Who In His Right Mind Will Pay To See The Pirates Play The Reds, Even Once?

By The Last Hollywood Star

Today, the Pirates play a rare double header in Cincinnati against the Reds.

Officially, it’s called a day-night double header with the first game starting at 1:05 and the second, 7:05.

Unofficially, I refer to it as a separate-admission double header: pay in the afternoon and pay again to see the second game.

I don’t believe any sane Cincinnati fan would pay twice in the same day to watch the fifth place Reds play the sixth place Pirates.

And I suspect painfully few will pay to watch either game individually.

Except for Opening Day, Cincinnati has (with good reason) shown as little interest in the Reds as we have in our Pirates. The Reds average attendance is about 17,000, slightly lower than PNC Park.

With kids back in school, who is the projected audience for the Reds-Pirates afternoon game? The night game competes with ESPN’s preseason NFL Minnesota Viking at Houston game. Watch Bret Favre---free!

Monday’s double header represents a great chance for Cincinnati ownership to make a meaningful gesture to its fans (those who remain, that is) to atone for five months of mostly rotten baseball.

My suggestion: the first 42, 059 people that show up at Great American Ball Park get in free.

Think of the positive affect capacity stands might have on the Reds. Imagine the revenue from 42,059 odd hot dog eaters, Coke drinkers and T-shirt buyers!

Gestures like opening up the gates for citizens, some of whom can’t afford tickets, is called “good will”---a notion that is beyond many baseball owners.

Years ago, when baseball first captivated me, double headers were part of every summer Sunday. Living in California, I followed the scores on the radio as they dribbled in from the East. Listening for score updates from a host of double headers took pretty much all day.

On some special Sundays, my parents took me to watch the old Hollywood Stars’ double headers (one admission only) at Gilmore Field. To make sure the families who went to the games still got home in time for Sunday supper, Pacific Coast League owners scheduled the second game for seven innings.

That was a better time in baseball when considerations for the fans were an important part of the game.