in due time, the pittsburgh pirates will pay you to come see them

This is just too much: The Pittsburgh Pirates, who just finished burning the village in order to save it trading everyone on the roster in order to -- all together now -- "rebuild" for "the future," announced today that they are extending a promotion by which there are no fees for purchasing tickets online to any home game for the remainder of the season. Which, on the face of it, ain't a bad idea. But the laugh track kicks in once you read the promotion itself, which says -- without a whiff of irony -- that the extension was made "due to popular demand." This from a team that failed to draw 12,000 fans to any of its three home games so far this week. Yep. Get 'em while you can, people. Amazing this team shares a zip code with the Steelers and Penguins.