PNC Park

PNC Park is a baseball stadium located in Pittsburgh, PA, USA, and is the home field for the Pittsburgh Pirates MLB team. Groundbreaking occurred on April 7, 1999, and the park opened on March 21, 2001. PNC Financial Services bought the naming rights for the stadium in 1998. Features of the stadium include the natural grass playing surface and the Roberto Clemente Wall, the 21 foot high wall in right field. The stadium is ranked 2nd in lowest seating capacity of MLB.

The $216 million ballpark was constructed along the Allegheny River on the North Shore, with views of Downtown Pittsburgh and the Roberto Clemente Bridge. It is the first stadium to be built with the inclusion of limestone in its facade. Other features of the park include a riverside concourse, many local eateries, including the famous sandwich restaurant, Primanti Brothers, and the most extensive out-of-town scoreboard in any MLB stadium. It took 24 months to build the stadium, much shorter than most modern stadiums.

PNC Park is hailed as one of the best stadiums in MLB. It is regarded as being the most beautiful stadium, as well as having the best outfield views. Average ticket cost is 3rd lowest in the league, and the stadium helped attract business to Downtown Pittsburgh. The park hosted the 2006 MLB All-Star Game.

Details of the "classic-style" baseball stadium were incorporated into the the design of PNC Park. This is evident in the design of the stadium's archways, steel truss work, and light towers. The park's scoreboard features a 24 x 42 foot Sony JumboTron board, supplemented with the first ever LED video boards to be installed in an outdoor stadium. PNC Park is the first stadium to incorporate an out-of-town scoreboard that includes score, inning, count, number of outs, and base runners for every single game being played around the league. One of the most renowned features of the stadium is the view of the 6th Street Bridge, renamed as Roberto Clemente Bridge just before the stadium opened, which can be seen just behind the pirates topiary and green batter's eye in center field. Due to traffic problems before and after games, the bridge is only open to pedestrians on game days.

PNC Park was constructed in less than 2 years, much quicker than the average modern baseball stadium. This was accomplished with computers that relayed building plans to construction workers on a 24-hour basis.

The Stadium features three Hall of Fame statues outside of its gates. These statues depict Willie Stargell, Honus Wagner, and Roberto Clemente. A fourth statue, of Bill Mazeroski, is in the works.

The first official game in PNC Park was played between the Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds. The first home-run in stadium history was a tape-measure by Sean Casey, of the Reds, which was also the first hit in the ballpark. The first hit by a Pirate was a single by Jason Kendall.

The stadium is so beautiful and received so much praise during its inaugural season that it inspired the design for New York's Citi Field.

The playing surface of PNC Park is Tuckahoe Bluegrass, which is a mixture of various types of Kentucky Bluegrass. The infield dirt was exclusively mixed for PNC Park. The mixture is referred to as "Dura Edge All-Star Infield Mix." The warning track is crushed lava rock, and PNC Park is the only stadium to include lava rock anywhere in its design.

Unlike most other stadiums, the home dugout is located down the 3rd base line, instead of the 1st base line. This was done so that the Pirates would always have a better view of the city skyline. The wall in right field was named the Roberto Clemente Wall. This is the tallest outfield wall in the stadium, standing at 21 feet, which is a further tribute to the former Pirate, because he wore number 21. At its closest point, the Allegheny River is 443 feet and 4 inches away from home plate.

PNC Park was an innovation for sight lines. The aisles are lowered to give spectators a better view of the field. The highest seat in the stadium is only 88 feet above the playing surface, which gives the stadium one of the lowest profiles in MLB. All seats in the park are angled to the field, but still offer a breathtaking view of the city skyline.

One notable feature of PNC Park is that spectators are allowed to bring their own food into the stadium, a rare occurrence in MLB.

Stadium Capacity:
Baseball: 38,496

Field Dimensions:
Left Field: 325 Feet
Left-Center Field: 383 Feet
Deep Left-Center Field: 410 Feet
Center Field: 399 Feet
Right Center Field: 375 Feet
Right Field: 320 Feet
Backstop: 51 Feet

Notable Events:
- On July 6, 2002, Daryle Ward, of the Houston Astros, became the only player to hit a home run clean into the Allegheny River. The home run was a grand slam off Pirates pitcher, Kip Wells.