After a solid nights rest at the awesome Royal York hotel, I got up early and began my trip back to the USA and my mate Jay’s birthday boat party in the beautiful city of Pittsburgh.
The drive was an interesting one through Western New York and some cool towns along Lake Eire, before arriving back into Pennsylvania and the forest areas that surround the Western part of the state and Pittsburgh.
It was all systems go as soon as I arrived, with enough banter, beer and boating to keep us going until the early hours of the morning.
Highlights included tying up to a bunch of Jay’s other friend’s boats outside Heinz Field (home of the city’s NFL team the Pittsburgh Steelers), the awesome sunset (below) and of course finishing up the night with a visit to my favourite bar in the city “The Montour Hotel”!
The next day, it was time to catch up with my friend Ali and her boyfriend Nick by the pool for a recovery lunch and watch the World Cup (I’ve got the fever) and just hangout. Huge shoutout to Nick and Ali who were awesome hosts (and Jill for driving us around) – looking forward to the 4th of July!
On Tuesday morning, it was time to drive out to Cincinnati (aka the Queen City) for game number 19/20. I left Pittsburgh at 6am and would drive back West to Ohio via West Virginia. Once in Ohio, I would make a quick pit stop in the capital city Columbus to also check out the Ohio State University and their awesome campus and football stadium (third biggest in the country after our friends [Ohio State’s biggest rival] Michigan and Penn State.
Arriving in Cincinnati at around lunchtime, I checked into another awesome hotel located downtown, and walked the 10 minutes down to the main river front where most of the cool attractions are.
These include the local NFL team’s (the Cincinnati Bengals) stadium, some of the older interesting buildings and coolest of all, the John A. Roebling bridge which connects the city of Cincinnati (located in Ohio of course) to the city on the other side of the river “Covington” which is located in the state of Kentucky.
I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve walked from one state to another which was cool, and you get an awesome view of Cincinnati from the Kentucky side!
Following this, it was time to visit the Cincinnati Reds baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (shoutout to the Reds for providing me with the free tickets).
Like I say every time I visit a museum, it is hard to put all of the exhibits correctly into words, as there is so much content and hundreds of interesting things to see.
I will say that once again this place exceeded expectations and gave a fascinating recount of the history of the Reds franchise and how it defined the city. It also had interactive exhibits on how to throw different pitches, batting stances and further information on Cincinnati being the birthplace of professional baseball!
After two hours in the museum, it was time to grab a bite to eat before relaxing before the game. I decided to go with a Cincinnati local and a place I’d heard very mixed messages about (shoutout Pardon My Take). I’m referring to of course, “Skyline Chilli” aka the “Cincinnati Original”, aka “we all know how this is going to turn out for your boy George”.
I’m not going to sit here and say it was terrible, because it wasn’t THAT bad (and I don’t wish to insult the fine people of Cincinnati who enjoy it on the daily). However, I will say that I probably won’t go back again and be a “one and done” guy when it comes to Skyline Chilli. If you’re ever in the area, for sure try it – who says Cincinnati has no culture?
Finally, it was time for the game (again huge shoutout to the Reds for hooking up awesome seats on the house) where the Reds would be taking on the Chicago White Sox in some Interleague baseball on Fourth of July eve (aka July 3).
Little did I know before arriving for batting practice (my first time attending a batting practice) that I would be in for another instant classic that resembled a home run derby more than an actual baseball game.
First off, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge how cool “The Great American Ballpark” (unfortunately named so for sponsorship reasons) is.
Whilst not a Wrigley in that it has the old world charm, the Reds home stadium is a modern classic perched on the river overlooking Kentucky and having some of the coolest features both inside and outside of the stadium.
It felt like a cross between Dodger Stadium and Tigers Stadium with a couple of distractions for kids but the focus still being primarily on the actual baseball game taking place.
Things got off to a HOT start for the Reds, who reeled in 4 quick runs in the bottom of the first inning. With the home crowd going ballistic, Chicago would hit a 2-run homer in the fourth to close the gap somewhat. The home run derby would continue in the bottom of the fifth with the Reds BELTING a 3 run home run to extend their advantage to 7-2.
In the top of the sixth inning however, the White Sox would hit not 1, but 2, solo home runs in as many at-bats (I told you it was a derby) as well as reeling in 2 additional runs (from Reds errors) to make it a close 7-6 heading into the eighth.
The White Sox would amazingly tie the game up in the top of the eighth, before exceptional base running from Billy Hamilton would allow the Reds to take a 1-run advantage heading into the ninth. Thinking to myself this would be curtains for the White Sox with one out in the ninth, of course Garcia of the White Sox would BLAST another home-run which the Reds could not answer and we were headed to extra innings to find a winner.
Following two scoreless innings in extras (the tenth and eleventh), the White Sox would go big reeling in 4-runs from Reds errors and also a HGUE triple. When the Reds could not answer, the game was over and the White Sox had incredibly turned things around to win an exciting game 12-8 (and with 15 minutes to go before July 4)!
It was truly an awesome experience to be there, and reminded me that when baseball is at its best, it is one of the funnest sports to witness (I don’t usually put the video highlights, however this deserves a watch).
I had a great time in Cincinnati, and although it was short, it certainly was sweet. I had to leave early the next morning as it was Fourth of July and I had a date with a boat and all my mates back in Pittsburgh (hence why this post is a little late).
I’ll attempt to do a write up about the Fourth; otherwise will just uploaded some pictures. More importantly, on Sunday I will be officially 2/3 of the way through with game 20 at beautiful PnC Park in the great city of Pittsburgh.
God bless baseball, God bless America and God bless YOU for taking the time to read this convoluted mess of a blog post.
Have a good one all!
Thirty before 30 