Author Topic: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2  (Read 16556 times)

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Offline mitlen

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #225: September 04, 2010, 10:30:35 PM »
I think Wood reminds me of Al Koken .... haircut?

Offline UMDNats

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #226: September 04, 2010, 11:49:45 PM »
man does PNC park crap all over nats park. not even a close comparison. makes nats park look like a freaking minor league park.


not to mention the FREE fireworks show (which was amazing) and FREE luke bryan concert. they know how to do it up in the burgh. the nats could take a lot of lessons about good fan experiences..

Offline Coladar

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #227: September 05, 2010, 04:30:40 AM »
Alright, just got home. Freaking, freaking, freaking long one day trip. As in 14 hours and I got at the stadium at 6:50 and left as soon as the concert was over. If this weren't the last series on the road trip, I might have stayed the night and gone tomorrow. But going to day-night-day Mon, Tues and Weds, I preferred to make today excruciating and take tomorrow off, sleep in my own bed tonight.

But a great game. Incredible park. I never felt Camden Yards came close to Nats Park. But PNC Park blows Nats Park out of the water. Its like going to a AAA park versus a major league park. The sight lines of the city, the Clemente Bridge, the River. Our CF? Cluttered with seats, the Red Porch, oh, and *parking garages* For someone who's only been to Camden, RFK and Nats Park, it was that impressive. And the food was delicious. The hamburger was non fast food restaurant quality. We've got nice stuff they don't like Giffords, Gelato, Mayorga, etc. But for the standards, our food is pretty crappy. They didn't have the selection Nats Park does, not by a long shot, but I'd take a quality burger and fries over a hundred things I won't eat any day of the week.

And I'll echo what UMD said. The Bryan concert and fireworks are almost enough to single-handedly  make me jump into the LAC crowd. Hell, we used to get Saturday Night movies on the big screen until they decided they didn't want to pay to keep employees around a few more hours. We can't get one decent event like this a year when this was Pittsburgh? The whole experience was simply phenomenal, but unfortunately at the cost of making me far less in awe of Nats Park from now on. I can't say enough on how amazing the concert and fireworks were, for free, after a game? Maybe it was just a fluke, and 80 games a year are crappy like Nats games. Maybe it just so happened the only time I've ever gone to PNC Park they have their once a year blowout. I doubt it. But having the concert and fireworks, and the beauty of the park, I can't say enough about the Pirates focus on the fan experience. Just blown away.

Oh, and Espinosa is the real deal watching him in person. Nice swing, great fielding, pays attention and seems like he's already getting along well with quite a few guys on the team. Looking forward even more than before to watching him in person more this week at Nats Park. He's just a heck of a talent. And finally, how about the old mans home run? I didn't think it had enough in it to clear that high wall, that was a heck of a blast from Pudge. My only negative was having to watch Nyjer the Punk Morgan smiling every time he walked in the dugout five feet away and refrain from booing him or telling him off. It was hard, believe me.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #228: September 05, 2010, 08:11:55 AM »
Sorry but I think you guys are both drinking the koolaid.  PNC Park is lovely but it's highly highly overrated, and saying it makes Nats park look like a minor league park is just ridiculous.  Not to mention that neither of you actually compared the parks, you compared the views of the city and the number of freebies provided :lol:

Offline Coladar

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #229: September 05, 2010, 08:30:04 AM »
Sorry but I think you guys are both drinking the koolaid.  PNC Park is lovely but it's highly highly overrated, and saying it makes Nats park look like a minor league park is just ridiculous.  Not to mention that neither of you actually compared the parks, you compared the views of the city and the number of freebies provided :lol:

I've got to disagree with you. The limestone is highly unique. But, and as I pointed out in my earlier post, the view is what makes it. We look out on two parking garages and the Red Porch, which isn't exactly beautiful. The concourses and all? I could care less about their design. The exterior of the park, walking all the war around, blows Nats Park out of the water. It just does. And that's excluding the view you get of Pittsburgh and the river walking around.

But like I said, it's the view in your seat. That's all I care about. I go to 70-80 Nats games a year, so I know the stadium like the back of my hand. You needn't go to either to make up your mind though. When watching a game, which looks AAA and which looks like a postcard, if a postcard were a work of art?





That's not koolaid. Don't get me wrong, Nats Park is one of the better parks. But comparing these two is laughable. The scoreboard and out of town scores are the only benefits. Likewise, PNC isn't nearly as commercialized/ad nuts as Nats Park. Nats Parks best looking, most impressive entrance is the one nobody ever uses since it's on the side facing nothing. No parking or metro.

As far as the freebies. Well, again, I make it to 70-80 games per year here. I've been to one PNC Park game. In six seasons, we never had an event even 10% of what they had tonight. And they have it three times a year, plus concerts without the fireworks and fireworks without the concerts. And the fireworks display versus Nats Park was like the ones I do in my backyard versus a local high schools fireworks.

