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Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 5:23 pm
by Surgnbuck
7C676A6B626E610F0 wrote: ...too soon to evaluate all the wonderful new advanced coaching analysis and happy happy clubhouse culture.


That gave me a chuckle.




A lot of Kumbaya going on here. Of course they are 3-12 but everybody seems to be walking around with a smile on their face ;),


________

Well,, we may have the worst record in spring training in all of baseball, but at least we haven't lost them all.  That is something to smile about.  Just kick the can down the road to the regular season and tell us how much better Shelton and Cherington were than Hurdle and Huntington.


You're pining for the Huntington days already?

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:51 pm
by IABucFan
Monday's my regular day off, so I'm actually watching the game today while I do my taxes. Williams looked OK. Offense looks horrid. Maile impressed me with a nice throw to catch a guy stealing second base.



Apparently, the Pirates are literally giving away free tickets to kids for April and May home games. All well and good. Good for them. But sheesh, if this doesn't illustrate the writing on the wall, I don't know what will. Maybe the brass is finally realizing that zero World Series wins in four decades, zero penants in the same amount of time, zero division titles in 28 years, and four winning seasons out of the last 27, isn't a good formula for making and retaining fans.



There's a very simple formula to getting butts in seats...win. Hey Bob, if you're reading this, it's a nice gesture. But people don't care about your pierogi races, guessing what's in the mystery chest, Buccaroos ask the Bucs, Francisco Cervelli's dating advice or whatever gimmick you're doing this year to replace that, catching hot dogs and t-shirts out of an air gun, or fireworks. Do you hear me? WE. DON'T. CARE. We care about winning. We want a team that we can reasonably expect to win every night, that gives us reasonable hope of seeing a World Series win in our lifetimes. That's it. That's what we want. You can give EVERY ticket away for free, and as long as the team is losing, people aren't going to come.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 6:55 pm
by maher.timothy20@gm
1A1211263015323D530 wrote: Monday's my regular day off, so I'm actually watching the game today while I do my taxes. Williams looked OK. Offense looks horrid. Maile impressed me with a nice throw to catch a guy stealing second base.



Apparently, the Pirates are literally giving away free tickets to kids for April and May home games. All well and good. Good for them. But sheesh, if this doesn't illustrate the writing on the wall, I don't know what will. Maybe the brass is finally realizing that zero World Series wins in four decades, zero penants in the same amount of time, zero division titles in 28 years, and four winning seasons out of the last 27, isn't a good formula for making and retaining fans.



There's a very simple formula to getting butts in seats...win. Hey Bob, if you're reading this, it's a nice gesture. But people don't care about your pierogi races, guessing what's in the mystery chest, Buccaroos ask the Bucs, Francisco Cervelli's dating advice or whatever gimmick you're doing this year to replace that, catching hot dogs and t-shirts out of an air gun, or fireworks. Do you hear me? WE. DON'T. CARE. We care about winning. We want a team that we can reasonably expect to win every night, that gives us reasonable hope of seeing a World Series win in our lifetimes. That's it. That's what we want. You can give EVERY ticket away for free, and as long as the team is losing, people aren't going to come.


And yet people do, in fact, seem to care about fireworks night. Always baffled me.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:09 pm
by Bobster21
0C000904134F15080C0E150918535121060C610 wrote: Monday's my regular day off, so I'm actually watching the game today while I do my taxes. Williams looked OK. Offense looks horrid. Maile impressed me with a nice throw to catch a guy stealing second base.



Apparently, the Pirates are literally giving away free tickets to kids for April and May home games. All well and good. Good for them. But sheesh, if this doesn't illustrate the writing on the wall, I don't know what will. Maybe the brass is finally realizing that zero World Series wins in four decades, zero penants in the same amount of time, zero division titles in 28 years, and four winning seasons out of the last 27, isn't a good formula for making and retaining fans.



