OnlyBucs

426F62737465723231000 wrote: Pirate fans are delivering a message to the FO: no way there are more than 6000 or 7000 thousand fans at pnc. Great weather, fun team that’s winning, and this may be the smallest crowd I’ve ever seen in good weather. 


Team sending message to fans.


Yeah, team is definitely doing its part.  That’s what makes this pretty significant. I figured the weekend series with the Giants would win many of the fans back.  But it’s not happening yet. 



I know for sure a significant number of fans were not happy during the Giants series, and the FO knows it. 


I'm as critical of Nutting as anyone. But I'm not sure what message is being sent. If Cole and Cutch had not been traded and the Pirates were 26-17 in first place on May 17th the fans would be loving it and turning out in droves. The young starting rotation rarely makes it thru the 6th inning but the staff leads MLB in shutouts. The BP is looking good. Moran, Feliz and Crick, obtained in the hated trades, are doing well. Jason Martin, also part of the Cole trade, is hitting .360 in Altoona with 1.050 OPS. It seems like fans are protesting not because the team is not doing well. But because they don't approve of the manner in which the team was assembled to do well. Winning is winning. The names on the back of the uniforms shouldn't be more important than the name on the front.   


Yeah, can’t argue their success, except a lot of people seem to be doing just that.



Just talking to Pirate fans, it seems that the trades have become a symbol of 2016 and 17 failures.

I’m with you Bobster the guys on the current roster now have nothing to do with Bob Nutting being cheap and not going out and spending more money. They are doing their part by playing winning baseball which is all they can do. I think the more this team wins and stays in 1st place going into June the crowds will slowly begin to pickup more and more. I think even next weekend for the Cards and Cubs series here at PNC Park for Memorial Day weekend will start bringing in decent size crowds. Those will be huge 6 games here at home for late May.

Fans can go or not go, makes not a bit of difference to me.   11k+ paid attendence against the worst team in baseball on a Thursday night. Could be worse



They went to the Giants series

050C04151B610 wrote: Fans can go or not go, makes not a bit of difference to me.   11k+ paid attendence against the worst team in baseball on a Thursday night.  Could be worse



They went to the Giants series
Cutch was the big drawing card for the SF series.

The "fans' are missing out. Since being swept by the Nationals, the Pirates have gone 9-2. I hope the people boycotting keep their word. Only the Yankees have a better home record.

Like I said before keep winning and come June and even as early as next weekend when the Cards and Cubs come in the crowds will begin to pick up. And if they don’t then so what. I’m enjoying this team winning and will go and support this team and that’s all that matters to me from where I sit. And if other people still don’t want too then that’s there damn problem not mine.

7378707C7978632620576E767F7878397478170 wrote: The "fans' are missing out.  Since being swept by the Nationals, the Pirates have gone 9-2.  I hope the people boycotting keep their word.  Only the Yankees have a better home record.


I don't think it's a conscious "Boycott" per se by most people.  I just think the interest has waned a bit.  I know personally, even though I'm as interested in the Pirates as anyone else I've only gone to one game, and that was because my brother scored some Lexus club tickets through work.

695B57574371525B56535C5B3A0 wrote: The "fans' are missing out.  Since being swept by the Nationals, the Pirates have gone 9-2.  I hope the people boycotting keep their word.  Only the Yankees have a better home record.


I don't think it's a conscious "Boycott" per se by most people.  I just think the interest has waned a bit.  I know personally, even though I'm as interested in the Pirates as anyone else I've only gone to one game, and that was because my brother scored some Lexus club tickets through work.


I disagree. I don't think people want to give Nutting any of their money. Free tickets, I can see people go. The attendance is down like 35%. I know weather has been a factor, but that is still a big drop off from last year at this point.

Attendance doesn’t have to affect anyone’s enjoyment. But it’s important to the organization.



The narrative is hurting attendance, and combined with a dislike for ownership/management is having a significant impact imho.



The narrative is that the record and wins don’t really reflect anything because the Pirates have played the easiest schedule ever.  I don’t think the average person knows anything about the White Sox, the average person simply hears over and over that the Pirates have played an exceedingly easy schedule so the record is deeply discounted.



I hate that narrative because I think the schedule is in line with the rest of the NL Central:

The Pirates have played each team in the NLC 1 series. In the East and West the Pirates have played the ##2,3 and 5 teams once.  The American League Central they’ve also played the ##2, 3 and 5 team.  Looks balanced to me.  And very similar to the rest of the division.  The rest of the division has each played a 2nd series against one other division team.  So the rest of the division has played three more NLC games then the Pirates, that’s it.



Every team in the division has the same reality as the Pirates: you gotta win against the division.  So far, the Pirates have done that better than any other team.  The schedule complaints are BS to me. This is a good team that’s beat everybody other than Philly and Washington, including St Louis, Milwaukee and the Cubs.



I think the Pirate will play .500 or better against the rest of the division the rest of the way. If they do, they have a good chance to play in Oct.  that’s the real story, but it’s definitely not the narrative about the team.

Yeah.  The whole "yeah but those are against bad teams" thing annoys me for a few reasons. 



One is that people say that as if other teams don't play against bad teams. 



The other is the very subtle goalpost-moving it shows.  "We're only beating bad teams" implies that the Pirates are not one of those bad teams.  Of course, that already means they're a better team than most of those people said they were.  The hard-core org-haters will never ever recognize that they are doing this--admitting that the team doesn't suck as much as they say.  Terrible teams don't consistently beat other terrible teams.



I never got how people thought this was a 100-loss team, but others did.