Well since I seem to be the first of the three to post about this, my story will stand as the accurate, correct account of last night's events. Tom, Tiff, Tom's brother Joed, and I all attempted to go the Pirates first game with the Boston Red Sox in 100 years. That ridiculous fact aside, the crowd seemed ready to watch the game. 2 hours and 30 minutes later when they made the announcement that the game was cancelled due to rain the crowd seemed ready to lynch the first person with any authority that they saw. So, what do you do for 2 hours and 30 minutes to kill time? Well, in a normal rain delay I'm told that they show stuff on the scoreboard. Clips from past games, world series games, etc. Not at this game. It was turn back the clock night. The scoreboard only showed a graphic of an old fashioned scoreboard. And nothing else. The rain, a light drizzle at best, seemed to be a non-factor. These guys are being payed a lot of money to do their "job." I find it hard to believe that the game couldn't have been played. And, I'm not the only one. Local columnists had this to say. And it's completely correct. Once they removed the tarp from the infield, it would have taken at least three innings before you could even tell it was raining. So, what did they do to entertain the crowd you ask? Nothing. For about an hour and a half. Then some poor guy (who knew what he was in for) climbed onto the dugout in front of us with a megaphone (which had a built in microphone, so much for turn back the clock), and recited Casey at the Bat. If there had been a giveaway that night, this guy would have been stoned to death with said giveaway. Thankfully for him, he was just booed incessantly. Loudest of these came from the gentlemen about 5 rows back from us that seemed to be seeing things for the entire game. Not once did we see Kevin McClatchy (the current CEO and owner of the Pirates), but for some reason this guy either saw him or perhaps thought someone would relay the message. About every 5 to 7 minutes he stood up and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Hey Kevin McClatchy, this is why attendance is down." and various other sentiments all geared towards the owner. See, I would think that attendance is down because Baseball is by far one of the more boring sports, the Pirates haven't won a World Series since 1979, the team is in a rebuilding mode, they don't win very often, etc. Any or all of these would work. Apparently though, this guy thought that the rain delay was the sole reason attendance was down. Oddly enough, it was the first game I attempted to attend this year. So, I think that reasoning is kind of shot. I actually tried to go to the game with the rain delay, so on the nice sunny days when I wasn't there I certainly didn't blame it on Mr. McClatchy. I've never even met the man. Anyway, we spent the majority of the time making fun of Tom so I guess it wasn't a total loss. However, I think I'm gonna start keeping track of the time in my life that gets wasted either through my own bad decisions or at someone's else's hands. So far this morning, I've come up with 337 minutes. 150 mins. last night at the pirates attempt at a game, 101 mins. for the crap that is Two Weeks Notice, and 86 mins. for this crap. I know there's a whole lot more, but that's all I came up with this morning.
Anyway, no hockey tonight, but Tom did send me this. Now, normally I won't give any notice to Mark Madden and his ego (maybe because I've never made the decision on what contains the most fat, his head or his gut), but this was right on target. For as much as I dislike Mr. Madden, he does have a unique way of looking at things and occasionally I find myself agreeing. Especially with the paragraph towards the end where he explains that Pittsburgh should be a little friendlier to those who choose to stay here. And, I got a good chuckle out of this when Ray sent it to me. I can see the first line for the Rangers now. Kovalev, Lindros, and Jagr. And they still won't make the playoffs.