Reason Number Nine: PLAYOFFS!

In years past, August has brought me baseball apathy.  By August I’ve had enough of the park, enough of the food, enough of the losing, and I’m ready for some football.  Not this year though.  I’m about as pumped for August baseball as I am for April baseball.  Why?  Dunno.  But over the coming days I’ll present ten possible reasons–ten reasons YOU should be pumped about August baseball as well.

Reason Number Nine: PLAYOFFS!

“Playoffs?!?  You wanna talk about…PLAYOFFS?!?” – Jim Mora

Yeah, I do.  The ‘Pigs management took some heat for putting tickets on sale so soon, but really, they had to.  I’d skewer them much quicker if they weren’t prepared, or if I couldn’t get my regular seats.  We discussed last year the difficulty minor league teams have filling stadiums for playoffs:  Planning ahead will help assure the same home field advantage we have enjoyed over the regular season.  Now printing it on the magnet schedules before the season started was a bit premature, but whatever.  Hey, why do I even want playoffs?  Well:

1. It’s not like there’s going to be any playoff baseball in Philadelphia, and if the Bucs don’t pick it up, there won’t be any in Pittsburgh either.
2. I like winning, and I sat through a lot of games in 2009 and 2010 where that wasn’t a possibility.  Every single game I saw in 2008 was a loss.  Payback, I say.
3. The atmosphere for those first two playoff games last year was electric.  I look forward to a repeat of that.
4. More time to enjoy having Ryne Sandberg as our manager.  And, one more line on his resume as an MLB job should be forthcoming.  Not that he should need it, though.

News and Notes:

As of this writing, we still have Tyler Cloyd for tonight.  That’s great, and I’m hoping it gets our 8-game home stand started off with a win.  The day off usually ignites the bats, too.

Whether you call the Club Level “home” or whether you’re just visiting, you might want to know what’s for dinner.  Here’s the Pig Stop menu for the upcoming home stand:

Wednesday, August 8^th – Italian Panini

Thursday, August 9^th – The Dirty Dog…All Beef Black Angus Hot Dog Topped with Pulled Pork, Cheese Sauce & Chopped Bacon

Friday, August 10^th – 50-cent Wing Night

Saturday, August 11^th – The Quandary Quesadilla…A Monstrous Quesadilla with Carne Asada or Cilantro Lime Chicken, Nacho Chips, Lettuce, Salsa, Sour Cream & Black Beans

Sunday, August 12^th – The Pig Trough…A Pile of our Famous Kettle Fries Smothered in Chili, Bacon Bits, Shredded Cheese, Beer Cheese Sauce & Topped with Green Onions & Shredded Pepperjack Cheese

Monday, August 13^th – Cheeseburger Quesadilla

@Kram209