John Steigerwald Deserved It

Its safe to say no one outside the Pittsburgh area had heard of Steigerwald until today, but now he will live on in internet infamy. And just look at this delightfully nutty tale about his own trip to the ball park on opening day.

It was the kind of day that I used to hope we would get for an opener and all the sights and sounds reminded me of why baseball used to be my favorite sport.

There wasn’t a day in sports that I looked forward to more than the Pirates home opener.  I skipped school and went to my first one in 1960.

Everything looked the same but I knew that it was all superficial and I wondered how many of the people I saw were kidding themselves.

I saw a lot of guys my age and I wondered if they were there out of habit or if they were there pretending that these were the Pirates that they grew up with.

The longer I was there the more annoyed I became.

I left at noon and went home.

If you had told me 20 years ago that I would walk away from a home opener on a 60 degree, cloudless less day, I would have told called you crazy.

The next Home Opner I go to will the one that is played in the first season of the MLB salary cap.

Seriously, did anyone see that coming? I’m starting to think maybe he’s lost touch a bit. He goes from happy childhood memories to wondering if people still enjoy baseball to leaving the park to saying he wouldn’t be back to the park until there’s a salary cap. Not a single sentence is related to the previous or following sentence.