Energy is everything.
The only reason human beings have ever paid their time, money, and attention to sporting events is for the chance at an energy return.
Energy comes in many forms.
On April 4th, you can go to PNC Park to witness the Pittsburgh Pirates take on the New York Yankees, full of the best players in the game. The energy, if you’re a Pirates fan, is the potential of seeing David topple Goliath. The energy, if you’re just a fan of the game, is the chance to see so many great players who rarely play in Pittsburgh.
According to the official ticketing page on Pirates.com, you can also “Head to the ballpark early and enjoy a pregame Wigle Whiskey block party on Federal Street with live music, drink specials and more!”
Wigle Whiskey is owned by Pirates owner Bob Nutting, after he purchased the company in August 2022. If you need a strong drink to take yourself from work/school mode to a mode where you can receive energy from an entertainment event, then you’re going to be paying Nutting for both the drink and the entertainment. That’s textbook vertical integration, and a great business model.
On April 17th, at 12:35 PM, you can go to the park and fill your body with the energy that $1 hot dogs provide. The disclaimer is that the Pirates need to staff enough concession workers to allow for fans to enjoy enough food while also seeing the game they paid to attend. Alternatively, a fraction of the cost on your favorite hot dogs at Giant Eagle, and a big screen TV gets you a hot dog eating contest behind home plate inside your home.
On the 18th, you can feel the force of the fireworks exploding over the Allegheny after the game. Ideally, this would take place after the Pirates exploded a few fireworks from home team home runs in a victory.
One night later, a bobble head giveaway will allow you to perpetually see how much energy is taking place on your desk when you type. Energy is everywhere, and it is everything.
But what about on Tuesday, May 20th at 6:40 PM against the Cincinnati Reds?
Families with grade school students will be overloaded with end of the year activities. College students will be wrapping up their semesters. Most of society will be fully in the Capitalist grind that always commences with a sales push through mid-July. How many people will have energy to go cheer on the Pirates against the Reds on a Tuesday night in late May?
The Pirates would need to give people an on-field reason to attend the game. Something that could tell fans that if they are bringing their energy to the park, it will be reciprocated. If Paul Skenes happens to be pitching that night, they would be able to guarantee a player who could return that fan investment with energy that can carry fans through their lives for the next few days/weeks/months. As the team is constructed today, if Skenes isn’t pitching, that Tuesday game against the Reds looks like a bad investment for fans.
Going to a game requires an investment of time, money, and most importantly, energy.
The energy to deal with Pittsburgh drivers who can’t drive through a tunnel without stopping at the entrance.
The energy to navigate parking and walk in to the park; get your food, get acclimated, find your seats, and prepare to receive the game and react accordingly.
By this point in your journey, when you factor in gas, parking, tickets, concessions, and any merchandise, the price for a family of four would be ranging from $200-500, without seeing a single pitch.
That price range is the big Christmas gift to people who don’t own their own whiskey company.
Maybe you can get in cheaper, but you’re going to spend energy finding the best deal. Perhaps you park downtown to save money and expel some energy walking across the Clemente bridge. Maybe you just don’t eat anything at the park and you are just there for the game.
As it stands right now, there looks to be very little reason to go to a Pirates game in 2025 to just enjoy the game.
Pittsburgh fans are familiar with the losing energy that has emitted from the field at PNC Park for its decades in existence. It’s not fun. It’s not worth paying any amount of money to experience, lest you’ve yet to experience regret in this reality.
The atmosphere when the Pirates are a winner, however, is electric. It would make you want to fly in from across the country, on top of the game expenses, just to experience the energy.
No disrespect to Spencer Horwitz, who has been the Pirates big offseason addition to date, but I don’t think fans are going to be packing the stands to see a 27-year-old first baseman with less than 500 MLB plate appearances trying to achieve his dream.
The Pirates have a chance to add a legitimate daily draw this offseason, simply by spending money on a good position player. They’ll never get a Juan Soto, but there’s a valley of talent between a star like Soto and a speculative play like Horwitz.
Internally, they have players who they will hope can provide that daily draw.
Oneil Cruz hits a baseball harder and further than any player. He also doesn’t do it with the consistency to call him a star player. Some nights, you might pay to see Cruz hit a ball into the river. Other nights, you might pay to see that Cruz is still self-validating himself as a Major Leaguer.
Henry Davis was who this front office bet their future on with the first overall pick in 2021. He seems like a person who wants to help others, whether that is his teammates, his former school, or providing fans with the energy of a massive home run to right field. Yet, like Cruz, Davis is still learning how to perform to the best of his abilities in front of so many people who are depending on those two to provide the energy each night.
That right there is the historical problem with the Pirates development system.
Fans don’t want to pay to watch other human beings figuring things out. They want results for their dollars from professional players, and that pressure is difficult on young players entering the game.
It doesn’t matter what grip you use for your fastball. It doesn’t matter what arm slot or side of the rubber you throw from. The size of your leg kick in the batter’s box, the comfort of your stance, or the quickness of the swing of the bat are each just as irrelevant. Learning how to recognize a slider in the minor leagues is nice, but have you ever had to concentrate when a crowd of thousands is stimming and depending on your execution to tip their mood one way or another? That’s the pressure that makes or breaks a Major League player.
The Pirates for years have been expecting young players like Cruz and Davis to provide the daily spark. This would require a group of young players to instantly adapt to the pressure of the fan demands.
Truthfully, the Pirates are never going to compete without one of Cruz or Davis living up to their impact potential. It would likely be easier on both if the fate of the entire team, and the energy return for fans on most nights, wasn’t riding on these two figuring things out while they are still affordable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Pirates have the same problem, repeated in different places. They put the cart before the horse.
I’m sure Pirates fans would love to walk up to the stadium and experience the energy of a block party, even if it’s a chance for the owner of the team to promote his liquor business. The condition is they’d likely want to enjoy that ahead of seeing a real Major League team. In this Pirates rebuild, Nutting has purchased a whiskey company to upgrade the pre-game block party, but the Pirates have yet to sign a multi-year free agent for the two hour event for which they’re getting people drunk and hyped up to experience.
As the roster stands right now, that’s not going to produce a fun vibe on most evenings at the park.
It’s almost like the Pirates expecting the fans to provide the energy the young players need to win, when it should be the other way around. The Pirates need to be providing fans with players who provide confidence that the team could win on any given night. They need to make a real investment before fans decide to invest their own energy into the event.
No one is getting drunk on a Tuesday night after work with the goal to emotionally support Spencer Horwitz, in hopes that he might provide a return on their energy investment. That’s just reality.
The Pirates have long expected their young, inexperienced players to provide the energy required from their fans. Very few players will be capable of handling that responsibility on a consistent basis in their 20s.
As long as the Pirates bank on their prospects providing the energy, they’ll be in a frustratingly hopeless and backward situation.
In a nutshell: The Pirates are implicitly begging their fans to provide them with the magic that they are actually meant to provide for their fans.
That’s not how you conduct business.
That’s how you simulate royalty.
And the Pirates aren’t royals.
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