Raise the Jolly Roger — Baseball Bench Coach

Like so many baseball fans, my wife grew up watching ballgames on WGN-TV Chicago with her family. For her though an allegiance with the Cubs did not begin but rather an admiration for one of the greatest players of all time, the late Roberto Clemente. She asked her parents to take her to Chicago or St. Louis to see the incredible Clemente play in person, but unfortunately before they could do so Clemente’s life was taken from us. On New Year’s Eve 1972, the “Great One” died in a plane crash while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Since then, the Pirates have continued to be her team, and so this past weekend we spent a wonderful baseball weekend in Pittsburgh.

Our first stop was a no-brainer, the Roberto Clemente Museum! The Museum, founded in 2007 by a photographer, Duane Rieder, is located in the former Engine House No. 25 in the Lawrenceville section of town. It contains literally thousands of Clemente memorabilia, such as professional sports photography, family photos, his baseball stuff (uniforms, gloves, and bats), and even some seats from Forbes Field, Clemente’s ballpark for most of his career. Our guide told many stories of Clemente’s humanitarian ways and affinity to teaching kids how to play the game. My favorite piece was a photo of Roberto’s last at-bat in Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS in Cincinnati, a game that I attended. The Museum is a can’t miss visit on a baseball trip to Pittsburgh.

That evening we ventured to PNC Park for the first game of a three-game series between the Pirates and the Miami Marlins. Pittsburgh’s first professional baseball team, the Pittsburgh Allegheny, joined the American Association in 1881 and then the National League in 1887. After the team signed a player from the Phillies in 1890, the Philadelphia newspaper headlined the story as Pittsburgh “pirating” their team. The name Pirates stuck with the ballclub for the 1891 season and forever since. Now often you also hear them called the “Bucs” or the ”Buccos” (a buccaneer is a pirate). The Pirates have won five World Series championships and nine National League pennants in franchise history.

PNC Park, which opened during the 2001 regular season, is strikingly beautiful from the outside. It sits along the Allegheny River with a view of the downtown skyline. PNC is modeled after the old Forbes Field in that new “retro-classic” style we see throughout the MLB. This evening the Clemente Bridge taking fans from downtown across the river to the ballpark was closed, so we were rerouted across the Warhol Bridge. We did though get to see the Willie Stargell statue outside the left field gate, appropriately the position he manned, and a statue outside the main gate we entered for Honus Wagner (the old-time Pirate nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman”). There are two other statues, Clemente of course, and Bill Mazeroski, whose walk-off home run in the 1960 World Series is the most famous hit in Pirates history.

The Pirates’ opponent on this night, the Miami Marlins, have a much shorter baseball history (founded in 1991 as the Florida Marlins) but already have two world championships of their own, 1997 and 2003. Managed by Don Mattingly, a 14-year player with the Yankees and Dodgers and now managing his second team after a five year stint with the Dodgers, Miami’s 2022 team is built around pitching, speed, and defense. Tonight was no exception as the Marlins’ pitchers dominated the Bucs. Pittsburgh only had two hits in an 8-1 loss. With a Pirates’ victory comes a great tradition, the “Raise the Jolly Roger” flag. This symbolizes the flying of a flag on a pirate ship about to attack, or in baseball vernacular, chalk one up in the win column. We would have to wait until the next evening to see it.

The next day we were back to PNC, including a pre-game tour of the ballpark. I highly recommend taking tours of MLB ballparks (smile), and this one certainly didn’t disappoint. Ballpark Digest rates PNC Park as #1 among MLB venues. Just as our tour was to begin, a driving rainstorm hit the ballpark. Our tour guide handled it adeptly and kept us indoors for much of the tour. We visited the legacy theater where the Pirates display many of their “firsts”, including the first all black starting lineup in 1971. The final stop on the tour was on the warning track down the left field line where we watched the Pirates warm up for about thirty minutes. We then did a mini tour of our own before the crowd entered the gates.

The second game of the series featured the Pirates’ Jose Quintana on the mound. Quintana is on the downside of his career after starring many years for the White Sox and Cubs. He is, however, having a good 2022 season, coming into the game with a 3.99 ERA. Quintana pitched seven, masterful shutout innings and the Bucs led 1-0 going into the ninth inning. In came the Pirates’ All-Star relief pitcher David Bednar to close it out. Pirates win! We watched gleefully as the Pirates mascot, Pete the Parrot, “Raised the Jolly Roger”!

With the series tied 1-1, we had to come back the next afternoon for the rubber game of the series, right? I once again donned my new Pirates cap and headed to the ballpark, this time with our niece and her family along. We were in our third seating section of the series (Section 120 on Friday; Section 217 on Saturday; and now Section 316). On this day our seats were directly in the sun, so we escaped to the lower level for shade. I know it’s a cliché, but I can safely say that there’s not a bad seat in this ballpark. The Marlins’ All-Star, Sandy Alcantara, one of the great young pitchers in the game, dominated the game early with 10 strikeouts in six innings. Down 4-2 in the ninth, the Pirates came back to send the game into extras Miami won in ten innings, 6-5.

While the Pirates were able to “Raise the Jolly Roger” in just one of the three games in the series, I can easily waive it for the entire weekend. It was a huge success!

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach