The Pittsburgh Pirates announced today that for the sixth consecutive year they will not raise ticket prices. Reaction? Befuddlement. But not so much at not raising prices. As a fan, I think that’s pretty cool. The Pirates and the Detroit Tigers are the two clubs who haven’t raised ticket prices since 2002–the longest streak in the majors. The Tigers announced that they will increase prices in 2008. That club made it to the World Series in 2006.

After the 2001 inaugural season of beautiful PNC Park, the Pirates’ front office, comprised mostly of ex-cons, tech savvy primates and Robert Morris grads, raised ticket prices. The public responded with “great derision” as Post-Gazette writer Dejan Kovacevic said. Or more accurately, in a rare expression of interest for baseball in Pittsburgh, fans nearly burned their new park to the ground.

Okay, so they didn’t increase prices across the board. But other clubs, like the Cleveland Indians, are implementing what they call “premium pricing.” This is when a club increases prices for games like Opening Day, “high profile rivalries,” every weekend game after mid-June, and every second Wednesday of months ending in “-uly.”

Kovacevic cited the Yankees returning to Pittsburgh for the first time next season since we beat their sorry [earmuffs] in the 1960 World Series as a possible “high profile” game. Who are we kidding? The only games that Pittsburgh fans get excited about are fireworks nights. And when SkyBlast comes to town, Pirates fans lose their minds in a euphoric daze of light and sound–anything to erase the memory of the game they just had to endure.

I’m not saying this is how I approach Pittsburgh baseball, nor am I saying I like this mindset. I’m just a lowly blogger reporting the facts as I sees’em. And I’m also not necessarily recommending raising prices. But as a fan, I’m left a little puzzled. We have new front office leadership, and I’m struggling to see what is being done to improve the team. Aren’t we poor? It feels like they’re avoiding price increases to delay our disgust with them until AFTER the first season. Admirable, I guess.

I don’t know what the answers are. I don’t know how we can start winning again. All I know is that I see small market teams succeeding, or at least making a run for the playoffs (or at least approaching a .500 record… for once… since I was six) and I wonder “why not us?” Maybe Mark Cuban will buy us.