Monday, September 20, 2010

On a beautiful, even perfect, late summer/early fall, Saturday night, the Pirates offered their last fireworks show of the season. These fireworks shows and the has-been concerts are what keep the Pirates franchise in business. Their full-season ticket base is down to something like 11,000 and shrinking, and on some nights, it looks like a good bunch of those folks stayed home. If Zach Duke was pitching, that would probably be a good idea. But the Yinzers love their fireworks and their REO Speedwagon. So, this past Saturday night, the second to last home Saturday night game of the season, the Pirates drew 25,981. That's more than 12,000 less than capacity. If the Yinzers stop going to the Pirate games to see the fireworks, the Pirates might actually lose money. Bob wouldn't stand for that. Fireworks nights are the centerpiece of the entire Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club franchise. He would borrow more money from MLB, because apparently he's allowed to do that. Then with the money, he would build a facility in the Dominican Republic to try and find young fireworks talent that can produce better fireworks displays than the company that is doing it for the Pirates now, because they are obviously not doing it well enough to draw the fans.

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