Weekly Photo Challenge…Afloat

I thought I had a good idea for this week’s challenge.  PNC Park, home of the Pirates baseball club, sits on the bank of the Allegheny River. On occasion, a player can launch a well hit ball over the right field stands and into the river for a true ‘out of the park’ home run.  During a game, there usually are quite a few boats and even kayaks hanging out waiting for a ball to come flying over the wall and into the water.  Then they make a mad dash toward the baseball hoping to get a souvenir.

My thought was to get a nice shot of the boats sitting in the water with the stadium as a backdrop…easy right?  Well the Pirates first home game was Monday afternoon but I couldn’t get down there during the day.  A Tuesday evening game was my next chance.  Problem is it’s mid April and not all that warm yet so while there was a game, there were no boats!  Uh oh…nothing afloating!  Since this is in my head, have to go with it so it’s time to search the archives and move to the West coast.

AT&T park in San Francisco has a similar ballpark where the balls can fly over the right field wall and into the bay.  I was out there last year and got a few shots on a ballpark tour.  They keep track of the number of balls that hit the water.

Around mid-season last year they were at 66.  They named the area where the balls splash down “McCovey Cove” in tribute to their Hall of Fame first baseman, Willie McCovey. Had he played in this ballpark, he probably would have put 66 in the water himself.

There wasn’t a game on the day I was there, but I got a shot of this boat ‘afloat’  in the cove behind the statue of Willie McCovey. (2of12ts…whew!) 🙂

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For more ‘afloat’ shots, click here.