Most of the time if I can catch a Spring Training game on TV, it’ll be a YES Network broadcast with the Yankees announcers and from a Yankees perspective. And though there are a few ticket-sales purchases in those broadcasts, they are not too intrusive.
I realize that the Yankees broadcast more than a dozen Spring games, so they can spread the sales pitches over a bunch of games. And that the Pirates only have a couple of games sent back to Pittsburgh in March. But today’s Yankees-Pirates game, shown on Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh and simulcasted on MLB Network, seemed to spend more time pitching Pirates season ticket plans than following the action.
Now, I hope that the Pirates sold thousands of tickets today; for sure, there is plenty of inventory. Prices were extremely reasonable (some plans had tickets priced in the $7 and $8 range, good luck finding anything like that in points East like New York, Boston or Philadelphia. There were even some extra goodies for fans buying certain packages — Bill Mazeroski signed baseballs and Roberto Clemente jerseys.
Having a team rep or two in the booth for a couple of innings at the beginning of the game was fine, but did we really need to go Live! from PNC Park, talking to random ticket office personnel as they fielded calls, PBS style?
For sure we are spoiled in New York today. I remember in the late 70’s, even into the 80’s, that many regular season games weren’t televised. Spring games were a rare treat, usually a game against the Mets and one or two others, if that. Last week, one of the XM Home Plate announcers was talking about how until recently most teams would broadcast just one or two Spring games back home and they would make sure to play all the starters in those so as to look best for potential ticket buyers.
The Pirates looked great today, shutting down what was some of the Yankees regular lineup, then scoring a bunch of runs off Jonathan Albaladejo and former Angel Dustin Moseley. Hopefully Bucs fans weren’t turned off enough by the constant sales pitch to stick around and see it.