You win, Bob Nutting
Being at the park tonight, it's hard to say how many people got out of their seats after the third inning. I'd put it somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000. The part that was sad for me was that maybe 100 or so left the park altogether. I don't see what kind of message gets sent by a couple thousand people standing around the concession area for an inning, then sitting back down. In fact, this was a depressing Pirate game tonight. Just around me in my section on the right field wall was some disinterested 12-year old who destroyed his Bob Walk bobblehead while his dad looked on like he couldn't do anything about it, six brain dead college age kids who were literally threatening the life of Austin Kearns every time he took the field, and two enormously obese women who needed four seats between them and spent most of the time swearing into their cell phones.
Anyways, the owners win. Whenever people tell me that Pittsburgh isn't a baseball town, I defend it with my life. There are real fans here, I tell them. If you dig deep enough, baseball still matters to Pittsburgh. It doesn't. The white noise from the crowd doesn't change when Tom Gorzelanny throws his first pitch. When people are asked to walk out of the game to show that they care, only a small fraction of the people actually walk out of the game. The rest go back to their seats after an inning and pretend like nothing happened. I'm not angry, I'm just sad. I dunno what else to say. Maybe I'm misreading this and maybe I shouldn't speak for people that aren't myself, but really, I think baseball is dead in Pittsburgh. There would be almost as many people at these games if you just told them it was a circus. That's what the protest showed me, that the Nutting family could own this team for 100 more years and no one would care enough to make it change.
ETA: I'm sorry if you went to the game and didn't walk out or didn't leave for whatever reason and read this and were offended. If you're reading a Pirate blog, you're a Pirate fan. That's all there is to it. If you care enough to get online and find this site or any other blog like it, we need more fans like you, and I'm sorry if the wrong message got across.
Anyways, the owners win. Whenever people tell me that Pittsburgh isn't a baseball town, I defend it with my life. There are real fans here, I tell them. If you dig deep enough, baseball still matters to Pittsburgh. It doesn't. The white noise from the crowd doesn't change when Tom Gorzelanny throws his first pitch. When people are asked to walk out of the game to show that they care, only a small fraction of the people actually walk out of the game. The rest go back to their seats after an inning and pretend like nothing happened. I'm not angry, I'm just sad. I dunno what else to say. Maybe I'm misreading this and maybe I shouldn't speak for people that aren't myself, but really, I think baseball is dead in Pittsburgh. There would be almost as many people at these games if you just told them it was a circus. That's what the protest showed me, that the Nutting family could own this team for 100 more years and no one would care enough to make it change.
ETA: I'm sorry if you went to the game and didn't walk out or didn't leave for whatever reason and read this and were offended. If you're reading a Pirate blog, you're a Pirate fan. That's all there is to it. If you care enough to get online and find this site or any other blog like it, we need more fans like you, and I'm sorry if the wrong message got across.