It’s not usually Pittsburgh where you talk about choking. That’s more of a Chicago thing.

Apparently one guy didn’t get that message yesterday when he inhaled a “monster piece” of steak at a downtown restaurant and found himself on the receiving end of the Heimlich Maneuver administered by none other than Todd Frazier. From John Fay’s story:

“We’re just eating there, talking,” Frazier said. “I looked in the corner of my eye. I said, ‘Ludwick, I think that guy’s choking.’ Next thing I know there’s two ladies one on each side, trying to pop it out…I ran over there and said, ‘let me try it.’ I tried it twice. It popped out. It was monster piece.”

It just goes to show: never send two civilian women to do a major league third baseman’s job. My favorite quote, though, was the one at the end:

“It was weird. We just went back to eating. He went back to eating too. I don’t know if I could have.”

Which begs the question: did he eat the piece that got lodged in his throat? Because he should have gotten it autographed.

This is actually a pretty good segment. Gotta admire a guy who’s try those out-there foods, especially when he ends up liking them. Makes me want to hit the gourmet food in New York!

If the embedded video isn’t working for you, go to the Fancave site to see it in context.

This year, the Red Hot Family used the Memorial Day weekend as a chance to get out to visit the only NLC stadium we hadn’t yet seen for ourselves: PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA, home of the Pirates.

We’ll post a more complete justification of the business expense after the long drive home is complete, but in the meantime, here are some photos from my phone.

Roberto Clemente, captured in bronze just outside the front gate.

Not too many in attendance on this hot Memorial Day. Sort of surprising to me…in my world, the patriotic holidays are the baseball holidays.

Lovely view over the outfield wall. There wasn’t much to complain about this visit, except the Reds’ performance.

The fine folks over at Chris Sabo’s Goggles have arranged for you to be the lucky recipient of one Team Latos shirt, if you can guess (in advance) the number of strike outs Latos will get in the month of June. From the blog post about the contest:

All you have to do is guess the number of strikeouts Latos will have in the month of June. This includes every start he makes between—and including—June 1 and June 30. The person closest to the actual total number of strikeouts wins the shirt.

I assume these are the strike outs Latos induces by way of pitching to batters, not the ones he personally commits at the plate. I mean, a contest that is apparently in honor of a guy probably does not really want to go out of its way to draw attention to his 12 strike outs in 18 plate appearances.

But that’s not for me to say. You’ll want to go over to Chris Sabo’s Goggles personally to argue semantics and then put in your guess. By Independence Day, you too could be a member of Team Latos.

Atlanta Brave and generally awesome third baseman Chipper Jones has announced that this will be his final season before retirement. The Cincinnati Reds are recognizing this graceful departure, as well as the general awesomeness mentioned above, with a set of commemorative bases that will be used during the series with the Braves, starting tonight.

From the story on Cincinnati.com:

There is also a special ceremony scheduled for May 24th, before Thursday’s game. Reds GM Walt Jocketty and Scott Rolen will participate in the ceremony as well.

You might point out that Chipper Jones doesn’t have a whole heckuva lot to do with the Cincinnati Reds besides hitting 21 home runs off their pitching in his career, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t tip your hat to greatness when you have a chance. It’s easy, it gives me something to write about, and it’s just good karma.