Season Tickets for the rest of 2012!

Outfield Box, Section 107, Row R, on the aisle

My heart skipped 19 beats -- one for each year of losing -- as I gave my credit card number to Kevin, my Pirates rep dahn at PNC Park. ...Four Four Three Oh... Was I really ready to buy the second half full ticket plan? ...Seven Nine Three Three... 38 Pirate games? ...Six Six Eight One... This was my chance to hang up. Get ready for Steelers training camp. Maybe watch golf. ...Expiration date? ...Three digit security code?

It was done.

Congratulations, Joe...

Oh my God.

We're excited to have you on board for the second half...

Fucking A. Bob Nutting now has my entertainment dollar. A whole lot of my entertainment dollars. I was ready.

I bought in with a 10-game package last year during July, the one successful month of Pirates baseball. It was fun. It was crowded. It was loud. It was Joel Hanrahan saving meaningful games. It was... Major League Baseball. And it mattered (for a month). Ephemeral, yes. And August and September were extremely enervating. Nevertheless, Pirate fans had a taste, and it tasted good.

When you're a kid, your goal is to play in the major leagues. When you're an adult, your goal is to watch the major leagues. But I moved to Pittsburgh in 1996 and there hasn't been real major league baseball here since the Great Barry Bonds roamed left field. I'm not sure if I would call it a plan, or a goal, but I've always wanted to be a season ticket holder for a winning baseball team. But when? Wait until the Pirates start winning and then get on board the next season? No, that would risk missing a magical first winning season. What if it was a 95 win playoff team that came out of nowhere? So maybe try to anticipate a winning season and get on the bandwagon at the beginning? But that wouldn't make sense with the Pirates. You'd risk buying a full season plan for another 65 win season, year after year (after decade).

Phenomenal View of the infield at an outfield price!

For the first half of the 2012 major league baseball season the decision to buy Pirates season tickets weighed heavily on my mind. I'm way (waaaay) over going to PNC Park just to eat footlongs and Boooo as loud as possible. That's only fun when the tickets are free and you only go twice a year. And if you don't care about seeing competitive professional sports.

But I do, and last year, for those 2 weeks in July, that's what I saw. Competitive, professional, sports. So I was ready. I had my entertainment dollars lined up to hand over to Bob Nutting. But was he ready? Are the Pirates ready?

That's the question this blog hopes to answer over the next 3 months. Is there a Brand New Bucco Experience at PNC Park? I'm the next generation of season ticket holders, so I'm about to find out...