After leaving Cooper's place in Washington on Monday morning, we moved out towards Pittsburgh through beautiful western Maryland and Pennsylvania. The game in Pittsburgh was a make up game from a few days before that was rained out and again featured the Pirates and Cubs at 12:30. This game wasn't supposed to be part of the trip but since Caitlin's parents are in Pittsburgh anyway, it's a free and familiar place to stay for a night and catch an extra baseball game. Oh, and PNC Park is gorgeous and the weather was sunny and low 70s. Hard to pass that up.
We were a tad late getting to the game, but since we had just seen these same teams play a few days before in the same ballpark, it wasn't a big deal. The Cubs thoroughly dominated from beginning to end, winning 6-1. Just a beautiful day for baseball.
We left picturesque Beaver, PA at a decent hour on Tuesday morning to continue our move west into Cincinnati for the game that evening between the Red legs and the Gigantes. Before we got to town, we decided to stop in Columbus at THE Ohio State University to have a look around Big Ten country and grab some lunch. I took the obligatory photo in front of the 'shoe of course...
After swinging through campus, we grabbed some Mexican food, which was my first taste of that since last year, and it was quite delicious and fulfilling. We continued the roughly 90 minutes to Cincinnati to catch the Reds and Giants take BP on the field.
And no, I never get tired of hanging out on the field watching baseball players take their cuts. I'm such a little kid sometimes. After we grabbed some food, we returned to the field for the pregame ceremonies, which included a Rod Stewart impersonator (yes, apparently he does exist) singing the national anthem. I'm not a fan of the real Rod Stewart, so a fake one is somehow even worse. Rod Stewart can't help but be himself, but this guy CHOOSES to be like Rod Stewart.
Anyway, I was the honorary captain for the game, which meant I got to take the lineup card to home plate and give it to the umpires.
After the meeting of the minds at the plate, I got to meet Reds manager Dusty Baker in the dugout. I wish we could've gotten a picture because I'm a big Dusty Baker fan.
The game was a dud for the Red legs because Matt Cain was filthy all night long for the Giants, going the distance for a complete game (the first of the trip), seven hit shutout, striking out five. All night we kept our eyes on the scoreboard keeping up with the exploits of Mr. Strasburg in DC, as he went seven innings and struck out 14 in his MLB debut. Quite impressive, especially from a rookie.
Currently, we're in the car on the way to Cleveland and it's raining once again in Ohio. I don't think this place likes us very much. Tonight I'm sure we'll be around plenty more insufferable Red Sox fans who will no doubt outnumber the hometown Tribe. Go Indians!
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