Pirates Baseball 15 years & Counting

What is it going to take to move this team over that .499 hump?  Are these teams that spend twice the amount of money on a team really that much better than the Pirates.  Is it the coaches, is it the scouts who go and draft a 1^st Baseman who can hit for power and turn him into a Pitcher?  Do you look at the management and say ok you open the doors to PNC Park every year and from the first turn style clicking your making money hand over fist because you field the team with revenue sharing and nothing else. They say oh if we’re going to need to spend money we will, but if your bringing in close to 2 million people do you really need to, after the ticket sales, the food vending, and BEER. Hell no you don’t have to spend one extra cent on the team. The Nuttings gave up a slot license to have the team, so your telling me that have a constant sub .500 AAA team isn’t profitable, if I’m wrong prove it, show me the books, open it up for the people of Allegany county to see, cause if I’m not mistaken, Seat 4 Row K, Section 327 was paid for by my local tax money, and I didn’t even agree to do that. The Steelers could have played in 3 Rivers and sold out every year till I was dead, the only team that needed help was the Penguins, and again that’s not their arena it’s for them to play in but it’s to used 365 days a year more than the 18 or 82 times a years the other teams use theirs for.

Speaking of the Penguins they were sold out to the rafters last night I was told by Father Spoon at www.shouldIdrinkthat.com as opposed to the 9,735 announced in attendance at the Pirate game. Come on people it was Dollar Dog night, if that isn’t going to get to your park nothing will, what you were expecting fireworks 80 games a year.  I know a fireworks vendor, and to purchase a display like they have costs about $15,000 if you were going to do it once a year, so they are buying the shows in bulk so if they were not getting a discount it would cost them $120,000 a year their buying your loyalty for less than a season of a rookie major leaguer.

But there is a bright side if you can call it that to this 2008 team, if you look at the past few years once they got down by two or three runs, that’s all she wrote hit the showers time. This year, this year seems different, they have come back twice in just the past week and sent the game into extra innings but then they can’t find that 5th gear. Is it the coaches fault, is it the young players with little or no experience, is it the veterans who have been here a while just being use to being beat down, and not knowing how to kick it up a notch. Let me know what you think and we can discuss this further. phantomjoemalone@gmail.com