Out and About in Altoona

 Day two of the trips part of the vacation featured the lovely Cherie and I going to the Altoona Curve for Tony Dorsett night.
We didn't get to actually meet Dorsett,although he did walk by us once as he exclaimed how much he wanted a beer,but the night was still fun.
It must have been especially fun for the kid in the picture behind us,who seems to be enjoying his evening in a "special" way that brought to mind a long ago daytrip with family in Gettysburg after I got home and saw the background of this photo.
I rarely use photos of myself,but I couldn't tell the story without the reader being able to see the person in question!

Altoona features the best place on the "local" circuit to watch a game in Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Simply put,it's tremendous.
With the roller coaster from Lakemont Park looming over the right field wall,PNG Field has something that no other park has and adding in great sightlines from two levels,watching the game at Altoona is always a treat.
The food isn't bad either and reasonably priced too!
I usually get a nice sized steak sub (also available in chicken) for six bucks and it's pretty tasty,which isn't always the case in ballpark food.
Add in the always catchy jingle of "Everybody loves Curve Baseball" with each Curve run,you have a pretty nice atmosphere during the game

However,Altoona isn't a perfect trip.
The autographing is the toughest on the circuit as you have zero postgame opportunities as the bus is loaded inside the facility and the pre-game chances range from hard (doing the visitors) or almost non-existent (for the Curve),but that isn't the worst part.
The ushers that work for the Curve are easily the nastiest on the circuit and considering I attend a home ballpark that employs a knockoff version of Mean Girls 2 for employees-that says a lot!
Most of these people look and act like the cranky old guys sitting in the overhanging balcony on the Muppet Show and seem like their joy in life is to make sure that you AREN'T having a good time.
Simply horrible and if I could change one thing about Altoona,that would be it-friendlier ushers would go so far in fan relations that I think the Curve and its fans would be very surprised in the results...

The front office kinda pulled a fast one too.
Tony Dorsett was advertised all winter for this event and the team even sold VIP packages and promoted the event as a chance to get Dorsett to sign things before the general public,
Those sold quickly and since the Curve never got back to me after repeated calls,I missed out.
Well,that turned into dollars saved when the Curve put out a press release roughly a week before the game that "due to a sports memorabilia contract,Mr.Dorsett cannot sign anything without the Curve logo".
That cost me 25 bucks (anyone that needs a Broncos throwback helmet let me know),but I can get that signed by someone else,but others like spent lots of money that they cannot get back.
The team sold those packages with Dorsett's company being involved from the day they agreed to get him (the team either knew or stupidly missed that clause,bringing back the old phrase-Are you ignorant or corrupt?) and never told anyone until after they were all sold.
I would have been very upset with this-I promise you,so it was better that they didn't get back to me.
So basically,you could get a program (whoopee) or these cheap plastic footballs signed (think the small mini hard plastic ones thrown into the stands at high school football games) or anything else from the team shop that essentially didn't do much to bring to mind Tony Dorsett.
Instead of waiting in line for Dorsett,I graphed the visiting Akron Rubber Ducks and did Ok with their team set and surprisingly got top prospect Bradley Zimmer to sign two cards,as he usually is a one per.

I still enjoyed our evening with Cherie.
We had a great time together and spending time together is a plus plus.
Traveling with her is always so much fun,I wish I had more money and time to do more of it!
Thanks to my Altoona buddy,Brett Shaw for helping to set us up as well!

Not sure when I'll be back,but look for a post soon on our trip to the Lake County Captains for Cleveland Sports Night...