There's a very simple formula to getting butts in seats...win. Hey Bob, if you're reading this, it's a nice gesture. But people don't care about your pierogi races, guessing what's in the mystery chest, Buccaroos ask the Bucs, Francisco Cervelli's dating advice or whatever gimmick you're doing this year to replace that, catching hot dogs and t-shirts out of an air gun, or fireworks. Do you hear me? WE. DON'T. CARE. We care about winning. We want a team that we can reasonably expect to win every night, that gives us reasonable hope of seeing a World Series win in our lifetimes. That's it. That's what we want. You can give EVERY ticket away for free, and as long as the team is losing, people aren't going to come.


And yet people do, in fact, seem to care about fireworks night. Always baffled me.
I think Pirate fans are so accustomed to losing that they don't go to games to see a competitive, winning team. 2013-15 was great but even that resulted in 3 quick post season exits followed by an immediate cessation of any attempts to compete. And 20 years of losing prior to that. So Nutting isn't pretending to entertain fans with good baseball, unless it's from the visiting team. Hence, all the non-baseball activities before, during and after the games. That's what he's selling. He gets local broadcast revenue, a share of national broadcast revenue, merchandising and MLB luxury tax welfare. The small attendance revenue is more than offset by the miniscule MLB payroll. I'm sure he's got bean counters to give him the facts and figures on that and he's doing just fine.



As for the free kids tix, the strategy is sound. Parents are more likely to take their kids when school is out for the summer. So the free tix are an incentive to get kids in there in April and May and if they enjoy all the non-baseball shenanigans, they'll plead with their folks to take them more in the summer when the tickets are no longer free.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:14 pm
by Ecbucs
4A676A7B7C6D7A3A39080 wrote: Monday's my regular day off, so I'm actually watching the game today while I do my taxes. Williams looked OK. Offense looks horrid. Maile impressed me with a nice throw to catch a guy stealing second base.



Apparently, the Pirates are literally giving away free tickets to kids for April and May home games. All well and good. Good for them. But sheesh, if this doesn't illustrate the writing on the wall, I don't know what will. Maybe the brass is finally realizing that zero World Series wins in four decades, zero penants in the same amount of time, zero division titles in 28 years, and four winning seasons out of the last 27, isn't a good formula for making and retaining fans.



There's a very simple formula to getting butts in seats...win. Hey Bob, if you're reading this, it's a nice gesture. But people don't care about your pierogi races, guessing what's in the mystery chest, Buccaroos ask the Bucs, Francisco Cervelli's dating advice or whatever gimmick you're doing this year to replace that, catching hot dogs and t-shirts out of an air gun, or fireworks. Do you hear me? WE. DON'T. CARE. We care about winning. We want a team that we can reasonably expect to win every night, that gives us reasonable hope of seeing a World Series win in our lifetimes. That's it. That's what we want. You can give EVERY ticket away for free, and as long as the team is losing, people aren't going to come.


And yet people do, in fact, seem to care about fireworks night. Always baffled me.
I think Pirate fans are so accustomed to losing that they don't go to games to see a competitive, winning team. 2013-15 was great but even that resulted in 3 quick post season exits followed by an immediate cessation of any attempts to compete. And 20 years of losing prior to that. So Nutting isn't pretending to entertain fans with good baseball, unless it's from the visiting team. Hence, all the non-baseball activities before, during and after the games. That's what he's selling. He gets local broadcast revenue, a share of national broadcast revenue, merchandising and MLB luxury tax welfare. The small attendance revenue is more than offset by the miniscule MLB payroll. I'm sure he's got bean counters to give him the facts and figures on that and he's doing just fine.



As for the free kids tix, the strategy is sound. Parents are more likely to take their kids when school is out for the summer. So the free tix are an incentive to get kids in there in April and May and if they enjoy all the non-baseball shenanigans, they'll plead with their folks to take them more in the summer when the tickets are no longer free. 


going to a Pirate game is not much different than going to a game in Indianapolis. Some of the Pirates are quite a bit better than Indy players and most of the opposition players are way better. The less you are concerned about following a winning team the better as far as having a good time goes.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:25 pm
by BenM
5B7274787A170 wrote: ...too soon to evaluate all the wonderful new advanced coaching analysis and happy happy clubhouse culture.


That gave me a chuckle.




