C. James Strutz wrote:
<...>
> Wow, you're way more into baseball than I am. I don't doubt anything
> you say. I can only add that I hope that the Pirates don't go the way
> of Montreal and Seattle.

They're there.

> The Pirates have been around for something
> like 100 years

Longer than that -- the Pirates have been around since 1891, and they were the
Alleghenys for three years before that.

> and they have as rich a history as anyone in the
> league. I remember going to games with my dad at Forbes Field way back
> when -

Before that hideous eyesore called Three Rivers was built.

> the same field that the likes of Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Ty
> Cobb, Lou Gerhig, etc. all played at. It would be a shame to lose that
> kind of heritage.

You already have to a large degree. Owners like to threaten relocation when they
don't get their way. I doubt McClatchy will do that anytime soon since y'all
just started paying off the new park. The flipside of relocating a team is
fielding a poor-performing one under the guise of economics. Unfortunately,
that's where teams like Pittsburgh are headed today. Firing a manager for shoddy
ownership is nothing but scapegoating. For all that's been written about Oakland
GM Billy Beane, who deserves a lot of credit for what he's been able to do with
his miserly owners, there's only so far that a low-salaried team can go in MLB.

<...>
> To be honest with you, I only go to a game or two a year if I'm lucky.
> I just have too many other priorities in my life at the present. When
> I do go to games, I usually have beer and peanuts. I don't ever
> remember seeing anything like veggie dogs or veggie burgers. I
> searched the web and found
> http://www.soyhappy.org/venue.htm#Pitt%20Pirates for you.

I've seen that site and wanted to know if you knew of anything besides fries and
onion rings.

> It doesn't
> surprise me that Pittsburgh isn't at the forefront of healthy stadium
> food offerings. We aren't very progressive about things like that,
> although we've made some good strides in the last few years. If you
> haven't been to PNC Park before, it's awesome. Try to attend a night
> game. The park is situated so that most of the seating faces the
> backdrop of our city and the Allegheny River. It's a gorgeous view.

It rained out the last time I was in Pittsburgh, but I didn't have time to go to
the park anyway. I attended about 12-15 games at Three Rivers, and I saw PNC
once while it was still being built. I've seen it many times on tv (I can't
recall any of the Astros@Pirates games not airing, so that's about 8-9x per
season at PNC) and it's definitely one of the more attractive settings in
baseball. Too bad SF didn't take any cues from it, but they wanted more OF
seating and that interferes with water views from most of the park. I remember
when Daryle Ward, still an Astro at the time, hit the first ball ever out of PNC
into the river. I'm glad he's lost some weight and is finally doing what he's
capable of doing -- I just hope he doesn't do it against the Astros.