Why Your Empty Stadium Sucks

This is what professional baseball in Pittsburgh looks like in late September when the Pirates are some 30 games back and 3-22 over their last 25, and the Cincinnati Reds and a bunch of world leaders are in town.

According to the Associated Press, paid attendance was 15,892, but turnstile count was about 3,000, and even that seems generous. Attendance was so sparse that the Pirates closed off the upper deck at PNC Park. Daddy's Sugar Ball posted some more photos from the game and then proceeded to thoroughly lose his shit:

As a Pirate fan I have laid claim to seeing rock bottom on several occasions. But this one takes the cake. I know that the G-20 summit is wrecking total havoc on the city and even if you had tickets to today's game you are not going to fight the traffic snarls to get a seat to see this ball club. They are 3-22 over the past 25 games. That is a .120 winning percentage. If the Pirates lose today's 12:35 game they will have been swept (again) by the Reds (again). Things have been characterized as "epically bad" and "historically terrible" for the Pittsburgh Pirates for so long that you begin to forget just how bad things really are.

[...]

It just pains me to watch this team be so inept. There was an opportunity for today and they blew it. After drawing a total of 4,000 fans (that's butts in the seats) for the last two games combined, they should have thrown open today's gates and given the seats away for free. No one was going to come anyway. If you live on the south or eastern side of the city you can't get to the North Shore and PNC Park but the news would have shown up to talk about it. Western PA has G-20 fatigue. They would have appreciated the gesture even if they could not or did not take advantage of it. Bring back Buc' night for today's day game (one dollar soda and one dollar hotdogs). Anything...do anything to make people care! Just quit being so fucking BAD at running a baseball team… Please I beg you. I'm not sure I can take it any more.

The Pirates lost, 4-1.

So where were all the Pittsburgh sports fans today, you might wonder? Well, it seems a few of them dropped in on the G-20 protests to scream impotently about global capitalism and, simultaneously, celebrate the Penguins. Witness:

THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY AND HOCKEY TROPHIES LOOK LIKE!!!

Protest photo courtesy reader Jackie

Rock Bottom [Daddy's Sugar Ball]
Not many watch as Reds beat Pirates 4-1 [Associated Press]

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Thanks for your continued support of Deadspin. Barry Petchesky is running the show tonight. Sent from my iPhone

Send an email to Tommy Craggs, the author of this post, at craggs@deadspin.com.

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