.

And, as someone observed, how much fun baseball talk are you going to get when four SABR geeks get together at a ball game (and five when you include Marky Billson who happened to be sitting two rows behind us)? I mean when else are you going to have conversations that involve names like Carl Sawatski, Choo-Choo Coleman, and Greg Goosen, facts like Wilber Wood being the last pitcher to both win and lose 20 games in a season, and Bob Buhl once going 0-for-71 at the plate in a season, and debating whether Willie Stargell or Barry Bonds belongs in left field on the all-time Pirates team over the last fifty years?

But the quote of the night came when we were all marveling at the fact that it seems like every single pitcher in the majors can now throw pitches in excess of 92 MPH. At that point Jim Haller eloquently stated, "There are no Eddie Lopats anymore."

What a great night!