under 100? shit if you pay FULL PRICE…and no one hardly ever pays full price you could sit in the bleacher GA seats for like $5 a head and on a dollar dog night. go over to bucaroos by the left field gat and get a kids size pepsi for a buck…shit…you’re still under 50 for a family of 4. I stress this all the time… people dont get that big difference between football/baseball… 8 home games… 80 home games… salary cap…no salary cap…non garenteed contracts…garenteed contracts
arbitration, free agency and garenteed contracts is what makes the disparity between the pirates and teams like the yankees so big. the yanks can risk a big dollar sign…pirates can’t… we are still paying kendall probably.
the pirates do shitty things…TRUST ME on that… but they make themselves very accesible and affortable to families. They do a TON of good work for the kids and get no press for it because they arent the steelers. Will they be good in 2-3 years…maybe…or they may win it next year or they might not win for 100 years like the cubs… As it sits the pirates are here to stay. The are one of the oldest teams. baseball right now thou has a problem with too many teams which translates to a lack of talent…most of that lacking talent endes up here and washington and KC… etc… even though TB was in the series last year MLB needs to dump them, marlins and Arizona. all failures in attendance…the marlins and TB both got crap stadiums for baseball, az is practically bankrupt. So what happends if they do that…well thats 75 AAA caliber players that go back to AAA where they belong. AAA in the 70’s and 80’s was major league caliber but teams ran outta spots. but as less kids played ball in the 80’s and 90’s the gap between the skill of AAA and Big league players got bigger and bigger when those kids that were young in the 80’s started to get to professional age… Latin players didnt get any better… american players got worse. The americans that are serious about baseball play more baseball than ever and have all the training that kids in the 60’s and 70’s didnt have but yet they are not as good. this may be a bad example casue of his coke use but when Darryl Strawberry was comming up… the guy was amazing… you dont see so called “5 tool” players as good as his 5 tools. My uncle played against just about every Star from the 80’s and he said Strawberry was unbelievable. Nolan Ryan… threw as hard as he could from the 60’s to the 90’s and threw well over 140 pitches regularly. he had over 5.700 K’s in his career…do you know how many pitches a strike out pitcher throws to get that many K’s… why didnt his arm fall off… these guys now with all the training and technology puss out at 100 pitches. “oh no 100 pitches, better take him out before his vagina starts bleeding”
the pirates are in a position to go back to the old techniques… nothing is working so they have nothing to lose… they should be starting in A ball of conditioning their guys to throw 120 pitches on a regular basis. they also need to forget this love affair with HR;s and go back to the being the LUMBER CO. hit and run, hit and run…steal bases… these fuckin baseball nerds that look at only numbers need to get out on a real field and play ball. they claim that stealing bases doesnt increase ur chances of winning …BULL SHIT… when you have a base stealer he does more than just steal bases…he agitates the fuck out of a pitcher, makes the catcher throw (possibly into center field) and it makes all the infielders out of their normal positions and opens up holes… I got people in my office that listen to all the radio shows and read ESPN and the blogs but they dont fucking get it… its common sense…its baseball! you have to have lived it, played it, learned from someone that had a vested interest in seeing you improve… I was lucky. My uncle was in the Boston organization in the early 80’s. my grandfather used it to his advantage to talk with guys like Ted williams. My granfather was and still is old school. he wrote letters to players and got replys, hung out at forbes field, played ball every waking moment. This is the guy i had teaching me to play and study the game, not pirates post game rocca demara with his made up stats, not “expert” peter gammons, not some POS high school coach. BASEBALL is not a sport for many american kids in this day and age… baseball is about failure. baseball take a lot of effort and time. Todays kids dont have the patience to learn or study it, dont have the adult that knows how to teach it correctly, they dont have the stomach for the failure part because their mom told them everyone wins when they play soccer.
as you can see when i step in PNC park its business for me but i am truly a baseball person, just not the current game.
the 100 pitch count is bullshit. that starts at an early age. if you have good pitching techniques you should be able to go a complete game, or atleast 120 pitches. hell, that quality start bullshit of 6 innings and 3 runs is a fucking joke. id be ashamed if i were a pitcher who considered that a good start.
in all honesty, i think they should raise the mound back to what it was. let the hitters roid up, level the field for the pitchers. throwing downhill is more benefical than flat–basic geometry can tell you that.
sailor knows baseball… you hit the nail on the head. bob gibson had a sub 1 run era season and they freaked out and dropped the mound. not only did lowering mound help the batters it made the pitcher have to throw harder and it lead to more injuries. I would love them to put the mound back up. a dominating pitching performance is impressive to watch. people argue that 1-0 shutouts lack action…i say those are the games that keep you on the edge of ur seat. if people want action go watch WWE. MLB whored themselves out at the cost of the integrity of the game.
part of me says let them take whatever they want. let them hit 600 ft homers until their hearts explode. enought guys die and suddenly the HR and millions wont be so important. Its obviousy a lot of the guys like Papi and manny were juiced but its the mediocre guys you have to wonder about… what if they are juicing to be average. there are a hell of a lot more of them than the top 10 players.
making money is fine, that’s what makes the world go around. I don’t have a problem with that. I do have a problem with a team that could care less if they win or lose. Fans want to see a competitive team, not a team that loses every game and doesn’t care if they do.
yes, less offense = quicker games. the batting glove shit is obnoxious. i take 100 cuts at the cages and might restrap them once. Fuckin nomar is OCD with the shit.
77rednecktruck: the person who goes to a MLB game in pittsburgh or what you call “fan” doesnt give a rats ass if a game is even goin on. The stupidity at the ticket windows on a nightly basis is astounding. People will keep coming to because of fireworks and concerts… bobble heads dont really draw anymore. Sucks for us who wanna see a competitive team. The league isnt going to do anything about it. Selig is a former owner so he only cares about the money…the game has suffered greatly.
Last year, the Pirates are believed to have received a revenue-sharing check of $27 million from MLB, based on figures leaked to the Wall Street Journal,’’ Bouma writes. "They receive close to $35 million from the national TV contracts. That is $62 million before anyone buys a ticket, sets foot in PNC Park on Opening Day and buys a hot dog, or watches or listens to a game on local TV and radio. Not to mention what they will receive from MLB for the MLB Network and MLB.com/MLB.TV and Extra Innings packages. On top of this, they let go many front-office people [some with 20 years of service] earlier this season. "This is no longer a problem of ‘how baseball is structured’ any longer. This is both fundamentally and ethically wrong . . . It is high time this [ownership] group is held accountable for the complete mismanagement of the franchise as their excuses have run out.’’ – Boston Globe
first off you forget a lot of things like the millions spent on running a farm system, a stadium, a training program in the dominican, operating costs, front office payroll etc etc …ETC
we didnt lay off “many” front office staff… its was 9. how can you call a business owner wrong for making money? making money is fundamentally RIGHT for a business. Ethics? maybe the same could said about the yankees and redsox…they are like the bully in the sandbox and flexing muscles cause they can… its not a fuckin ethics issue. ITS A BASBALL STRUCTURE ISSUE. both extremes are possible because they lack of leadership from the comissioner. The players union is a motherfucker as well. NFLPA is 50 times better than the MLBPA…they dont get they ruin the sport with their excessive greed. no one will go hungry with a salaray cap. All sports agents should be drug out in the streets and BEATEN till death as well. they are part of the reasons we pay what we pay to watch sports.