[Warning. Long, rambling and probably boring post unrelated to Pitt football and basketball. You have been warned.]
One of those little things that I never got around to doing at Pitt, and still have never made the time to do has been going to a Pitt baseball game. I still haven’t attended a Pitt home game, but I did see them play for the first time yesterday. They had a road game at Cleveland State yesterday. Again, they have had these games for the last few years (that I have been aware) but either my schedule or the weather was not cooperative.

Last week I realized that the chance was coming once more. I got permission from the wife as long as I took Angie (my daughter) with me. Angie was excited because in her mind, going to a ballgame means going to a playground (the couple games I’ve taken her to at a minor league park she spent most of the time just playing in those kidzone type areas). So she had been excited all week.

Monday, I figured I should figure out where the ball field was on the CSU campus downtown. Imagine my surprise when I learned that starting this year, they no longer were playing their games downtown. Instead, they were playing at a new park built out in Lorain County — about 30 miles away from downtown Cleveland and 50+ miles from where we live.
I have to be honest. I didn’t want to bother. That seemed like too much of a hassle, for a game that I wouldn’t be able to see the entire way through with a hyperactive (is there any other kind?) 4-year-old. The wife made me go, because I had promised Angie all week long.

The game was listed on both Pitt and CSU’s site as being a 3pm game. They lied.

We got to the area a few minutes before 3pm. The gates were closed, but the CSU players were practicing on the field. No sign of Pitt players or a charter bus. Since the field was located in a public park, there was a playground right there for Angie to go play.

About 10 after 3, Pitt’s bus arrived. Not good. The kid was fine. She was playing the entire time. Around 4, we check at the gate and learn that the game is actually scheduled for 5:15. Wonderful. Thanks.

Needless to say, even if the short attention span of my daughter wouldn’t have necessitated an early departure, I was drained by the time we came in for the game.

The crowd was around 50-60, I’d say. Mostly girlfriends, family and friends of the Cleveland State players. Along with a contingent of participants from the Lorain County Special Olympics (no, not a joke at appearances of some people. They actually were).

I wasn’t the only Pitt fan there. An older guy who follows the team was there and I talked with him a bit. He was able to fill me in about some of the players and even a bit of background about which ones had overbearing parents (almost like little league).

Angie actually enjoyed watching the game for a while.

She wandered a lot, though, including down to the area where the netting and the short wall/backstop was. There is just a small gap at the top of the netting and where the covering for the seats behind the plate are located. A foul ball managed to get through, and she was able to retrieve it before other kids could converge. So, my daughter now has her first foul ball, after just a handful of baseball games.

As for the game, we lasted 5 1/2 innings — a little more than an hour. At that point Pitt had a 6-5 lead. They had a 4-1 lead, but in the 4th, the pitcher gave up 3 home runs and Pitt was behind 5-4. The rest of the game — that we missed — was all offense and Pitt held on for a 16-15 win.

Interesting that Pitt was wearing their batting/alt jerseys.

Not sure how well you can see in the photo. The jerseys are holdovers from the old “Pittsburgh” period. With the stupid, hard to read font. If it isn’t football and basketball, they take a while to change things over in style. I remember that NewEra was still selling official Pitt baseball hats in the older color and lettering 2-3 years after the change in the 90s.