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Fans back to support Pirates
But after 18 seasons of disappointment, national derision and complete dereliction by the local professional baseball team, you can understand why it wasn't always the best thing to admit to being a fan of the Pirates.
They made it awfully difficult to love them over the past 18 years.
Things got so bad that it wasn't that long ago that any time people spoke about contraction in baseball, Pittsburgh was one of the first words out of their mouth.
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But let's be honest, if the New York Yankees went 18 seasons without a winning record, you can bet their stadium wouldn't be jammed to the rafters with fans every night as well.
A quick look at Major League attendance figures shows that the Pirates, who are 47-43 and a game out of first place in their division at the All-Star break, are currently 21st in per game average at 23,577.
But when that figure is adjusted to percentage of stadium capacity, the Pirates rise to 17th, with 61.5 percent of PNC Park filled on a given night.
Yes, home series against Philadelphia and Boston have helped inflate those numbers but so has some winning baseball.
The Pirates went into the All-Star break with sellouts in two of their final three home games against the Chicago Cubs. And the game that wasn't a sellout drew more than 30,000 fans.
These Pirates may not win the National League Central this season. Heck, they may not even finish above .500.
But they have shown that Pittsburgh cares about baseball. We just won't support an organization going through the motions.
• Word from numerous sources is that NFL owners and players are expected to reach an agreement to end the lockout on July 21.
That would leave the Steelers a little over a week to get things ready to open training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe on the weekend of July 29 through 31.
If that happens, Latrobe will breath a sigh of relief.
Three teams - Baltimore and both New York clubs - have already said they will hold their training camps at team facilities rather than their usual off-site locations.
And, if the lockout drug on into late July or August, the Steelers would have been forced to do the same.
There would be a lot of businesses in Latrobe that would have been severely hurt from losing that three weeks of extra traffic the Steelers bring to town.
• If the lockout is lifted July 21, the following week of free agency could be the wildest period in NFL history.
According to ESPN.com's John Clayton, regardless of what happens in the next week, teams expect the 2011 salary cap figure to be lower than the 2009 cap of $127 million.
That will leave a number of teams, including the Steelers, over the cap and in need of getting under it quickly.
Some veterans may be asked to take pay cuts or be sent packing.
• Hines Ward's DUI arrest in Georgia over the weekend is troubling, but it's not something that is going to draw a suspension from the NFL.
Ward, if the charges prove to be true, made a bad choice in judgment. But he's got a long track record of good behavior over the years to fall back on.
He may have, however, cost himself some post-football endorsement deals. Ward's appearance on Dancing With the Stars gained him a whole new set of fans. If you have any doubts about that, take a gander at the gossip magazines at your local supermarket this week.
F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com
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