Usually when Piratefest comes around pitchers and catchers are ready to report to camp, this year however Piratefest would not mark that occasion as it was held the week before xmas, Im guessing to sell more tickets and such.

Here is Domink who loves the Piratefest at the entrance.

And here is Dominik and Shianne, I take a picture of the Monongahela/PNC Park in the background to show what the wintery weather is showing, here it doesnt show much as we have had a really mild winter so far.

Dominik preparing to take some swings off the tee in the batting cage.

And the follow through on a nice swing, I almost took this one right in the junk, he whacked it good.  Dominik is ready for tee ball this summer, we practiced alot last summer.

Dominik getting ready to go into the giant Pirate Parrot to bounce around.

Yea a huge Pirate Parrot.

Lauren with Shianne and her favorite toy of the day she got at Piratefest.

Then I made my way to the Pirate ticket sales to place the remainder of the money I owed to obtain my season tickets, in October I had to put a down payment to get a seat in s-z in the 300 level to keep my price at $400, as everything else in the 300 level went up to $600.

I checked out the Pirates shirt giveaways for the year.  Of course I like the yellow ones, I like the one with the camoflauge P because of my army background, and I like the all black with the P as a necklace.  The whites and greys just dont stand out, and to me wont be worn.

Dominik and Shianne with all of their Pirate loot when we were ready to go home.

And the last cool pic was on the way out when I met up with season ticket holder Steve, and his wife Nancy who works as an usher for the Pirates.  Nancy took all the Pirates give away shirts and made a huge quilt out of them and had signatures all over it.

That was it for Piratefest  2011, a good time for everyone.

This is a cool event that the Pirates have towards the end of November with the winter coming on and baseball fading away to cold snow and only hot stove talk.

I invited my friend Deric to hit with me, remember Deric from the onfield hitting day was my guest also, well he loves baseball so he was happy to attend this event also.

Here is a pic of me taking a cut.  I didnt hit all that well, my contact wasnt as solid as I would have liked on the faster machine.

Deric on the other hand was smacking balls all over, and shattered one of the Pirates bats and sent it flying at the machine.  Nice work in the cage DD$.

Here me and Deric took pictures of the two of us at the Pirates logo on the way up from the cages to the Pirates Hall of Fame club to grab something to eat, talk to players, get autographs and hang out.

And here I am.

When we got up to the Pirates HOF club the first person th5at I recognized was Baseball Joe, who also goes by Baseball 365.  Hes a pretty cool guy to hang around with and talk baseball.  He claims to watch baseball every day of the year and despises all other sports.  Baseball Joe is mute, and at one time was a good minor leaguer for the Pirates according to some sources.  He ballhawks, and loves being at the games.

Here I am with ex Pirate and Carrick native John Wehner, who apparently likes to talk baseball, he must have talked to me and Deric for about 15 mins while he drank a miller lite about the toughest pitchers to hit what kind of pitches were hard for him to hit and from who.

Here I am with Daniel Mccutchen, who immediately got the drift of who I was as he sees us all the time, and noticed the number of the baseball.  He put it together and I told him I was glad to have at least one ball from him in my career, because he does not throw the regulars baseballs.

Deric and I talked baseball, talked to baseball players, and had some good grub after we hit.  Definitely a good time on a cold November evening.