Screw the general baseball thread, this deserves its own for history...Pirates!

Oh, there is no doubt the ballpark makes a difference. But winning is the much bigger factor.

My point is there was a buzz in '97, too, but it didn't last. Also, even training camp for the Steelers takes attention fromt he Pirates. It always has. Even playing one day a week, football takes attention away and that will cut into attendance.

It isn't just the Steelers. Hell, in that town, you've got a significant number of people turning their attention to high school football.

 

I will throw this in there...in 1997, it only had been four losing seasons when they "contended." Pirates fans were still pissed about the sell off and didn't flock back. It is has been 18 losing seasons. A generation of fans has no memory of the Pirates have a winning season. The buzz also is national. People are talking about the Pirates.

Yes, it is a football town, but people are noticing now.

 

This is how I see it. They've never contended while I've been truly cognizant enough to care. I'm seeing more and more people from the area, around my age, who care with each win. I have no shame in being a bandwagon fan now as the franchise gave me no real reason to care about them to this point.

 

Of course not. Outside of football, Pittsburgh has proven itself to be a bandwagon town when it comes to sports. Just look at the history with the Penguins. The fans show when they are good and drop off when they are bad.

I am old enough to remember when they were good before. Heck, I was young, but old enough to remember the last World Series team in '79. Maybe having been through the dismantling of that team in the early '90s, followed by nearly 20 years of shit, has made me too cynical.

As I said before, I hope I'm wrong. I hope this is the beginning of the city embracing the team and the team actually doing something to deserve it. I'll believe it if they actually keep this next round of star players. Or at least some of them.

 

If the Buccos do not make McCutchen a decent offer, it is going to set off a big chain reaction though baseball starting with the Yankees. Hal has already hinted at his "fines" lining the pockets of small market owners and not going back into the product.

 

Watched the game last night and the crowd was pumped up. Like Steeler crowd pumped up. I heard there's actually a scalper's market for weekend games now. If the Pirates go into September contending, this will be the best baseball story in years.

 

Oh, there's a scalper's market for sure. Two Fridays ago, I paid $18 for a $9 bleacher seat. The person next to me paid $400 for four box seats (almost 4x face value). Nobody was getting a deal. Those guys don't know what to do, it's like Christmas in the parking lots!

 

Watched last night and saw a "I (heart) Nutting" sign in the stands. Seriously?

It also looked like White Trash Night at PNC.

 

Now that is going too far. Maybe the owners deserve some credit for finally hiring decent front office people, but mostly this success is coming in spite of their (lack of) effort, not because of it.

 

There's an undercurrent of people that I know that think the "I (heart) Nutting" has an alterior, more sick-minded meaning to it. On the sign, the "n" in nutting is lowercase.

 

The problem with the Pirates failing to build on '97 was the philosophy of management/ownership. It wasn't, "This nucleus is special. Let's keep it together." It was, "Hey, we contended for a while in '97 with a bunch of no-names. Let's get rid of them before they want raises and see if some new no-names can do the same thing."

 

You do realize this is the same ownership, right? Different public face, but the same people in charge