I strongly wish I could show my favoritism, and I think that's partly why I say Camden is inferior to Nats Park by a degree. But every aspect of last night blew the stadium and fan experience for any single game at Nats Park out of the water. It's just not a contest, and the AAA comment stands up. When I'm in my seat, so I want to look in the outfield to see some parking garages that they had to put ads on to try and hide, and the Red Porch, which while not ugly and is great for using it... When I'm in my seat, watching the game, Nats Park is a AAA park in comparison. It's parking garages with ads hanging down them and a distractingly red restaurant, or a very minimal, no seating area that allows for a picturesque piece of art every time you look up. Like I said, 8'm not downing Nats Park, it's a beautiful park in its own right. But PNC is in a different league from 90% of MLB Parks with that view.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #230: September 05, 2010, 08:41:07 AM »
Well aside from the highly unflattering angle you chose for the Nats Park picture, I'm not going to deny that PNC has a nicer skyline view, but maybe I'm in the minority on this one - I go to game to watch the game, not stare at the skyline.  Skylines makes for nice souvenir pictures, but the parks themselves are what I care about.  Seating comfort, views of the field, ease of getting about, accessibility of concessions, etc.  I think any reasonably new park is going to do fine in those areas, and from what I've seen there's nothing terribly special about PNC in that regard.  Events are again not a matter of the park itself.  I won't comment on that because again, I really don't go to ballparks for anything but the game.

I'm by no means saying that Nats park is the most awesome park in baseball, I just don't think that PNC is *that* much better.  Camden is kind of a dump, honestly.  Every time I've been I'm struck by how cramped, dark, and dirty it feels.  And that's not Nats favoritism as I attended games at Camden before the Nats even existed.

Offline PANatsFan

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #231: September 05, 2010, 09:56:30 AM »
I went to Italian day and got a free Italian themed Pirates hat and an outfield ticket and they brought in several local restaurants (Pburgh has really great pizza and Italian by the way) and they cooked on the river walk. I had veal parmigiana! It was like 20 bucks, and Mike Bacsuck got the win.


They have to go to all of this insane fan experience trouble because the park is empty. Like ghost town empty. You can get tickets to any section for any game, unless the Yankees come to town. So it is a bit like Camden Yards.

The thing is, when Kasten mentions the fan experience at Nats Park, which absolutely destroys that of CBP, SkyDome, or Camden, people have crapfits and scream LAC and go crazy over the moonbounce. So they just can't win. The concourse at Nats Park is the best I have been to by an insane margin, including PNC. You can see the game action from anywhere. That's worth quite a bit in my book.

Offline tomterp

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #232: September 05, 2010, 11:19:45 AM »
:lol: I was about to start working on formatting a post since I saw everyone was scared of Lannan I guess

 :lol:

Don't believe everything you read here regarding how awful Lannan is.  In fact, Lannan and Pudge were our two best players last night. 

Offline UMDNats

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #233: September 05, 2010, 12:46:02 PM »
Well aside from the highly unflattering angle you chose for the Nats Park picture, I'm not going to deny that PNC has a nicer skyline view, but maybe I'm in the minority on this one - I go to game to watch the game, not stare at the skyline.  Skylines makes for nice souvenir pictures, but the parks themselves are what I care about.  Seating comfort, views of the field, ease of getting about, accessibility of concessions, etc.  I think any reasonably new park is going to do fine in those areas, and from what I've seen there's nothing terribly special about PNC in that regard.  Events are again not a matter of the park itself.  I won't comment on that because again, I really don't go to ballparks for anything but the game.

I'm by no means saying that Nats park is the most awesome park in baseball, I just don't think that PNC is *that* much better.  Camden is kind of a dump, honestly.  Every time I've been I'm struck by how cramped, dark, and dirty it feels.  And that's not Nats favoritism as I attended games at Camden before the Nats even existed.

Sorry but I think you guys are both drinking the koolaid.  PNC Park is lovely but it's highly highly overrated, and saying it makes Nats park look like a minor league park is just ridiculous.  Not to mention that neither of you actually compared the parks, you compared the views of the city and the number of freebies provided :lol:

their statues are also far better
they have 3-4 restaurants right outside the entrances
walk along the bridges to get to the park
view of pittsburgh skyline vs. view of parking garage, some of anacostia
concourses about equal
far shorter food lines (and there were 30k there last night)
free live concert + fireworks (why can't the nats do this ONCE A YEAR like the pirates do? sure they can't shoot fireworks off of buildings and awesome bridges but it'd be nice)
an overall better experience, IMO. maybe the pirates are just pros at making you enjoy your time there when the team loses 90-100 a year.

i will say that the nats video board and graphics are far superior.

