I don't have the energy to put together a well thought out and coherent post tonight. Life in the city has been rather dull the past several weeks. The most excitement I have experienced is the weird form of insomnia I have developed. I go to sleep at the normal time and wake up at 4 am. Most mornings I stay in bed and stare at the ceiling for an hour. I get up, make some tea, read the paper and shower.
It is fall in Pittsburgh. Fall in Pittsburgh is not marked by the change of dull dark green leaves to the red, orange and yellow of other cities.
Fall is marked by training camp. Steelers training camp.
Fall is marked by the thousands of fans who tailgate in the stadium lot before a pre-season game.
Fall is marked by the thousand and one fans who mob sports bars and private homes all over the city to watch a pre-season game.
Ever been to Pittsburgh during a Steeler game? The city dies for four hours. Need to run an errand? You can get from one side of the city to the other in fifteen minutes. Need to take a flight? Schedule it during the Steeler game to miss the traffic and the long security lines. There is also no need to worry about missing the game, since it will be playing on every available radio and television screen.
As it is nearly impossible to have a social life in this city without occasionally watching a football game, J and joined several of our friends in a sports bar outside the city limits to watch the first half of the pre-season game on Friday night. The lure of this particular bar is the fact that they have a flat screen television at every booth and spaced evenly along the length of the two bars. And four projection screens along one wall. And large flat screens mounted in all the corners. The pool tables, video games and stage for live music is immaterial. What matters is the game, the only game. What matters is the Steelers.
The joy of watching a sports event in a place like Rick's is that everyone in the joint is watching the same exact thing. Aside from a random group of Eagles fans in the next booth over, everyone is rooting for the same team. Everyone yells at the same time. Terrible Towels are waved. Chants are chanted. High fives are exchanged.
For the record the game was a bore and we left at halftime.
In other Random News:
1: David Byrne has a blog! He gets excited over a puppet museum!
2: Winners of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced.
3: The Penguins have scheduled training camps!
Rookie Camp: September 7 – 12 at Mellon Arena. Open practices Saturday, September 9 and Sunday, September 10.
Regular Training Camp: September 14 – September 17. Three Open Practice sessions, scheduled on a weekend!
And I shall attend, camera in hand. I will try to honor requests for photographs, but please remember: An eight year old girl asking a professional player for a photograph is cute. A thirty-three year old woman asking that same player for a photograph is creepy.
Fayetteville and Little Rock Arkansas are the exact same way on Arkansas game days. You can go to the mall without any traffic or anyone else there. It's great. Heck, when I lived in Little Rock I went to the mall during a game once and even the gang members weren't there! That was a real treat.
ReplyDeleteAre the Pens going to name Sidney Crosby as captain? I read where some people were talking about it.
I'm not sure if they will name him Captain this year. Recchi's re-signed with the team, which makes it less of a possibility. Therrien named him Captain last year to light a fire underneath some of the Veteran players. It ended up creating more problems than it solved.
ReplyDeleteSidney has matured a great deal in the last year, but he is still a kid in many ways.
I would like to see LeClair named Captain.