A cheap date

The 80-degree weather yesterday just begged for an outdoor activity. So my girlfriend and I decided to head to PNC Park for the nightcap between the Pirates and Dodgers. Now, sporting events can get rather expensive, which is a turnoff when you're unemployed. But after 17 losing seasons, the Pirates marketing staff devised a way to keep people coming back. And "Buc Night" worked liked a charm to attract me and Tiffany.

Usually, the cheapest seats available at a game are $9. Throw in a hotdog and coke that each cost about $4.50 and your date night is getting expensive. But not on Wednesday night. The cheap seats, hot dogs, soft drinks and popcorn were all a dollar. With that said, I didn't expect Buc Night and the nice weather to push more than 31,000 people to the ballpark. We stood at the end of the line for several minutes before an older gentleman threw up five tickets and said he was selling them... for a dollar. He had already purchased the tickets online before several people backed out at the last minute. Were they counterfeit tickets, we wondered for a minute? But there really was no reason why he would have taken so much time to manufacture them for a dollar a piece.

So we purchased a couple and zoomed to the gates to beat the crowd waiting in the snaking ticket lines. Then we immediately bought four hot dogs and four (child sized) drinks. Unfortunately, they ran out of hot dogs when we went for a splash-n-go near the end of the game.

The cost for the night was astounding: Parking, two tickets, four hot dogs, eight small cokes and a bag of Cracker Jacks ran us to $22.50. You can't get out of the movies or dinner for that price. Regardless of what people say about the Pirates and owner Bob Nutting, a trip to the ballpark is a steal, especially for the breadliners.

Oh yeah, and the Pirates also won 4-3 in extra innings.