15 Games Over .500, New High Mark!

Nice 9th inning comeback!  Pirates go to 15 games over .500, new high water mark on the year (slash decade).  Well done.  Michael McKenry with a huge game!

Getting Closer and Closer to Ending the Streak!

Setting up for 9th Inning Drama Against the Astros?

Pirates haven't led all game.  They currently trail by 1 in the 9th in Houston.  Bases loaded.  Starling Marte coming to the plate....  Time for some drama?

Pirates Strengthen Roster with Wandy and Starling

Things are going so well for the Pirates they were able to move a guy who has won a career best 6 straight starts to the bullpen.

Starling Marte homers
on the first pitch of his major league career

So well, in fact, that top hitting prospect Starling Marte, promoted to the Big Leagues Thursday, hit a homerun on the first pitch he saw as a Pirate.  The first pitch!  You'd think a 23 year old whose never played in the major leagues before, leading off the game no less -- the very first batter of the game -- you'd think he might take a pitch.  Get a feel for things.  Relax for a moment.  Maybe take a deep breath.  Work the count a little.  But if there's one thing Pirates lead off hitters don't do, it's show patience.  Marte took a whack at the first pitch and sent it sailing over the left field wall.  Magical.  You can watch the homerun here.

Speaking of magic, the day before Marte was promoted, General Manager Neal Huntington waved his magic wand and acquired one of the best left handed pitchers in the National League, Wandy Rodriguez, from the Houston Astros.  No, I didn't say Ryan Ludwick.  I said Wandy Rodriguez, a guy who has totaled 10 wins above replacement in the last 2 and a half seasons.  The Pirates already have a right handed, 35 year old starting pitcher making over 10 million dollars, most of which is being paid by a larger revenue club.  Now they have a left handed, 35 year old starting pitcher making over 10 million dollars and being paid mostly by his former team.  

Yes, the Pittsburgh Pirates, who, by the way, have now hit more homeruns this year than all of last year, the Pixburgh Pirates, redheaded step-brother of the Penguins and Steelers, the Pirates currently employ two starting pitchers who make over 10 million dollars.  Earlier this year they signed their best player to a contract that runs through 2018.  They've spent more money on the draft than any other team since 2007.  Should we have seen this on field turnaround coming?  Well, no.  It's not like they have been dumping money into the team for years.  Yes, they did add rather than subtract last year at the deadline, but still, other than the draft spending, this is all new.  This will take some getting used to.  I need to say it again. The Pirates added a good, expensive player at the trade deadline.  And this:  The Pirates top hitting prospect came up and made an immediate impact on the big league club.

And let's not overlook the timing of both of these events.  All season fans and pundits have wondered when Marte, a youngster from the Dominican Republic, would be called up from the minors.  Now, with the acquisition of Rodriguez, also a native of the Dominican, the timing is perfect -- and perhaps not coincidental.  "I'm happy to have another Dominican in the clubhouse," Marte said. "He's a veteran guy and I hope to be able to pick his brain. He can lead me in the right direction." -- reports Tom Singer for MLB.com

So not only are they 14 games over .500, have the third best record in the National League and a 77% chance of making the playoffs, according to ESPN.  It's not just that they have the leading NL MVP candidate and the best pitching staff in the division.  They're doing it all the right way.  They've acquired and developed talent -- McCutchen, Alvarez, Walker, McDonald.  They've added some of the right veterans -- Burnett, Barajas, Hanrahan, and now Wandy Rodriguez.  They have more players on the way or chips to trade -- Taillon, Cole, Marte, Heredia.  

I made it to 4 games on the last homestand and easily sold the other 2 games.  All is well in Season Ticket Land and I'm looking forward to more home games starting August 6th, a long homestand against the western division...

26 Wins to End Losing Streak!

The wins are adding up as Pirates get closer
to ending 19 season losing streak.
26 more!

I Got Two Who Needs Two

I'm totally a pro. I'm wheelin', dealin', exchanging, upgrading, printing tickets out of my ass. My first customer, Mike, who took his son to the fireworks game this past weekend, brokered a relationship between me and his buddy, who ended up coming down to meet me at my office yesterday to pick up a pair of tickets for the Sunday Cincinnati game on the last weekend of the season. Then Mike inquired about tickets for another fireworks game, August 25th I think, and of course he gets the very first seasonticketsbaby return customer discount. Way to go, Mike!

