Protrade.com: Ben vs. Ben
Playing Madden '08 With Big Ben Himself!
This summer Protrade rolled out another awesome Reward, giving users the opportunity to play Madden '08 with Ben Roethlisberger. I hadn't planned on going for it at first, but after some thought decided that I would. One of my buddies is from Pittsburgh and would love it so I decided to redeem it.
Our trip to Pittsburgh began on Monday, September 24, as we flew across the country. We arrived just after 10 PM and made our way to the hotel and got settled in.
Tuesday was the big day. We spent the morning down in the strip district of Pittsburgh, looking through all the shops and taking it all in. We got a call from Barry, and he filled us in on the details of the day. We would meet Big Ben in the hotel lobby at 4 PM. That's when it really hit us. We got pretty excited and time seemed to crawl the rest of the day. After visiting the Sports Museum, we made our way back to the hotel.
We met Barry and exchanged introductions and waited. We talked about Protrade and some of the things that they have in store for the near future, sports, and what kind of car we thought Ben would show up in. As every car drove up our hearts would beat a little faster as we waited in anticipation.
Forty-five minutes went by and there was still no sign of Ben. I'll admit that I was a little worried. But Barry made a couple of phone calls and found out that there had been some sort of miscommunication -- Ben didn't get the meeting info in time and wasn't going to be there. I started envisioning the small print that was on prize detail page saying that Protrade wasn't responsible if the meeting didn't take place. I thought "Well, at least we got to come to Pittsburgh." But this is when Protrade really came through. They got the meeting set up for Wednesday and changed our flights for us and did what they could so that it would happen. We were relieved that our trip wouldn't be in vain. So the three of us made our way to the ballpark and took in a great game between the Pirates and D'Backs.
After transferring hotels Wednesday morning, we went to the Andy Warhol museum and then down to the south side where we meandered through the shops. We met back at the hotel in the afternoon and waited for Big Ben. This time we wouldn't be disappointed. We met in the lobby and after introductions, made our way up to the room where we would play Madden.
Needless to say, I didn't beat Ben. We were about even at halftime but in the second half he took over. I brought it to within a touchdown, at 24-17 with one minute remaining, but didn't recover the onside kick. He went down the field and scored, making the final score 30-17. We had a great time and talked about fishing and the upcoming game with the Cardinals. He was a class act and was a down-to-earth guy. After Ben and his girlfriend left, we again headed over to PNC Park and watched the Pirates beat Arizona again. I was on cloud nine as I thought of the last couple of hours and how I got to play Madden with Ben Roethlisberger.
Our flight on Thursday was in the late afternoon so we decided to catch another game. I don't think I've ever watched a game where I was excited to see the pitcher bat because I expected him to get a hit. Amazing. Why can't more pitchers be like Micah Owings?
As we flew back home I thought back on the week's events and what an awesome experience it was. I would like to thank Barry, Brian, and everyone else behind the scenes who made this trip possible. Thanks especially for getting it rescheduled at the last minute rather than saying "Sorry, we tried." I really appreciated that. Burgess and I had a great time and are enjoying telling anybody who will listen to us about our trip.
*You can also watch Ben vs. Ben on Youtube!