Yellow Out Tonight: Kenny Geidel, Pittsburgh Icon, Passes Away

Some things we simply take for granted and until we lose them, we never realize how cool they were.

Kenny Geidel was as much a part of a game in Pittsburgh as was Sidney Crosby or Neil Walker. When we went to games, we always had to visit Kenny. We wanted to buy whatever he was selling. Our son Brody was so enamored by the hard working vendor that the 90 minute ride home from Pittsburgh was filled with repeating Geidel’s catch phrase over and over, and over again. It never really got old either and ‘the franchise’ as we call our son, would typically repeat it until he dozed off to sleep.

Kenny made an impact on Pittsburgh fans.

On such a happy day for Pirates fans some tragic news was delivered today. We learned that Kenny Geidel, the most popular vendor we have ever encountered in Pittsburgh, suffered complications from an intestinal infection and had passed away Monday.

It’s rare that someone can create something so cool about selling lemonade, cotton candy, or coke. But like Duk said on Big League Stew every city probably has an icon like Geidel.

We just loved ours a little bit more. He made us smile. He made us proud. Hell, the man made a brand out of himself not the product he was selling.

Kenny had a set of pipes that distinguished him from every other vendor at Three Rivers, PNC Park, the Igloo, or Consol Energy Center. He would scream ‘lemonade here’ with such gusto and heavy emphasis on the -AAAAAAAADE that fans would stop dead in their tracks the first time they heard him. At every game after we first heard Kenny so long ago, it was a mission to find him the next game we attended.

Kenny was included in our scavenger hunts each year and this year many of you had a chance to snap his picture on Opening Day. We trust you saved it. He was always such a good sport with the RumBunter paparazzi too. Most icons are. It just comes with the territory.

The hardest part of today was explaining to my son that Kenny won’t be with us at the games any longer. After a few minutes of talking about it, Brody asked me a tough quetion that only a seven year could ask….

"Dad, who will we buy lemonade and cottton candy from at the games now?"

I didn’t have an answer for him.

Rest In Peace Kenny. Games just won’t be the same and neither will the ride home.

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