A lot of Kumbaya going on here. Of course they are 3-12 but everybody seems to be walking around with a smile on their face ;),




The funniest thing was when I heard an interview Kela, of all people, was talking about how much the clubhouse atmosphere had improved.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:41 pm
by IABucFan
For anyone not watching the game, O'Neil Cruz just hit a titanic shot into a stiff wind that would have been a grand slam, to straight away centerfield. Hit just under the 400 sign. That's the good.



Here's the bad and the ugly all at the same time...in typical mid-season base running fashion, the Pirates managed to get two guys thrown out at the plate on the same play. That's right...on a 400 foot bomb to straightaway center field, the runners on second and first were BOTH thrown out at the plate.



Only the Pirates... ;)

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 7:54 pm
by Bobster21
7B7370475174535C320 wrote: For anyone not watching the game, O'Neil Cruz just hit a titanic shot into a stiff wind that would have been a grand slam, to straight away centerfield. Hit just under the 400 sign. That's the good.



Here's the bad and the ugly all at the same time...in typical mid-season base running fashion, the Pirates managed to get two guys thrown out at the plate on the same play. That's right...on a 400 foot bomb to straightaway center field, the runners on second and first were BOTH thrown out at the plate.



Only the Pirates... ;)
Not surprised. Cora should have been fired last year.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 9:12 pm
by skinnyhorse
0D0506312702252A440 wrote: Monday's my regular day off, so I'm actually watching the game today while I do my taxes. Williams looked OK. Offense looks horrid. Maile impressed me with a nice throw to catch a guy stealing second base.



Apparently, the Pirates are literally giving away free tickets to kids for April and May home games. All well and good. Good for them. But sheesh, if this doesn't illustrate the writing on the wall, I don't know what will. Maybe the brass is finally realizing that zero World Series wins in four decades, zero penants in the same amount of time, zero division titles in 28 years, and four winning seasons out of the last 27, isn't a good formula for making and retaining fans.



There's a very simple formula to getting butts in seats...win. Hey Bob, if you're reading this, it's a nice gesture. But people don't care about your pierogi races, guessing what's in the mystery chest, Buccaroos ask the Bucs, Francisco Cervelli's dating advice or whatever gimmick you're doing this year to replace that, catching hot dogs and t-shirts out of an air gun, or fireworks. Do you hear me? WE. DON'T. CARE. We care about winning. We want a team that we can reasonably expect to win every night, that gives us reasonable hope of seeing a World Series win in our lifetimes. That's it. That's what we want. You can give EVERY ticket away for free, and as long as the team is losing, people aren't going to come.
My feelings put perfectly.

Spring Training Thread

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 10:25 pm
by 2drfischer@gmail.c
6E66655244614649270 wrote: Monday's my regular day off, so I'm actually watching the game today while I do my taxes. Williams looked OK. Offense looks horrid. Maile impressed me with a nice throw to catch a guy stealing second base.



Apparently, the Pirates are literally giving away free tickets to kids for April and May home games. All well and good. Good for them. But sheesh, if this doesn't illustrate the writing on the wall, I don't know what will. Maybe the brass is finally realizing that zero World Series wins in four decades, zero penants in the same amount of time, zero division titles in 28 years, and four winning seasons out of the last 27, isn't a good formula for making and retaining fans.



There's a very simple formula to getting butts in seats...win. Hey Bob, if you're reading this, it's a nice gesture. But people don't care about your pierogi races, guessing what's in the mystery chest, Buccaroos ask the Bucs, Francisco Cervelli's dating advice or whatever gimmick you're doing this year to replace that, catching hot dogs and t-shirts out of an air gun, or fireworks. Do you hear me? WE. DON'T. CARE. We care about winning. We want a team that we can reasonably expect to win every night, that gives us reasonable hope of seeing a World Series win in our lifetimes. That's it. That's what we want. You can give EVERY ticket away for free, and as long as the team is losing, people aren't going to come.


Well said. I've felt like Pirates games are akin to a church carnival with all of the distractions between innings. Baseball is secondary. Half the people are barely aware a game is being played, yet everyone is on the edge of his/her seat when the pierogis race. I'm so disgusted by what a ball game at PNC Park has become.