Fan Protest Thingy

For those who don't know (everyone outside the Pittsburgh area), internet Pirate fans have organized a "walk-out" during the third inning of the Pirate game at PNC Park to protest the terrible, terrible ownership, leadership, direction, decisions, cheapness, etc., of our franchise. The group putting it together is call "Fans for Change."

The deal is, you wear green and walk out at the beginning of the third inning and walk over to the concourse. The green symbolizes money or something.

Now, don't get me wrong, I have no problem with the protest. If I was going to the game Saturday, i would probably participate. No one is expecting too much from this one act. It's bobblehead night (yippeezzz!!) so even if 5,000 fans protest (an optimistic number) that will barely make a dent. However, the cool thing is there will APPARENTLY be a member of the 1971 World Champion Pirates as a keynote speaker to the pre-game protest rally.

I'd love to go just to hear the funny chants that they will probably be able to get going during the game.

So anyway, the protest is cool and all, but here's what's dumb. When the Pirates failed to make any comment on the event and took down messages from their Fan Forum and instructed FSN Pittsburgh not to talk about or show the protest on TV, people flipped out and said the Pirates are censoring and that the Pirates are "afraid" or something.

Umm, this is not the case. The Pirates, I'm sure, see this as a tiny flicker of the flame, and the actions they are taking are not despearte bullying, but are more on the level of a thumb and forefinger quenching a birthday candle light.

The protest sounds great, and fun especially, and I'd love to go. But don't pretend the Pirates are actually afraid of this because they monitor their message boards and have told their TV affiliates not to discuss something that would tear down the organization. They are taking very tiny steps to ensure the protest will have practically no effect.

As for me, I'm just waiting until we trade Jason Bay. When we do, I can cheer for his new team until Mark Cuban buys the Pirates.