Panoramic photo edited by Danny Hong, May 2010

For years, I had been listening to on telelvision about "how beautiful" PNC Park was, and sure, from what I could tell on television during all the Braves away games as well as reminiscing about the 2006 All-Star game, PNC did look to be a pretty nice park. Naturally, I looked forward to judging with my own two eyes and two feet just how great of a place it was.

From the get-go, it was definitely a nice place. I deliberately parked in downtown Pittsburgh, so that I could indulge in a Primanti Bros. pastrami sandwich, as well as cross the famous Roberto Clemente bridge, so I could take in the whole effect of building anticipation to getting into the park. And surely, by the time I was two-thirds across the bridge, I noticed my feet were picking up the pace, anxious to get inside and look around. The exterior of the park is certainly something pretty; I'm partial to waterfronts, and much like Cincinnati, PNC Park is built on the shore of the Allegheny River, giving those inside the park a beatiful skyline that incorporates both the river as well as Downtown Pittsburgh.

Upon entering the park, I could see with my own two eyes that the field is definitely one of the most prettiest in baseball, from my experiences alone. As much as I love my home park in Atlanta, I'm often envious of the far superior skylines available at other parks throughout MLB, that actually shows the rest of the city, and not liquor stores or billboards.

But in all fairness, this is why the travel and experiences for myself are important to me - despite how great everything on the field is, I have to actually question the architectural design of the interior of the park for the fans. Manuevering around PNC Park's inner sanctum is a little confusing to those who have never been there, and it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. There are a lot of stairs, escalators, and winding ramps to traverse in order to get to one universal atrium that apparently takes people everywhere else in the park. And I'm not the biggest guy in the world (nor smallest) either, but I couldn't help but feel that it was a tad on the narrow side of things. I dislike having to constantly dodge people when I walk, and what seemed like a moderate crowd still resulted in a whole lot of Hakeem Olajuwon dream-shaking to get around other people. It actually felt a lot like Dodger Stadium, but at least they're an "old park," to use as justification for their dated architecture.

Structure hang-ups aside, simply walking around PNC Park, and looking at everything I could, while also watching my Braves doing their best to hold onto a 1-0 lead was still a pleasant day. Everyone who worked at the park seemed to be pretty friendly, even to a guy like me, walking around in a Braves shirt and hat. Lines for beer or restrooms never were long or tedious, and I took in quite a few angles in which to stop and actually watch what was going on in the field. If I could be allowed one more gripe, it would only be a small one - the graphics packages used throughout the park are way over-the-top, and in all honesty, really lame. Yes, I'm aware that it's home of the Pirates, but does every single thing have to be themed? Believe me, my frustration with this got worse when the Braves surrendered the lead, and I would see the same repeated pirate in a crow's nest graphic being used to remind me of how poor the Braves were playing.

But overall, I would still have to say that as a whole, PNC Park is still one of the finer parks that I've visted so far on my journeys, and I look back at my experiences in Pittsburgh in a positive light. It would have been even better had the Braves actually pulled out a win against an especially struggling club, but it was not meant to be on this particular day, since Bobby Cox decided to rest Chipper Jones, Jason Heyward and Brian McCann all on the same day, leaving the starting lineup as something a tick or two better than a AAA team. However, bias aside, PNC Park is still a great place. If I ever had business in the city of Pittsburgh in my life, I'd have no qualms of making an attempt to make a repeat visit out there in the future - I honestly couldn't say the same about places like Tampa.

Noteable performance(s):   Considering the fact that the Braves fielded a D-caliber squad that day, it's amazing that the Braves didn't get stomped, then again, it was the 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates as the opposition. There weren't really any performances that truly stood out on this day, but for the sake of having some names to throw out here, would probably be Braves backup catcher, David Ross's solid two-hit, RBI day, Eric Hinske's awesome pinch-hit game-tying bomb that was the highlight of my trip. But probably, the most notable is Pirates starting pitcher Zach Duke, who pitched seven solid innings and yielded only an unearned run while striking out five.

Game Result:   It took ten innings, but the Pirates walked-off on my boys with a Ryan Doumit walk-off homer off of Takashi Saito in the bottom of the 10th, to continue my perfect streak of seeing the Braves lose whenever I travel to see them for the first time in a park outside of Atlanta. Final score, Pirates 3, Braves 2. Seriously, this losing on my travel days is starting to get old. :(

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