IGT 08/15, Mets at Pirates

[Frayed Knot]

Weird frickin game.
5 of the first 6 NYM batters score, and then 5 of the final 8.

Leave it to Tim Kurkjian to uncover (via Elias) that this was the first time in 50 years that a team has scored 5 in the 1st and 5 in the 9th but no runs in between.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Our offense in a capsule.

I don't have the data in front of me but it seems we've been a good first-inning club and a good ninth-innng club, while not being much in between.

[TransMonk]

2007 Runs By Inning:
1st inning 75
2nd inning 46
3rd inning 44
4th inning 68
5th inning 55
6th inning 79
7th inning 45
8th inning 79
9th inning 62
Ext inning 12
Innings 1-3 165
Innings 4-6 202
Innings 7-9 186
Innings 10+ 12

[Willets Point]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: ="Iubitul"]And the Mets win the damned game... My thoughts exactly.

From the PotG poll it looks they tied.

[Farmer Ted]

From the game, you know the details. Looked like it was over before 7:30 and then that freaking ninth inning. Lots o' Mets fans in the joint and well behaved. Must be the western PA air that brings out the best in Mets fans. Slight drizzle in the 2nd or so had the big shots down front scrambling for cover.

The thing I noticed most from last year to this at PNC, is that the ushers must have gone to Disney Training Camp. Friendly, offering to take photos, they would sprint down the aisles of the section where there is a foul ball (every time!) to make sure everyone is OK. Even the vendors hawking beer..."Hey thanks for ordering with me. My name's Lefty, enjoy the game." Mrs. Ted said, "where the fuck am I?" They allow strollers in the stadium and you can drop it off in a nice, clean, air conditioned guest relations office staffed by about a six people.

I like that place.

[Guest cooby]

Farmer Ted, you were there too?

You weren't "Tom" on the bus were you?

Anyway, good game, very very warm and humid. Rain shower right after a Pirate homerun, that was pretty theatrical.

Exciting ending and a chuckle knowing all the Pittsburgh faithful had already left.

Nice park, still very baseball themed, even if it is new.

Played a lot of dramatic sea going music before game and right before game time, a animated cannon fight between Pirates and Mets pirate flotillas on the river, very neat.

For those one or two of you that still don't know it, I named my son after a Pittsburgh Pirate, Tony Pena.

Very pissed off about something right now, so that's it from me.

[Farmer Ted]

We drove down and made the fatal mistake of taking the "shortcut" on Route 22. That tacked on another 70 minutes due to road construction. We go to the parking deck at 6:15 for F's sake.

The pierogie race was fixed, the Pirate mascot never ventured more than three rows past the rail, and that goofball in the bleachers with the in-between-inning games is a dork. The jumbotron is still too small--I shouldn't have to squinit to see the players stats.

Other than that, thumbs up

[Guest cooby]

Our bus took Rte 22 also; is that not the most depressing area you've ever seen in your life? I never saw so many boarded up businesses; and the ones that are open look like they are on their last legs. We got there at 6:40, and we left State College at 12:30!
It didn't look to us like the road construction had any organization at all; there were just a bunch of road crews doing whatever they felt like doing that day and it didn't necesarily jive with what the other road crews were doing.

Agreed about the Jumbotron, it was hard to pin down certain stats and it took me until 8:30 just to find a clock. I really liked the stadium though and the view is terrific.

I wonder if they stole a page from Historic Bowman Field's book with the in between innings game...they do something there between every inning too.

I didn't see the perogie race; it must have been while we were exploring.

[Centerfield]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: ="Iubitul"]And the Mets win the damned game... My thoughts exactly.

Me too.

[Farmer Ted]

Best (or worst) part of Rt. 22 between Altoona and Pittsburgh, the drive-through strip club.

DELMONT, Pa. (AP) - You want pasties with that?

In a country that offers everything from drive-through burgers to drive-through church services, a strip club near Pittsburgh has something new for those who can't stop in for lap dances - drive-through nudity.

``When they leave, customers are falling out laughing,'' said Nick Fratangelo, owner of the Climax Gentleman's Club in Salem Township on an isolated stretch of U.S. Route 22, about 35 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Motorists pull around to a window at the back of the club, show proof they are 18 or older and pay $5 per minute. Then they pull up a few feet to a second window and watch a nude dancer for the amount of time they paid for.

A 26-year-old Climax stripper who would identify herself only by her stage name, Barbie, said most customers pay for two to three minutes, but one man paid $100 for 20 minutes.

``That can be tough,'' she said. ``After a while, you run out of things to do.''

Climax opened the drive-through in April after employees bounced around ideas to attract customers, Fratangelo said.

Bill Lyon, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, the Canoga Park, Calif.-based trade association for the adult entertainment industry, said Climax is likely the only strip club in the country to open a drive-through window.

``One of the many problems faced by adult clubs are problems of generally people attempting to say they have 'secondary effects,''' Lyon said, such as strippers inflaming customers enough to provoke sexual attacks.

``This is one way of really overcoming that,'' Lyon said. ``With this, there's no way you're going to touch that girl. It's pretty innovative.''

Township supervisor Ed Gieselman helped write a 1998 ordinance to regulate strip clubs. He called the drive- through an advertising gimmick designed to generate publicity.

``We objected to the sign (for the drive-through) being so close to the road, and they moved it back,'' he said. ``We have grammar school children going by there in school buses. Adult businesses should be a little obscure, I think, out of respect for the community.''

The club is next to a steep hill covered with thorny bushes that would slice the skin of anyone trying to get a free peek, and the window's design prevents such sneaky behavior.

A canopy with a wall against the hill blocks a straight-on view of the window, and partitions on each side of the window force motorists to drive directly in front of it to see the stripper.

Fratangelo said he has turned away ``maybe a couple'' of minors who tried to sneak through, and a few customers who tried to violate the no-camera rule faced bouncers who confiscated the film.

``They never got the flash off,'' Fratangelo said.

Barbie said the drive-through has proven popular with couples - particularly on Friday or Saturday nights - and for carloads of women.

``We also get a lot of college kids who can't really afford the door, but they can afford the window,'' she said. ``It's a novelty to women and they don't have to spend the $15 to $20 for admission to the club.''

Fratangelo said he can't yet say whether the window has been a financial boon for the club.

``We're only in its second quarter. After five quarters, we'll know. It certainly hasn't hurt any, I'll say that.''

[Benjamin Grimm]

="Farmer Ted"] A 26-year-old Climax stripper who would identify herself only by her stage name, Barbie, said most customers pay for two to three minutes, but one man paid $100 for 20 minutes.

I'd hate to have been behind that guy on the drive-through line.

I wonder what kind of Happy Meal toys they give out?

[Farmer Ted]

and the next line...

``That can be tough,'' she said. ``After a while, you run out of things to do.''


Did she not see that Whitesnake video with Tawny Kitaen?

[Guest cooby]

No wonder traffic was moving so slow through there...


I'm pretty sure Climax has been there for as long as I can remember. Isn't that the purple one?