Chick-Phil-A

#VisitPittsburgh - I did this past weekend.

I understand it's Flyers/Penguins starting round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so each city's fans are having fun on twitter with the #visitpittsburgh and #visitphiladelphia hash tags, but I can't really bring myself to get down on the city. I've visited the last three years for Phillies/Pirates and have always had a great time (even though the Phills usually end up dropping a majority of the games there).

This past weekend was no exception. While I wished for a better outcome of the games on Saturday and Sunday, I had a great time during my visit. Drank some Penn Pilsners, ate some local food, bought some funny shirts, and watched baseball in a beautiful stadium.

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend. The rest can be found on my Flickr page.

Oh, and Let's go Flyers!!

Hunter Pence takes a warm up swing.

Herndon & Stutes shagging fly balls (really they are).

The Pirates' dugout.

Jimmy and Dubee messing around at the cage.

Thome does some running.

Wiggy and Pete Orr at shortstop.

 

The Pirate Parrot

I enjoy mascots.

The Pirates Parrot is pretty good. He's large and green and has a beak, so I guess he reminds me a bit of the Phanatic.

Sometimes the parrot carries a giant cell phone.

Sometimes he does goofy handshakes with members of the team.

He messes with security.

HIS HAT COMES OFF! (this freaks me out a bit).

And he has his own human sidekicks

 

 

Phillies Opening Day in Pittsburgh

We made the trek out to western PA for the third season in a row to take in the Phillies/Pirates series. It's extra special this year, though, since it's also opening weekend for the Phillies.

The weather was great, the beverages were flowing, and Roy Halladay dominated as the Phillies squeaked by for a 1-0 win over the Buccos.

Here's a few of the photos I took, more can be found on my Flickr page. I'll post more as the weekend goes on.

Watch out for that ketchup, Chooch!

Beautiful view from our seats.

The full rosters, ready to play ball.

Pap warms up.

Papelbon's first pitch as a Phillie.

 

Road Trippin' - 4th of July with the Phillies in Pittsburgh (with Photos)

Last weekend, we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and take a trek out to Pittsburgh to see the Fightin's take on the Pirates (and some fireworks). 

 
We had a great time - I really enjoyed the city, even though we were only there for a short time.  We stayed right downtown the first night.  I loved how it was just a 15 minute walk over the Roberto Clemente bridge to get to PNC Park.  The park is gorgeous.  Right on the Allegheny River, the entire outfield is open with a view of the yellow bridges and skyline of downtown Pittsburgh. 

Mr. ChickPhilA suprised me the day before we left, telling me that we had to leave even earlier than anticipated becuase he was able to get us press passes to watch batting practice on the field!!  So I went into work early, and just after 10 am we started our journey across the PA Turnpike.

There were many Phillies fans doing the same thing that weekend - every rest area we stopped at there were many people sporting their red, white, maroon or baby blue Phillies shirts and jerseys.  I got the feeling that we were going to be in CBP West for the games with the amount of Phills fans out there.  It would turn out that was indeed th case - the crowds for both games we were at had to be at least 50% Phillies fans.

Two words about last night's Phillies game.

GREG DOBBS!

Seriously, I was so excited when he hit that 2 run HR to give the Phillies and Roy the lead last night. I've been a fan of Dobbs really since his answer to the "if you could travel back in time, where/when would you go" aired in CBP during "Ask the Phillies" early '08. (His answer - Prehistoric times to see the dinosaurs, like, the pterodactyl)

I stuck by him when everyone was calling for his head this year, and was sad when he was sent down to the Iron Pigs (though I was kind of excited to go see him play up there in Allentown). Then the big blow came last week Eden both Uts and Polly had to go on the DL, and Greggy got called back up after only 4 games (and 2 hits) as an Iron Pig.

Since coming back, Dobbs is hitting .333! Sure, he's making some errors in the field, but so is Cody Ransom. (I know during Saturday's game with Cody everyone was all high on him with his hits and what not...)

My favorite quote from Charlie after the game last night, when asked if the more regular at bats were helping Dobbs with his hitting. "Ten thousand percent," answered Chuck.

Keep it up Dobbers!

Photos are up from the weekend trip to Pittsburgh to see the Phillies play the Pirates - see the link to the right in the side column...I'll have an actual post with some highlights up later today at some time.