June 30, 2007
Pirates Win, Fans Stay
The Pirates got off to a 6-1 lead over the Nationals after two innings, and that might have kept fans in the park:
The Nationals' offense was about as effective against Gorzelanny (8-4) as was the planned fan protest by Pirates rooters unhappy with the club's refusal to spend money to upgrade a team stuck in a 15th consecutive losing season. Only a few thousand fans, if that, vacated their seats after the third inning and it appeared most returned quickly.
Given that the attendance was 27,000, a few thousand leaving would be a pretty big chunk. Still, it's much better to not buy tickets than to buy and walk out. Buying and walking out is a bit like divesting stocks from countries you don't like. If you sell the stock, someone else buys it, so you haven't changed anything. Boycotting products is what has a real economic effect.
Freddy Sanchez stayed hot, picking up two more hits and raising his average to .305 as the Pirates went on to a 7-2 victory. Sanchez hit .343 for the month of June.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:43 PM
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Baseball Tonight--yeah, yeah, I watched it while feeding a baby a jar of carrots--just discussed the Pirates (albeit for about a minute) and the host of the show actually said that the Pirates are going to have to raise ticket prices to win. No, not follow the Cleveland Indians model, not try to hold on to guys like Aramis Ramirez, not stop wasting money on, say, Jason Kendall...raise ticket prices. How much does MLB give the Pirates again as a "revenue sharing" stipend?
As a baseball fan, I hope that the Pirates can turn it around despite their ownership's idoicy. At least they're in a favorable division.
