I'll never tell people how to spend their money, much less to hand it to Bob Nutting, much less to do so in a year the Pirates have committed mostly toward collecting prospects, much less to prioritize anything over outlasting a pandemic.
Nor, for that matter, am I about to pounce on the baseball club itself over anything related to its business in that same circumstance.
At the same time, I find it both fair and relevant to ask: Are these terribly tiny crowds at PNC Park this season alarming to anyone else?
Yeah, I know, the official, legal capacity's still at 7,500, per Pennsylvania orders, at least for the rest of this month. Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that all outdoor events could increase attendance from 25% to 75% beginning Monday. The Pirates followed up by stating they'll wait until June to do that because of the month-to-month nature of ticket sales.
And yeah, I know, these ticket sales have been unorthodox in that fans are required to buy in twos and fours because of the way the permissible seats are spread out. I've heard from more than a few fans who've been put off by this.
And yeah, I know, some folks would rather wait until the coronavirus is fully under control and they can enjoy -- in confidence -- all that the ballpark experience offers.
But I also know that, as I snapped the photo atop this piece before JT Brubaker's first pitch of what wound up a 7-2 rout of the Reds ... well, that wasn't anywhere near any capacity. The announced attendance -- which is always simply the number of paid tickets in circulation and not a turnstile count -- was 4,049. Though I doubt anywhere near that amount was on hand.
I further know that the average attendance through 14 home games is now 5,590, which ranks 25th among Major League Baseball's 30 teams. There have been exceptions and quirks in there. The Red Sox, for example, rank even lower at 4,633 because of Massachusetts' limit being set at 4,500 through April. And the Blue Jays, banished again from Canada, rank last at 1,496 while playing home games at their spring park in Dunedin, Fla. But the Pirates' number ... is what it is.
Look, I won't take this any further. To repeat, zero judgment's being passed here on any front.
YOUR TURN: Why are the crowds what they are? And does it even matter?