Bar Discounted Beer Every Time The Pirates Lost; Team Bullies Them Into Ending Promotion

The Pirates have done a lot of losing in recent years, and presumably, the franchise's comical ineptness has pushed people in Pittsburgh toward cheap swill during the summer months, when Jasons Kendall and Bay would supplant Crosby and Roethlisberger as the town's superstars.

So the Stroll Inn, in Kennedy Township (a town about 20 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh), has a sign out front: "If the Pirates lose, you win." They discount pitchers of beer by a nickel every night the Pirates lose.

Until, that is, some righteous Pirates execs got to busting up the party. Here's Pittsburgh's WTAE:

An email sent on May 12 by Pirates account executive Angela Criscella said, "An occasional joke and jab is expected here and there, but to create business by ripping on the home team is ridiculous and in my opinion distasteful." She urged bar patrons to "take your business away from the Stroll Inn and to other local restaurants instead." [...] Pirates spokesman Brian Warecki said the team was unaware the employees were urging a boycott, but he said they are "free to share with their friends their feelings about an establishment that would root against its home team."

It's pretty obvious that the bar isn't rooting against the Pirates. It's more of a "let's find joy in our collective misery" kind of thing. Then again, who would expect a team that once gave Kendall $60 million in guaranteed money to pick up on any subtlety?

Again, the Pirates' records from 2000 onward: 69-93, 62-100, 72-89, 75-87, 72-89, 67-95, 67-95, 68-94, 67-95, 62-99, 57-105. Free beer can numb that pain away.

Of course, the Pirates being the secretly rich pricks that they are, team president Frank Coonelly called the bar's owner to say he wasn't calling off the boycott. So she blinked, adding, "Win or lose, you love your home team, and I didn't want to come out looking like this bad person who disrespected the team."

Ugh. You know, bar owner, that the Pirates haven't really followed through on any of their promises, oh, say, for twenty years. Who knows? Instead of boycotting your bar, they might have just traded you Ryan Doumit for a Michelob Ultra. Now that ship has sailed, with swashbuckling, menacing Pirates at its helm.

'Pirates Lose' Beer Special Brings Bar Heat From Team [WTAE, h/t Zachary]