Sunday, February 11 -- KABOOM!

Sunday, February 11 -- KABOOM!

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ne of my favorite Atari games of all time is the one where a bank robber is dropping bombs in a crazy random pattern, and you have to
catch them in a bucket of water by using your paddles to move the bucket back and forth….
Well, that’s not actually what this entry is going to be about.
They blew up Three Rivers Stadium this morning. Well, actually, they didn’t blow it up – it was an “implosion”. I’ve heard the word
“implosion” so many times in the last few weeks, on the news and elsewhere, that I thought I was going to have an implosion in my brain.
Anyway, the baseball and football field that they built just 30 years ago – the place where I saw my first professional baseball game – is
gone now, reduced to a pile of rubble (already today I’ve heard the word “rubble” about twenty times, so I think my brain is going to be
reduced to a pile of rubble). To view some pictures and videos, here’s a great site.
I watched the implosion on TV – several times, actually, although I didn’t wake up in time to catch it live. The crazy TV stations here even
had cameras in the middle of the stadium while it went down – they didn’t last too long, though.
Though I feel kind of strange about the whole thing – sort of like I’ve been just dreaming it all – I really have no love lost for the place.
That’s probably only because I never had the opportunity to watch a Steeler game there. To me, Three Rivers was an ugly place,
especially after thirty years of wear and tear and spilled Iron City Beers. It was hideous for watching baseball – all of the seats felt like
they were half a mile away from the field.
The worst thing of it all is that it seems like such a waste. Supposedly it’s going to take 9 more years before the city of Pittsburgh pays off
the stadium they just tore down, let alone the two new ones. The combined total of $500,000,000 spent on the two new buildings could
have gone to feed a heck of a lot of hungry people, instead of providing two more places for us Picksburghers to sit our fat butts and act
like idiots.
On the other hand, I plan on sitting my fat butt at PNC Park as much as possible this year, so I’m really not one to talk.


	ne of my favorite Atari games of all time is the one where a bank robber is dropping bombs in a crazy random pattern, and you have to catch them in a bucket of water by using your paddles to move the bucket back and forth…. Well, that’s not actually what this entry is going to be about. They blew up Three Rivers Stadium this morning. Well, actually, they didn’t blow it up – it was an “implosion”. I’ve heard the word “implosion” so many times in the last few weeks, on the news and elsewhere, that I thought I was going to have an implosion in my brain. Anyway, the baseball and football field that they built just 30 years ago – the place where I saw my first professional baseball game – is gone now, reduced to a pile of rubble (already today I’ve heard the word “rubble” about twenty times, so I think my brain is going to be reduced to a pile of rubble). To view some pictures and videos, here’s a great site. I watched the implosion on TV – several times, actually, although I didn’t wake up in time to catch it live. The crazy TV stations here even had cameras in the middle of the stadium while it went down – they didn’t last too long, though. Though I feel kind of strange about the whole thing – sort of like I’ve been just dreaming it all – I really have no love lost for the place. That’s probably only because I never had the opportunity to watch a Steeler game there. To me, Three Rivers was an ugly place, especially after thirty years of wear and tear and spilled Iron City Beers. It was hideous for watching baseball – all of the seats felt like they were half a mile away from the field. The worst thing of it all is that it seems like such a waste. Supposedly it’s going to take 9 more years before the city of Pittsburgh pays off the stadium they just tore down, let alone the two new ones. The combined total of $500,000,000 spent on the two new buildings could have gone to feed a heck of a lot of hungry people, instead of providing two more places for us Picksburghers to sit our fat butts and act like idiots. On the other hand, I plan on sitting my fat butt at PNC Park as much as possible this year, so I’m really not one to talk.