'Not going to be the same' for Pirates in silence

Derek Holland had a hard time recalling the place and the time, but he remembered the gesture.

After taking some time to think it through, he recalled it was at the now-defunct Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. His uncle had taken him to see Randall Cunningham practice, and then to a signing to get an autograph from the Eagles' quarterback the next day. He lined up to get his ball signed, but was pushed to the back by adults once Cunningham got started.

Fortunately for Holland, Cunningham saw what was happening and called him to the front, and Holland got his signature.

"Those are the moments that, as a kid, you look forward to," Holland said during a Zoom call Sunday.

That stuck with Holland, and he has been a very accessible player to fans throughout his career, either in person by signing autographs or virtually by doing live twitch streams. He won't have many opportunities to interact with them in person this year though, as games are going to be played in empty stadiums across baseball.



While some state and local governments have discussed allowing a percentage of fans into stands, with COVID-19 cases and anxiety about the virus rising throughout the country, that is starting to seem less likely. Even if some teams still have a small group of fans enter, it appears every game this year will be played in an empty or very-near-empty stadium.

That includes the Pirates. While the club has not announced anything officially, between the Allegheny County Health Department's order of restricting gatherings of 25 or more people in person and rising cases in the area, it looks very bleak that fans will be able to enter PNC Park this year. The situation is an easy set-up to take a jab at their attendance the past few years, but even at its worst, there were still some fans in the stands, not to mention ushers and between inning entertainment.

This year, it will be truly empty, outside players, coaches, club personnel and select media. As Kevin Newman put it, it will be the fewest amount of people anyone has played in front of since high school.

"It’ll be interesting, that’s for sure," Newman said during a Zoom call Friday. "I really have no way to explain it. I don’t even know what it’s going to be like. We’ll have to find out."

Playing without fans in the stands could be a problem for players who thrive on the extra adrenaline, but in terms of making too much noise.

"You’re just going to be able to hear everything," Derek Shelton said during a Zoom call after workouts were done Sunday. "That’s why the defensive guys, knowing where they’re supposed to be, whether it’s cards or pregame conversations about where they should be defensively in their alignment [is important]. But every single sound is going to be heard regardless. We’ve talked about it in terms of conversations with umpires, between coaches and umpires, managers and umpires and players and umpires, players and other players."

So far, the Pirates have just practiced in an empty PNC Park for summer camp. That is not uncommon for a practice, and once intrasquad competitions starts, it might give a glimpse into what the regular season will look like.

The Pirates have talked about how to handle making sure their voices don't carry over the the other dugout, but it's a work in progress.

"To say that we’ve got it all down now, I don’t think we do because we haven’t gotten to that point yet," Shelton said. "But it’s something that we’ll probably continue to discuss."

One possible solution they are considering is pumping in artificial crowd noise in order to mask those discussions.

Jacob Stallings seemed to be open to the idea. While the Pirates' backstop likes to talk to hitters as they come in the box, he wants to make sure his conversations stay private. He does have to go out to the mound to talk to the pitcher periodically, after all.

"I don’t really want to hear the other teams’ conversations from their dugout, and I don’t want them hearing ours," Stallings said in a Zoom call Sunday. "Hopefully they can do something like that [artificial crowd noise]. That’s not something you can really simulate, competing without a crowd, because we’ve never really done it."

But in terms of players getting that shot of adrenaline in clutch situations, artificial crowd noise does not come close to the real thing.

"It’s not the same," Holland said. "I’m sorry, you can pump in as much noise as you want but it’s not going to be the same."

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