Baseball team recruits local musicians for in-game tunes

Major sports teams and the cities they hail from are essentially two sides of the same coin, which is why team rivalries and city rivalries tend to be one and the same. Aiming to tap into some of that local pride, the Pittsburgh Pirates have begun featuring local musicians for entertainment during their home games. The Pirates kicked off their local music initiative in April, starting with hometown band the Aviation Blondes. Each band featured gets a song played during the sixth-inning break while its name and song title are displayed on the Jumbotron. All songs are currently hand-picked by Eric Wolff, the Pirates’ manager of in-game presentations, though ultimately we wouldn’t be surprised to see the effort expanded to include community voting and the preference of the local crowds. In the meantime, however, teams, museums and other local institutions: imagine all the local music, food and other (still) made here entertainment you could incorporate into your own crowd-pleasing (and cross-promotional) efforts… ! (Related: Giant-screen social games for crowds at large events — Grass with a story: New York Yankees seed and sod.) Spotted by: Pittsburgh City Paper via Jim Stewart