To cap off the weekend, I paid the money to Pirates Charities to bowl with the Pirates. The event took place in Crafton, PA at Noblestown Lanes.
I arrived just when people were coming in, and upon entering the lanes, I went straight for the food which was donated by various food places. I grabbed a slice of pizza and a couple of Smiley Cookies. The lone complaint was that no drinks were out and you had to order them meaning that you either had to pay extra or wait for the drinks to come out.
This was my second year doing Bowling With the Bucs as I did the event last year and was paired up with Tyler Yates,
When I registered with Pirates Charities, I got a Zach Duke bag (the bag they gave away earlier in the day) and in it were various goodies. I received an Earth Day Pirates cap, a water bottle, one of the t-shirts from “T-Shirt Thursdays” and a couple of papers involving the lanes and another Pirates Charities event.
I found out that I would bowl on lane 8 and then talked with Rob, one of my Facebook friends who had said that he would come to the event as a spectator. I then got my shoes and the bowling ball I would roll with. With that, I went by the door for the Pirates players, coaches, broadcasters and front office who would come out one by one.
While some kids got a head start on the autographs I got some handshakes from Ryan Church, John Russell, Evan Meek and Andrew McCutchen just to name a few.
After Frank Coonelly wished all of the moms a happy Mother’s Day, Zach Duke rolled the first ball of the night, knocking down nine pins.
After that, the players went into their lanes. In the lane to my left, Paul Maholm was the Pirates celebrity. Maholm had been knocked around fairly good earlier in the day and had a beer in hand looking to forget the early part of his day (and he managed to roll a gutterball in his lane; a lane with bumpers). To my right was bullpen catcher Herbie Andrade. Herbie’s always been a cool guy and he has promised me a ball the next time I come to a game (which will be Thursday). Herbie did scare me a little bit when he decided to dance (while bowling) to a Lady Gaga song that had come on in the alley.
As for my “celebrity”, I ended up with Jack Taschner. Taschner, like me, is left-handed although because he had pitched in the last three games before the event, he bowled right handed.
I had a great start to the first game as I converted a split in the first frame and rolled a strike in the second frame. Taschner immediately pressured me telling Herbie that we would have a 240 and sure enough I buckled to the pressure as my form became terrible. I ended up with a 114 in the first game, which was enough to win the first game.
During the first game, I went around for various autographs and among others got Cutch to sign my t-shirt jersey and Church to sign my scorecards.
Taschner was much more social than Yates was last year, and our personalities meshed really well.
There were two parts of the event that I liked the most. The first was the media coverage. KDKA and WPXI had people there this year (and I got to talk to both reporters) but even better was the fact that FSN was there as well.
I talked to the producer for FSN and when I told him about myself and my interest in journalism (for a career), he gave me his card and offered me an exclusive opportunity over the summer. I was very excited about the opportunity and hope to capitalize on it.
After I talked with him, he was getting ready to interview Taschner. I think he based this on Taschner’s playful exchange with me when he was giving me tips and was unable to back them up with his game. When he asked Taschner for an interview, he (Taschner) asked whether or not to use just him or include me and the producer chose to include me. He asked us both questions and Taschner would answer and then I would answer. The experience was interesting as I was able to easily answer the questions despite not having anything going on in my head. Part of the interview and the exchange between Taschner and I made Inside Pirates Baseball that Saturday.
My second favorite part was the bowling itself. The bowling was fun, and thus Taschner decided to raise the stakes. With many of our second shots, he placed a $20 bill on the table for whomever could make the spare. After failing twice, I finally did convert a spare. However, he had not put down the $20. When I came up again, I told him to put up the $20 and I knocked down 9 pins, and then picked up the spare. The $20 was mine!
In the second game, I rolled a ninth in the tenth frame and converted the easy spare. I needed a strike to tie and I lost my grip on the ball and lost with a 104.
During and after the game I got my bowling jersey signed. Among the signatures were Zach Duke, Andy LaRoche, Brian Burres, John Russell, Taschner, Brian Bass, Church and Delwyn Young. It was cool interacting with a lot of the guys and despite the $25 increase to $150 to bowl it was well worth it.
Evan Meek who was drunk last year during this event continued his drinking this year while Taschner drank Diet Pepsi. Taschner introduced me to Meek and upon shaking his hand the flashback of last year came (Meek did acknowledge me by name)
I will make sure that I do this event next year. I highly recommend it and it is a must for any Pirates fan!
