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As much as I wanted Pittsburgh to win you cannot help but wonder why didn't the fan base show up before the playoffs? baseball town?
2,256,862 for 19th in MLB
28,210 also for 19th in MLB
Filling 73.5% of their stadium which puts them 15th in MLB.
The Brewers drew nearly 300,000 more fans than Pittsburgh who has been great all year and the Brewers were out of it by June 1st.
Don't worry Kansas City, Cleveland, Tampa, Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland, Arizona, Cincy. All teams that were in the playoff hunt down the stretch. and they couldn't even draw 2.6M
On a side note, I expect next year for Pitt to be a great attendance year, as does any year following a playoff year. It's usually the next year after a great year do you really see a huge jump in attendance.
I posted monthly attendance averages in a thread on teh Pittsburgh board in response to a similar question.
April was around 19K, May around 23K, every other month 31K-34K.
Miller Park has a roof. Ever been in PNC Park on an April evening? It's usually not pleasant. Plus, given the two late season collapses, no Liriano or Morton (in their places, Jonathan Sanchez and James McDonald - would you go to see them?), and a 1-5 start.
But once the Bucs really got going, so did the fans. 22 sellouts was a new record. In the playoffs they stuffed 40K plus into a park with 37.5K capacity.
Bucs will sell more season tix next year - you had to put a deposit down to ensure playoff tix this year. So April/May should tick up a bit. But they'll never hit 3 million. That would take near sellouts for all 81 games.
I posted monthly attendance averages in a thread on teh Pittsburgh board in response to a similar question.
April was around 19K, May around 23K, every other month 31K-34K.
Miller Park has a roof. Ever been in PNC Park on an April evening? It's usually not pleasant. Plus, given the two late season collapses, no Liriano or Morton (in their places, Jonathan Sanchez and James McDonald - would you go to see them?), and a 1-5 start.
But once the Bucs really got going, so did the fans. 22 sellouts was a new record. In the playoffs they stuffed 40K plus into a park with 37.5K capacity.
Bucs will sell more season tix next year - you had to put a deposit down to ensure playoff tix this year. So April/May should tick up a bit. But they'll never hit 3 million. That would take near sellouts for all 81 games.
This 10000x. I went to game two this season, which was an afternoon game. I was up in the grand stands, right below the radio booth. It was miserable. It was sunny skies, but the air temperature was around 50, with a constant wind. By the 5th I couldn't take it and left. The fact that it was a day game during the week also hurt attendance because most kids are still in school in April and May.
Neal Huntington certainly did more than enough to win Executive of the Year (he finished 2nd to Cherington), but so far this offseason he's making statements that appear he's going off the rails.
"We won't pay AJ Burnett market rate."
"Any free agent that is looking for market rate should look elsewhere."
While the Bucs are not in a position to be free spenders, they're also not the Rays. The Bucs could easily swing a $85-$90 mill payroll and be profitable. Right now, given expected arbitration increases, they're sitting around $63 million. So they should have $22-$27 mill to spend. Enough to re-sign AJ and get Loney (or Ike Davis and another part). They spent just short of $75 mill last year.
The Pirates bought a lot of positive PR with Pittsburgh sports fans last year, even somewhat overcoming the "Nutting is cheap" standard with the late season signing of Morneau. If Nutting proves to be cheap this year, much of fan goodwill will be tested and probably lost.
This year's Bucs team is even more inspiring than last year.
Currently injured: Cutch, Neil Walker, Garrett Cole
MIA this week: Pedro Alvarez (bereavement)
Injured tonight but refused to leave game: Josh Harrison
That's four 1st round picks and an All-Star. And that's after losing Francisco Liriano for a couple of long stretches.
Yet they've won 4 of 6 without Cutch and Cole, and missing Walker & Pedro for 3 of those games.
There's a word for that: Resilient.
They went into tonight down a pitcher after DFAing Frieri. They've been starting retreads like Jayson Nix, Brent Morel and Michael Martinez. The back of the rotation is being held together by guys who were DFAd by their previous teams (Edinson Volquez, Vance Worley - a combined 13-8). Charlie Morton should have 10 or 11 wins, but only has 5 due to one of the lowest run support numbers in the league.
Yet they're currently a WC team and only a game out of first in the Central.
Do not count this team out.
And if they do get in, they've already won the season series vs. both Giants and Dodgers.
Well, we certainly won't count them out. They've been up and down this season, but right now, they're up. Even if they don't win the division, they conceivably could still finish with a winning record.
Well, we certainly won't count them out. They've been up and down this season, but right now, they're up. Even if they don't win the division, they conceivably could still finish with a winning record.
They don't even have to win the division. They can get the Wild Card.
I'm a Cards fan so it kinda pains me to say this, but I've felt for a long time that Pittsburgh was arguably the best team in the division this year. I think that if they complete the sweep of the Brewers they will go into the St Louis series with a lot of confidence. If they can end the week with back to back series wins against both division contenders, I think they're going to take off from there, barring major injuries. The team looked a little lost without 'Cutch, but now that he's back in the lineup, you can see the lineup and even the pitching staff are more confident about just playing their game. If they get to the playoffs, I think the Pirates match up well against most teams. The only concern I'd have if I were a true Pirates fan would be the tendency to strike out. Runs are harder to come by in the post season. They'll need to find ways to hit and run, steal bases, and take extra bases. Polanco and Marte are going to be more important in this regard.
This week in Pirates baseball:
- Around-the-horn triple play when Volquez was on the ropes
- Extremely rare runner interference call at 3b by a pinch runner who represented the tying run in 9th inning
- Roenicke completely ignores statistical evidence that clearly states you don't pitch Broxton at PNC, and Broxton gives up a 3-run HR in short order
- Carlos Gomez, the tying run in a 1-0 ballgame, runs himself into an out by being Carlos Gomez.
Just another week at the office.
In past two weeks Bucs went from being out of WC to having the WC home field advantage. Who wants to play us?
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