Attended Sports Events of the Decade, Part 2

Yesterday I started counting down my list of the ten greatest sporting events I attended this decade. I counted down from 10 through 5, so tonight I am bringing you the top 4.

4. Harrisburg Senators vs. Altoona Curve, July 25, 2009:
That's right, number 4 comes at you with some minor league baseball. It was a boring summer week, and my friend Nate and I decided that we wanted to go see Pedro Alvarez play in Altoona, so we looked at the schedule, found the next home game, and took off. It was a Thursday and the trip was totally spontaneous. It was about a 2 hour drive, which wasn't bad at all. I wrote a more detailed recap of the day on my old blog, which you can read here. There were two big plays in the game which I will long remember. First, the Senators turned a triple play, the only one I have ever seen in person. If you click the game link you can read more about that play. The second play was a Pedro Alvarez home run, which is exactly what I made the trip to see. Now I didn't have the best angle to see the pitch, but I could swear the pitch was a low and away curveball that Pedro had to reach for, and he still muscled it out of the park. It was my first glimpse of what could be the Pirates best power hitter in decades.



3. New York Mets vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, June 4, 2009:
Another spontaneously attended game here. The reason this game made the list is because it was the much anticipate debut of Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen. The McLouth trade was made 2 nights earlier, and I was thrilled to hear that McCutchen was getting the call. I called a couple of friends the night before (the aforementioned Nate and Nick) and we went down to PNC Park and bought some outfield seats, right behind where McCutchen. This was also the spot where I took my blog's picture, with the ghetto-rigged McCutchen #22 shirt I made from my McLouth #13 shirt. You can read more details about this day in this post from my old blog. McCutchen is going to have a long and hopefully very successful career with the Pirates, and I am proud to say I was there when it all started.



2. Milwaukee Brewers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates, July 2, 2004:
Here's one that I actually had to go back some years to recall. This was a double header between the Bucs and Brewers, and it was by far the best day I've ever had at the ballpark. In the first game, Tony Alvarez hit a grand slam in the 3rd inning to put the Bucs up 5-0 early. Later, the magic continued with a Jack Wilson inside-the-park home run. The Pirates went on to win the game 8-1, while Oliver Perez struck out 11 in 7 innings of 5-hit ball. That was only the beginning however, the second game was equally as exciting. Josh Fogg made the start and pitched well, going 6.1 innings giving up only 2 earned runs. Despite that performance, the story of the game was Jason Bay, who went 4-for-5 with 8 RBI. He hit his 10th home run of the year in the 7th inning, and his other 3 hits were all doubles. It wasn't all Pirates that made it a great day, I even got on TV while dawning my friend Brandon's hat which had every MLB logo on it (he was too afraid to go on camera, so I grabbed it and hopped right on). Despite all that, the best part of this double header was probably that it was part of a 10-game winning streak for the Bucs. These were the 6th and 7th wins of the streak, and it was a great day to be at the ballpark.


1. Xavier Musketeers vs. Duquesne Dukes, February 7, 2008:
As I said before, I am a huge basketball fan. My sister attended Duquesne University and got me and 3 of my friends tickets in the student section for this game. The Dukes were taking on a very good team in Xavier, who were ranked number 9 in the country at time. We really didn't think Duquesne had any kind of chance to win the game, but somehow they pulled it off. Duquesne's star point guard Aaron Jackson had 21 points, and small forward Bill Clark went 4-4 from 3-point land and was second in scoring with 18. The Dukes were physically overmatched, Xavier had some trees down there under the hoop, and ended up out-rebounding Duquesne 46-31, a ridiculous number. However, the Dukes were hot all day from the floor, shooting .636 from the field (to Xavier's .538) and took the victory. The absolute best part of this experience, and probably the best experience in my sports-loving life was rushing the court after the game. I always dreamed of doing it some day, and I got the chance to that night. The clock hit 0 and the student section ran onto the court, red-out shirts ablaze. I have never jumped and screamed that much in my life. The game was shown on Sportscenter the next day, and I even saw myself in the fracas on TV, which was pretty dang cool.



So that's it, my top 10 attended sports events of the decade. If the Pirates had a winning season this decade, maybe they would have had a chance to be involved with #1, but they just can't cut it. Let's hope that when I write this post again in 10 years, number 1 will be the clinching game of the Pirates first World Series since 1979. Let's Go Bucs, and Let's Go Sports.