I had a kickball game last night (and we were on a 2 game winning streak -- shout out to the PSL Red Team aka North Korean All-Stars, Supreme Kickball Rulers) so I wanted to sell my tickets rather than attend the first game in the Cubs series.  As soon as I put them on craigslist Sunday night I got a few messages and arranged to sell them Monday afternoon near CMU.  Nice and easy, simple, straight forward, and the thing is, since my seats are excellent, people are very pleased with the arrangement.  They're paying less than face value, and I'm getting more than I paid for them.  So it's a deal for both.  They want to get more from me, and they pass my info along to their friends. 

Then a friend of mine got in touch with me. Local sports fan Tim McWig asked about tickets to a day game, to take his daughter to her first game since gaining consciousness. He decided to take Thursday August 16th at 4 against the Dodgers. He's my first paypal transaction, which is great. The Pirates season ticket holder online program lets you manage all your tickets: exchanges, transfers, donations, etc. (By the way, I can donate unused tickets to a children's charity and deduct them from my taxes. Sweet.) So I got my account set up online to transfer tickets to Tim. I just enter his name and email and send them over. He prints them out himself and we're good to go. No need to meet anywhere or exchange a million text messages. Brilliant - and modern. This is all part of the new experience.

Then comes the news that fellow Towson High and Carnegie Mellon alum Jeff Smith, The Chief, is on a road trip and will be in town this week!  Well, take me out to the ballgame and blast me with a hot dog canon, alright!  Let's all go down to PNC Park.  I got the ticket hookup, I'm the pro, I'm the VIP, I got this.  So I call up Kevin, my Pirates ticket representative, to see how this will all work.  If I want to add on any single tickets in addition to my regular ones, I get a modest discount on the price.  If I am actually exchanging  (current or future) tickets I already have then I get the full season ticket discounted price.  So, adding on gets me the small discount, but exchanging gets me the full discounted price.  

So it turns out that both tonight and tomorrow afternoon are pretty booked.  This is a popular ticket right now, and my price range -- Outfield Box -- is apparently very appealing.  So we can't get 5 tickets together tonight or tomorrow in my regular section or even anywhere in the same price tier!  (Well done Pirates fans, keep that attendance figure rising!)  So I can exchange my regular 2 for tonight, then add on 3 additional, and upgrade to Infield Box seats, or downgrade and go upper level (boooo).  So for the 5 Infield Box seats, for which face value would be 33$ I guess, I get 2 of them for 26$ (because of the exchange) and 3 of them (the ones added on) for 30$.  And of course no fees (although, hmm, I do need to check on that to make sure).  Not as extreme a discount as I get on my regular Outfield Box tickets, which is nearly 50%, but still nice.

For tomorrow's game there are 4 seats together in the Lower Outfield Box.  So I will exchange my 2 regular tickets for tomorrow plus 2 of my regular tickets for a future game, to get the 4 tickets together.  And because I'm exchanging 4 (not adding any of them on) I will get the full season discounted price.  Those are only 4$ more than my regular seats, and are also about 50% off.

Ok so this is pretty boring to almost everyone but me.  It helps me understand everything when I can articulate it on the page like this, though.  Plus it gives me a written record (qualitative data, in addition to my spreadsheets of quantitative data) that I can look back on.  Over the past week I've sold tickets via craigslist, through friends, and word of mouth.  I've sold 13% of my games and made back 25% of my cost.  And only 1 game that I sold -- one of the fireworks games -- sold for more than face value (3$ more).  So I'm selling them for less than people would pay normally, but still at a price that's beneficial for me. 

Another Game Another Win

Pedro Alvarez, get out of my dreams and into my car.  He's third in the National League with 21 homeruns.  Teammate Andrew McCutchen is 2nd with 22.  Sounds like a little Zoltan influenced rivalry.  McCutchen also happens to be first in batting average and third in RBI.

Here's what it looks like at PNC Park these days.  It's just different.  It's full.  It's loud.  Brooms flying. Pirate flags.  MVP chants.  Legitimate MVP chants.

28 Wins Away from Ending Streak