Offline cmdterps44

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #234: September 05, 2010, 01:20:40 PM »
PNC park is pretty awesome. In TLDR version: I had a good time up there, and I was up there in 2001. We walked across the bridge with thousands of others. We also got to see Daryle Ward hit the first homer into the river. It was pretty awesome. I like the view alot better. Then again I was sitting behind homeplate in the second deck.


One thing that Nats park has over PNC is the miller lite walk. That little bar thing in center is so much cooler.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #235: September 05, 2010, 02:00:28 PM »
their statues are also far better I don't watch the statues for 3 hours
they have 3-4 restaurants right outside the entrances not part of the park(?)
walk along the bridges to get to the park not part of the park
view of pittsburgh skyline vs. view of parking garage, some of anacostianot part of the park
concourses about equal so not an advantage
far shorter food lines (and there were 30k there last night) that's because they suck, nobody spends a lot of money on a bad team.  that said, Nats park does need to improve in this regard, so sure, point for PNC even though that's on the vendors and not the park itself
free live concert + fireworks (why can't the nats do this ONCE A YEAR like the pirates do? sure they can't shoot fireworks off of buildings and awesome bridges but it'd be nice)NOT PART OF THE PARK :lol:
an overall better experience, IMO. maybe the pirates are just pros at making you enjoy your time there when the team loses 90-100 a year. they've got a lot more practice at it, so I'm sure they are

i will say that the nats video board and graphics are far superior.

To sum up my point-by-point rebuttal - almost all of that has nothing to do with the park itself.  Did you even read my posts? :lol:

If you and Colodar like PNC better, that's cool.  But I still think it's highly overrated and saying it makes Nats park (or any other new park for that matter) look like a AAA stadium is hyperbole of the most preposterous degree.

Offline UMDNats

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #236: September 05, 2010, 02:06:51 PM »
To sum up my point-by-point rebuttal - almost all of that has nothing to do with the park itself.  Did you even read my posts? :lol:

If you and Colodar like PNC better, that's cool.  But I still think it's highly overrated and saying it makes Nats park (or any other new park for that matter) look like a AAA stadium is hyperbole of the most preposterous degree.

i throw in the overall experience with the actual ballpark, which is why i threw in some other stuff.

and why isn't the skyline part of it? you build the park with the view in mind. if you want me to say i liked PNC better because the stone was nicer, im not going to. the overall experience as something i've never had at nats park

Offline The Chief

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #237: September 05, 2010, 02:09:05 PM »
I'm not saying a nice skyline doesn't have it's place, and sure ours could be better, but to me that's something you stop noticing at your own ballpark after half a dozen games or less.  "It's such a nice skyline" is what visitors say.  I'm pretty sure Pirates fans would gladly trade their awesome skyline for 20 more wins.

Offline UMDNats

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #238: September 05, 2010, 02:14:20 PM »
I'm not saying a nice skyline doesn't have it's place, and sure ours could be better, but to me that's something you stop noticing at your own ballpark after half a dozen games or less.  "It's such a nice skyline" is what visitors say.  I'm pretty sure Pirates fans would gladly trade their awesome skyline for 20 more wins.

i dont disagree, i think i just wish nats park had something UNIQUE about it. right now, there's nothing. bens chili bowl? don't count that. we have our big scoreboard but there's nothing that makes me say, "wow, this is a really nice ballpark."

dont get me wrong, i love nats park, but PNC was really, really nice, and the experience was great. the fireworks and concerts could never happen at night at NP because the nagy residents around NP complain like jerks about fireworks, so that sucks, because it really was a great performance.

Offline The Chief

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #239: September 05, 2010, 02:18:29 PM »
Yeah I'll give you that.  Nats Park kind of reminds me of a shopping mall.  A really nice one, but still.  Speaking of unique things...  did they ever say if anything is going to go on the roof of the Red Loft?

Offline mitlen

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Re: Nationals @ Pirates, Game 2
« Reply #240: September 05, 2010, 02:42:42 PM »
I'm not saying a nice skyline doesn't have it's place, and sure ours could be better, but to me that's something you stop noticing at your own ballpark after half a dozen games or less.  "It's such a nice skyline" is what visitors say.  I'm pretty sure Pirates fans would gladly trade their awesome skyline for 20 more wins.

I hail from the Pittsburgh area however I come to the defense of Nats' stadium.   I contend, if the "Golden Triangle" had a height limitation on its buildings as DC does, the view may be different and quite possibly as bland as we have.    Plus, I'm old enough to remember when you couldn't even see downtown from the North Side on a bright sunny day because of the dirt/smog.   The rebuilding of downtown and the loss of jobs (steelmills) changed all that.    Having said that, PNC and Heinz have great locations for viewing The Point and are great places to watch a ballgame.   And .... did any of you make it to the casino next door?   :)