The British Airways non stop flight was good, but really dragged, but that's more of a me problem than anything else.
It was nice to land in Lambert direct from England and be sat in the reception of the Hampton Inn downtown eating an IMO's within 2 hours rather than connecting via Atlanta like usual.
I come mid September as while it is hot (compared to here) it's not crazy hot. Well, that is out the window now, it was stupid hot and I am so glad of the air conditioning.
I had been in contact with Pappys during the year as earlier in the year, I sent them some pictures of me around Liverpool wearing one of their t shirts.
I went there on the Friday and they made a fuss of me and gave me a hoodie (the irony wasn't lost in the 100 degree heat).
I sent that home with a couple of t shirts via the USPS on the 18th and it hasn't arrived yet and the last update on the 26th said it was still in STL.
The post from my visit two weeks ago and the one from Liverpool are both on their facebook page, but this is me jet lagged handing over an apron I had made for them.
The baseball spoke for itself, I think the Cardinals need a lot of pitching next year, we will see how the winter goes.
We flew on to Pittsburgh on Monday 21st and compared to the heat in STL it was like being home in November. I instantly regretted sending the Pappys hoodie home. It was raining and the forecast for the week said it was going to be wet all week.
I found a cheap Reebok hoodie for $12 and that did a job for my time in Pittsburgh.
I was on a bit of a downer on the Monday and Tuesday with it being so cold. Again, that's a me problem.
We went on a tour of the Steelers stadium and it was enjoyable. I am an NY Giants fan (I know!).
The first game at PNC we were sat on level 1 not far from what would be their green seats and it was cold and they lost, but it's a great stadium. As I said I was a bit down, but then the next day things took a turn, as did the weather and what a day Wednesday was.
We went on a "pre game tour" of PNC Park. All I knew was that it ended up near the Cardinals dugout, it started at 3pm and the game was at 6:30 so the clubhouse was out of bounds, but to be fair, you don't go in the clubhouse at Busch, so it was no big deal.
We did a nice tour of the stadium, executive boxes etc and got round to the outfield and the PIrates had started BP. There were about 10 of us on the tour. I am no Zack Hample, but I have seen a few of his videos, so kind of knew what to do. No balls came directly at me, and I wasn't THAT bothered about getting a ball, but literally as we were going to move on a ball was fielded close to me and I shouted "Yes please, mate!" in my best british accent and the player flicked the ball up to me and I genuinely caught it bare handed (It was maybe 20ft max).
We then went round to the other side of the stadium to the Cardinals dugout, then I thought about what might (and did) eventually happen.
We had eaten lunch at the same place as Victor Scott II earlier in the day and he was out doing drills with a coach. He then came over and started signing autographs.
I am 45 and am in no way fighting through kids to get a baseball players autograph, but as it was, there were not many of us there and he seemed cool enough.
There was a guy and his kid on the tour and the kid ended up lending me his pen for the Scott II autograph and the rest as it turned out.
The other player to come over was Quinn Matthews. I got 7 signatures in total, it was a cool experience, other players did come over and some people got 10 autographs, but there were some serious collectors there and as I said before I wasn't fighting.
The people of PIttsburgh were probably the friendliest I have ever experienced over there (that is not a knock on anywhere else) they just seemed to go out of their way to be nice.
A lady in the Pirates shop found me a plastic case for my ball and it was so cool.
I am thinking of trying Philly next year, all being well.
I also made me and the cardinals life partners yesterday.
