July 8-9, 2016
BDBL Weekend 2016:
Pittsburgh
By Mike Glander
BDBL Staff
PITTSBURGH, PA - A total of seven BDBL
members -- including a surprise guest! -- attended BDBL Weekend in
Pittsburgh during the second weekend in July. We witnessed two exciting
games between the hometown Pirates and the visiting Chicago Cubs. We ate
a belly-busting amount of unhealthy food, downed a healthy amount of
beer, and spent most of the weekend talking about how foolish I was to
trade Kris Bryant (or so it seemed.)
Ryan and I arrived early on Friday
morning. Needing to kill some time, we had breakfast at the airport
before heading to the hotel. As we had to wake up at around 3:30 that
morning, Ryan decided to stay awake through the night. By the time our
room was ready, he collapsed on the bed and was out cold within seconds.
At that point, I decided to call an old high school friend, and we met
for lunch at a place called Burgatory. (Great burger, by the way.)
I returned to the hotel to find Ryan
awake and hungry. With hours to kill before the next attendee arrived,
we ventured over to the Azteca restaurant next door. A couple hours
later we were joined by Mike Ranney, who drove down all the way from
upstate New York. The three of us had a good time catching up on BDBL
history and discussing world events.
By the time Greg Newgard arrived, we
headed straight to the ballpark via our first Uber trip. The first game
was a matchup between Jake Arrieta and Francisco Liriano. The hometown
Bucs got on the board early thanks to a solo blast by David Freese in
the second inning. Granite State's own Sean Rodriguez then added a
two-run blast to make it a 3-0 game.
The Cubs got on the board in the fourth
inning, and a Miguel Montero homer tied it all up in the sixth. Chicago
then went ahead when Anthony Rizzo homered off of Salem bum Neftali
Feliz in the seventh inning.
With Arrieta still on the hill in the
bottom of that inning, John Jaso tied the score with a sac fly. The
crowd then erupted when the next batter, Gregory Polanco, grounded to
first, and Rizzo air-mailed it into right field. That error gave
Pittsburgh a 5-4 lead. The Pirates tacked on three more runs over the
next two innings to make it an 8-4 game, and that's how this one would
end.
After the game, we Uber'ed it back to
the hotel and eventually made it out to a bar managed by that old high
school friend of mine. We had some more unhealthy food, drank some more
beer, questioned my trade of Kris Bryant again, and called it a night.
After having lunch at the Tilted Kilt
on Saturday morning, we hitched another ride to the ballpark later that
afternoon to meet up with Matt Clemm and Mike Stein. Unbeknownst to
them, I had also been contacted by a surprise guest the previous day,
who indicated that he may show up for the game.
Through a bustling crowd of people
gathered along the street outside of the stadium, I saw a man who rose
head-and-shoulders above the others. And that is when I finally met one
of this league's founding fathers, D.J. Shepard. Of the 23 other current
owners in the BDBL, I have now personally met 19 of them. (Rodney, Bart,
and Kyle, you need to remedy that. Peburn, perhaps it's better this
way.)
After exchanging a few barbs outside of
the ballpark and questioning my Kris Bryant trade once again, we headed
inside to see Jon Lester face someone named Chad Kuhl. Future BDBL
first-ballot Hall of Famer Ben Zobrist wasted no time making Kuhl look
like the rookie chump that he is, and deposited a ball into the right
field bleachers to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. The Pirates struck back in
the second, scoring three runs to take the lead. The last of those runs
came on a throwing error by Bear Country's Wilsson Contreras, which will
undoubtedly harm the Bear Country franchise going forward.
Chicago tied it up in the third inning,
and the Bucs quickly untied it in the bottom of the inning on solo
homers by McCutchen and Rodriguez. Rizzo tied the game yet again for
Chicago in the fourth inning. Then, in the fourth, McCutchen delivered a
clutch two-out base hit that plated a pair of runs to give Pittsburgh a
7-5 lead.
All hell broke loose in the fifth
inning. Josh Bell had made his MLB debut during Friday night's game, and
singled in his first Major League at-bat. In the fifth inning of
Saturday's game, Bell came to the plate as a pinch hitter and absolutely
crushed a pitch from Adam Warren over the right field bleachers and into
the river for a grand slam home run. The ballpark practically crumbled
to its foundation as a result.
That blast effectively brought an end
to the game, as the Cubs were unable to catch up after that, and
eventually lost by a score of 12-6.
After the game, we all hung out at a
bar near the stadium for a beer or two before D.J. and his crew left for
the night. We said good-bye to Stein as well, who drove back to
Cleveland to prepare for the Republican convention. The remaining crew
then headed back to my friend's bar for more bad food, good beer, and
great company.
Officially, this was the eighteenth
BDBL Weekend in league history. In total, twenty of our current owners
have attended at least one of these events, as well as eleven former
owners. Of the thirty ballparks in Major League baseball, we have
visited more than half (seventeen) of them. For 2017, we plan to revisit
Arizona for spring training, and will explore our usual options for the
summer. Then, to celebrate the league's 20th anniversary in 2019, Greg
Newgard has proposed that I hold a barbeque at my house, with a tent
city in the backyard to house the entire league. I just have to run this
idea by my wife, but I see no reason why it would be a problem.
Pictured left to right:
Ryan Glander, Mike Ranney, Greg Newgard, D.J. Shepard,
Mike Stein, Mike Glander, and Matt Clemm
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