DAVE: I don't know if it's a common practice among MLB teams, but my research has discovered that the Pirates no longer give away complimentary tickets that are, in fact, marked "complimentary." Now, when they give away tickets, the tickets have a listed price of $1, even though no one pays for them. So, the Pirates must have given away tens of thousands of tickets over the course of the season, many of which probably never made it into PNC Park, and yet they could still consider those tickets "paid tickets" because of the $1 price on them. Pretty sneaky stuff. Team President and former MLB Corporate Officer Frank Coonelly knows how to work the system.

JIM: That does not surprise me at all. What surprises me is what prompts you to do so much "research" about a team that you profess not to care about.