We were back at Piratefest on Sunday for the third and final day of the three day weekend baseball event.  The Pirates had sent me six tickets, so I sold two, used two on Friday, and saved the last two for today.

Before heading to Piratefest, I was treated to breakfast at a restaurant named DeLuca’s in the Strip District. 

I had never been to DeLuca’s let alone the strip district, so this was a nice little adventure for me.  DeLuca’s proclaims to have the ‘Best Breakfast in Town,’ and the large line that was waiting outside in the cold drizzle. 

We waited for about twenty minutes before getting into the small, packed restaurant.    One of the restaurant’s claim to fame is being featured on the Man vs Food series.

We had pancakes…
Chocolate strawberry pancakes for her:

And blueberry pancakes for me:

I also had a side of sweet sausage, which tasted much better than it looked.

The food was great, and it filled me up until 5 PM.  I wasn’t crazy about the interior Steeler decorating, especially after being hassled at every corner by street vendors selling Steeler pennants and buttons.  I’m looking forward to the Super Bowl being over so this town settles down.

Anyway,

When we got to the David L Lawrence Convention Center around 11:40, twenty minutes before the doors were to open, we were greeted by a monstrous line that snaked around and to the back of the convention center. 

It took us about 10 minutes after the gates opened to finally get into Piratefest.

When we entered, we headed over to the MVP Zone to get autographs from Paul Maholm and Ross Ohlendorf.

I had Ross sign my calendar since he signed a ball for me yesterday.  Paul Maholm also signed a ball.  Interestingly, he dropped the number 28 from his signature (the other 3 signatures on balls I have from Paul have a 28) – perhaps he expects to be traded in the coming months.  He is in the final year of a contract, although the Pirates hold an option for 2012, which most certainly will be turned down since its for $9.75 million.

Later in the MVP Zone (which is for Season Ticket Holders only) we had Jose Tabata sign a baseball,

along with 1991 National League Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek. 

Drabek was probably my second favorite Pirate of the 1990-1992 teams, with Andy Van Slyke being the first. 

The MVP Zone is one of the nice perks of being a season ticket holder.  Season Ticket Holders can get autographs there without waiting an average of 90 minutes on the other side of the Convention Center.  The same players come over to the MVP Zone throughout the day either before or after they are done signing for the general public.

Good (Season Ticket Holder autograph lines):
Bad (everyone else):

The other autograph that I got today was Andrew McCutchen.  We were allowed two autographs per person, so I had him sign a baseball and a Canvas Photo Wrap that I had won earlier in the day.

We didn’t play many games because the lines were ridiculously long.  I didn’t really see the point of standing in line for 30 minutes to spin a wheel and win some give away stuff that I already have at home.

We caught some of the entertainment at the Piratefest stage:

There was Deal or No Deal:

More Minute to Win It, this time with Paul Maholm:

and Family Feud with the “Maholm Family” pitted against the “Morton Family.” 

It was Paul Maholm vs Charlie Morton, and each player had 3 other fans assigned to his ‘family.’  The questions were related to the Pirates or Pittsburgh, and season ticket holders were those surveyed to provide the results for the game. 

Here’s a video of a round of it:

That was basically it for the day.  Got a few autographs, walked around, played a couple games at the beginning of the day before the crowd swelled, and watched some games at the Piratefest stage.

The Pirates set an all time record for the Piratefest weekend, drawing 16,839 fans, which was an increase of 1,400 over last year.  The thing is, this is my fifth year as a season ticket holder, and every other year, I only received two free tickets to Piratefest.  This year, I was given six.  I saw some fans giving away their passes at the door.  Therefore, I believe that the numbers are ‘juiced’ by the flood of free tickets that were distributed to the fan base.  Yes, there’s some reason to be excited, but a 105 loss team doesn’t just draw an all time record to its Fanfest.  Does anyone expect the Pirates to even approach their 2001 attendance home figure of 33,000 per game?  No.

The real test of how excited this town really is about Pirates baseball will be the home attendance.  We’ll see how many folks show up.  By the way, the Pirates raised ticket prices for the first time in nine years this week.  Season Ticket and advance purchased tickets will stay the same, but tickets purchased on the day of the game will be about an average of $3 more.

I’m hoping that attendance stays low, at least for batting practice, so it makes collecting baseballs easier, but we’ll see.

Spring Training is just around the corner.  Get ready.