The story behind the name “Sacred Grounds”

It was Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024, along a strip of bars in the Southside of Pittsburgh.  Mario’s, to be specific.

My phone pinged the night before with a message from one of my best friends, Paul Hogan, a retired 23-year Pittsburgh Firefighter who is one of the funniest, quick-witted guys you’d ever meet.  Paul loves, in no particular order: baseball, making people laugh, his wife, his two daughters, wearing khaki pants, vodka/Red Bulls, steak, and grape bombs.  Ask a Pittsburgher what a grape bomb is, and they’ll surely have a story of having too many on a given night. 

The message went something like this: “Not sure what you’re doing tomorrow, but Skenes is pitching at Wrigley.  Wanna head to Mario’s and watch the game?  Jimmy is bartending and I’m off Wednesday.” 

Paul’s retirement job is driving organs, cadavers and boxes of blood around Western PA and beyond, many of those through the night on dark roads.  When he gets a day off, he ain’t missing a good time…even on a random Tuesday!

My reply: “Yep. I’m in.  See you there!”

Mario’s sits among a strip of bars on the famous Carson Street, and is widely known as one of the most popular bars in the entire City of Pittsburgh.  This is the original of three locations, and has been open since 1982.  The neon green sign behind the bar has been there since day one, albeit with a few repairs over the years. 

It was Hogan, myself, our friend Harrison Spyke and Jimmy.  That’s in the whole bar at first pitch. 

Jimmy Hoffmann owns Mario’s, and is a close friend of ours.  The four of us have had countless nights there, some clearer than others.  When the owner is bartending, you know what that means: shots randomly appear on the bar when you did not ask for them. 

As Skenes begins his outing of five scoreless innings in an eventual 5-0 Pirates win, four shots appear on the bar – grape bombs.  We throw them back.  Two innings later, same thing.  Another few innings?  Yep, more bombs.  You see where this is going. 

The game ends.  Guess what? More bombs. 

It’s somewhere around 1am at this point.  Hogan, being the good friend that he is, turns to me with one eye half-closed and says “Hey man, I think I have the name for your book!” 

I laughed and said “Seriously, dude?  Stop!  Let’s chat about this when we’re sober.”

Hogan grabs a bar napkin out of the caddy on the bar and a pen, turns his back to me and starts writing.  I said “this ought to be a real beauty”.

Two mins later, he reveals the napkin you see below.

The napkin reads: “Sacred Grounds by Rob Incmikoski featuring Paul Hogan”

I said “I actually like this!  Let me pitch it to my book team and get back to you.”

The team at Ascender Book Services, who wrote this book with me, LOVED it, and Sacred Grounds was born!

Only Paul Hogan, after too many drinks to count.  Only at Mario’s, the sacred grounds of the Southside of Pittsburgh.  That napkin is now in a frame, and will go into the coffin with me.