All kinds of stuff going on today, not the least of which is another important mid-June anniversary that must be celebrated.1 I’ve been sitting on this magnificent ode to PNC Ballpark in Pittsburgh by Charles Pierce for a couple weeks. It seems like the perfect day to share it.
If you offered me a first-class ticket to a decent paying career in any field, after turning down the unrealistic options,2 I would likely select being a sportswriter. I’m not talking about doing what I do now, part-time coverage of high school sports. Or even as a beat reporter for a professional team for a major media outlet. I’m talking a platform where I could write columns about whatever events tickled my fancy that would be published for thousands to see. I’m talking Joe Posnanski, Bill Simmons, Charles Pierce territory.
It’s pieces like this that just floor me. I mean, I think I could go to Pittsburgh, or any other wonderful ballpark/arena, and capture the essence of the place in an article/column. But to do it like Pierce does, man, that’s magic right there and beyond whatever skills I have.
So go read it.
You should always walk to this ballpark…It’s a reminder of the fact that, long ago, people built cities because there were rivers there, and of why they did that, and of why the immigrants came to work there, of how hard they fought for their livelihoods and their dignity, and what they built along the rivers, and how they came to identify themselves as Americans so often by an allegiance to what went on in the ballparks.
<a href=’http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/64073/pittsburgh-and-its-ballpark-an-appreciation’>Pittsburgh and Its Ballpark: An Appreciation</a>
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