Why is it when attendance is brought up or lack thereof, that some baseball fans outside of the Pittsburgh fanbase always mention the Pirates and the 1979 championship season of only 1.4 million? I know a Phillies fan who i've argued with, state that "They never showed up in the '79 championship year, why would they show up now?" when i tied explaining that PNC Park would be packed if this team was ever competitive again. I know baseball-reference.com shows we never really drew over 2.4 mil in a single season, but it really seems to me that Pittsburgh is such a big sports town, that the fans would pack the place if the team was fighting for a pennant again. Is there any particular reason(s) why attendance was low in '79 or in any other subsequent seasons? Is it because Pittsburgh is a "small city" compared to most sports cities in the first place? I've heard some say that it was due to 3 Rivers being an awful stadium, but Philly and Cincinnati had similar stadiums if i remember correctly, and they had solid if not better attendance than Pittsburgh. I just will not and do not believe that this city does not/would not love its baseball if the team was winning regularly again!

Article at fanhouse.com

First of all, I don't recall Meek getting 7 save opportunities this year. Second, i doubt Meek would have a problem with AL hitters with his stuff.

Mariotti is an idiot.

Here's Mariotti's quote:

If your kid asks why Strasburg was omitted but someone named Evan Meek made it, how do you explain? Meek, also a relief pitcher, is the lone representative of the pathetic Pittsburgh Pirates. He has had seven save opportunities this season and converted exactly one, making it curious how he has a 0.98 earned run average. Whatever the reason, no one wants to: (1) see Evan Meek in the All-Star Game, maybe not even his friends and family; or (2) see Evan Meek try to retire American League batters when Strasburg and his drop-dead array of stuff are at home.

Link

Yankees president Randy Levine vs. Brewers owner Attanasio.

Apparently Levine is upset over Attanasio's comments that the Yankees infield makes more then the entire Brewer team.

"We're struggling to sign [Fielder] and the Yankees infield is making more than our team,"

He also accuses the smaller market teams of pocketing the revenue sharing money.

"We play by all the rules and there doesn't seem to be any complaints when teams such as the Brewers receive hundreds of millions of dollars that they get from us in revenue sharing the last few years."

"The question that should be asked is: Where has the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue sharing gone?"

Oh yeah, and the Pirates are mentioned as having a payroll slightly above A-Rod's $33 million.

Hmmm. Apparently, we got hosed on the Nady/Marte deal....and Milledge will never amount to anything, let alone have the upside of Mclouth.

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http://www.murraychass.com/?p=980

I'm not saying Neal Huntington has been perfect. But this could be one of the worst articles written, imo. Clearly this guy has a blinded love for Nyjer Morgan, Freddy Sanchez, and Jack Wilson. Also going as far as to call Morgan a young talent and insinuating that the Sanchez/Wilson trades were 'salary dumps.' Funny how there is no mention of the draft spending to be found. 

Selig on mlb economics

Says a worldwide draft is needed, but the differential between large market teams and small markets is not an issue.

Q: The collective-bargaining agreement expires after the 2011 season. Looking forward, do you have to tweak it to further enhance competitive balance?

A: Yes. There's no question. In everything in life, you have to tweak. You know there's no question that I think we need a slotting system for the draft. We need a worldwide draft.

Q: Cleveland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Kansas City, Oakland. It almost seems like the list of teams with troubles has gotten a little bit longer.

A: I don't think so. It changes from year to year. In any sport, in any time, you're going to have teams that do well and don't do well. We could go back in the history of baseball — you had the St. Louis Browns, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Boston Braves. You go on and on and on, and they all looked so hopeless.

Jeff Clement hit his 5th homerun in 9 games with Indianapolis last night. He's also has a .343 BA.

When do you think he'll be called up? From what i've heard, it probably won't be for another couple of weeks when the September call-ups happen, and Pearce probably deserves his shot to show he can play everyday for now.

I also noticed that he was DH-ing last night against Charlotte, which is strange considering i thought he'd be thrown out there at 1st base as much as possible to get reacquainted with the position.