Firefighter Night at PNC Park: Will the Jagoffs Attend?

As BigBrother’s first t-ball game was canceled last week and today’s game isn’t likely to be played due to a forecast of thunder storms, I figure I’ll talk about baseball anyway. Why? I like baseball. No, no. I love baseball.

I grew up playing softball. When I started playing softball, the Pittsburgh Pirates didn’t… stink… exactly. In fact, one of our team trips was to watch a Pirates game at good ole Three Rivers Stadium. (Memories!) A friend and I made signs that said, “ANDY VAN SLYKE, WILL YOU MARRY ME?!” (As a side note, my husband recently broke my heart when I was relating this story to him and he said, “Who is Andy Van Slyke?” He also didn’t know who Donny Iris is but he does enjoy a good Primanti Brother’s sammich. There’s hope for him. If we buy him a Pittsburgh history book. Maybe.)

Back to baseball.

It’s not always easy being a Pirates fan. In fact, for my (recent) birthday, FireDad bought me a shirt from Wear Pittsburgh. It reads:

Pittsburgh Baseball: the occasional fleeting whiff of mediocrity

You have to be a Pittsburgh fan to get that, I suppose. Or, at least familiar enough with baseball to know that the Pirates haven’t exactly been fantastic since the days of Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds. (Yes. We once had Barry Bonds.) We occasionally have some good games or, like this year, a decent start to a season but, sadly, it all comes crashing down. Eventually. When we literally drop the ball. Repeatedly.

All the same, despite years and years of losing seasons, I remain a Pirates fan. You can take the girl out of the city but you can’t take the city out of the girl. I bleed black and gold for all sports. The Steelers, Pirates and Penguins will always be my teams despite their rankings. Sure, it’s easier when they do things like win the Super Bowl and make it to the Stanley Cup playoffs but, in the end, I’ll cheer them on no matter what. (Notice that I didn’t mention the World Series. That’s just a pipe dream, right?)

Our schedules are awfully full for this summer already. We won’t be going to a lot of games but we are planning on one special one. This year the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park will be having three separate firefighter nights. You may remember our not-so-awesome time at last year’s firefighter recognition night (and our subsequent free game). This year I’ll know to go find security if someone behind me is acting like a total jagoff. But, all the same, there are three dates for “local” firefighters this year. (I say “local” in quotes because we’re not particularly local-local but we’re invited every year.)

• May 31st – vs Astros
• June 13 – vs Tigers (Honus Wagner WS 1909 Collectible night!)
• June 30 – vs Royals (Zambelli (!) Fireworks show)

(Another sad side note: FireDad didn’t know who Honus Wagner was either. He breaks my heart all the time.)

We’re most likely attending the June 13th game as, unfortunately, FireDad works both of the other games. (Which leads me to believe that the person who arranged this has no concept of the firefighter schedule. If FireDad is working two of the games when fire schedules are broken into three separate shift days, wouldn’t it have made more sense to schedule a game on each of the separate days? Perhaps someone needs to forward them a three shift fire calendar. Anyway…) Hopefully this year they will remember to order medium sized shirts as last year’s large was a bit large on me.

What I’m really hoping this year is that whomever is sitting in front of and/or behind us will remember that baseball is a family game. Sure. It’s firefighter recognition night. And, yes, firefighters deserve a night off to destress and enjoy themselves. But when foul language, throwing of things and a general lack of respect for other game-goers ends up ruining the experience for everyone else, it’s no fun for anyone. There’s always one guy who takes his shirt off, even at a night game, as the game nears its end, yelling something about Andy Van Slyke (I swear it’s not me) but for it to last the entire game is absolutely ridiculous. A few of the comments I received on the post about why it’s good to be married to a firefighter brought up the idea that firefighters are generally really great people. I would tend to agree. They’re great people. I hope that the firefighters in attendance this year are able to remember their manners and act like the up-standing citizens the rest of society believes them to be. Because if that doesn’t happen, I’ll get your jagoff butt thrown out. Now wouldn’t that be embarrassing with all of your fire buddies there? Thought so. Watch your mouth. (See also: Guest Conduct and Guest Relations.)

In the end, we are excited to have another night of baseball, nachos, over-priced pop, Primanti sammiches and togetherness. While we will likely take BigBrother to a late summer game this year, we’ve decided that his little ears are not likely ready for the likes of firefighter night as we learned last year. And so, a date night will be had. Free shirts will likely be worn over what we show up in. Pictures will be taken. And maybe, just maybe, the Pirates will win.

And if they don’t, maybe I’ll just start collecting the Fleeting Whiff shirts in all of the different color combinations. That doesn’t seem like a bad idea either way it falls.

(Since writing this, the sun has come out from behind the clouds. Looks like t-ball might happen which makes my evening insanely busy. Great fun!)