PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates held their PiratesFest event on Saturday, though with some changes due to the impending winter weather.
With travel becoming challenging, the team announced that several scheduled players wouldn’t be able to make it.
Also, the event at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center ended an hour early, due to concerns over the major winter storm.
Fans who donated for autographs were refunded, but were still able to get autographs from the players who were on hand.
Despite the changes, fans still came out to make the most of it.
“There’s a lot of different variety of things this year,” said attendee Alex Kornrumph of Butler. “There’s a lot more for the kids, and there’s a lot more they’re offering for everyone. It was always free, but they didn’t have quite as much as they do this year.”
Also attending was Parker Koontz of Vandergrift, who brought a large wooden bat bearing the signatures of more than 200 Pirates.
Made by a family friend, the bat was first signed by Rick Reuschel and most recently by Gus Suhr, though Koontz hoped to add a few more John Hancocks on Saturday.
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