Just Another Manic Monday

It's been really tough to keep any kind of blogging schedule with all the craziness in my life - playoffs, last minute wedding details, basic day to day survival.

And today was no different, really.  Someone at MLB headquarters was kind enough to stick the Pirate/Cards in the 3pm slot so they could have their Dodgers prime time game.  I suppose it was even worse for Tigers fans, but then again parking in downtown Detroit may not be quite as difficult as it once was.  My afternoon?  Well, I got a good workout in.

I left the house around noon.  Parking for the previous games had been a piece of cake: Pittsburgh stops enforcing street parking after 6, and not at all on Sundays.  So an 8pm start and a Sunday game made life easy on me, and I was able to find free parking within a few blocks of the park.

But today?  Apparently the less dedicated baseball fans do that working thing on Mondays, and it tends to stretch into the afternoon hours.  So I was left either shelling out more for parking than I had paid for my ticket...or getting creative.

I lived downtown for four years, so I'm no stranger to the delicate nuances of downtown parking.  Those odd streets where there are no meters, or what stretch where parking is unenforced, bookended by two blocks of 2 hour parking.  Driving downtown I had a few options in mind, but they would all require walking.

I was happy to manage to find myself a spot a mere 25 blocks or so from the park.  Pulling in at 1pm, I had plenty of time to walk down, get settled in and enjoy the game.

The thing is that 25 city blocks feels a lot less depressing when you're excited and optimistic.  After a crushing 2-1 loss, it feels a lot longer.

It was a tough loss, but not entirely unexpected.  The bigger issue is my reservations over Game 5.  Adam Wainwright has owned the Pirates for as long as I can remember.  And while I certainly wouldn't rule the Bucs out, the Cards have a pretty lengthy history of being tough to put away.  Just ask Rangers fans.