Notes: Ratings, Rookie Awards, Bobbleheads, Martin Surgery, Random News

This week’s stuff:

• Per the Trib via Forbes, TV ratings for Pirates baseball were up 4% from last season, increasing from a 4.75 to a 4.95. That’s the eighth-best rating in baseball. In raw numbers, average viewership increased from 54,000 to 55,000, 17th in baseball. They also went up a bit at the gate, per the Post Gazette: The total attendance was 1,491,439, a 1.8% increase over 2018, when 1,465,316 fans came to PNC Park. Curb your enthusiasm; that was 27th in baseball. 

• OF Jason Martin underwent surgery to repair a left shoulder labral tear caused by an early September dislocation and is expected to be out 4-6 months.
• Bryan Reynolds is one three NL finalists for the 2019 Players Choice Awards Outstanding Rookie award, along with the Mets’ Pete Alonso and the Braves’ Mike Soroka. The MLBPA will announce the winner next week.
• Mayor Bill Peduto made public his feeling on the Pirates and his limitations on their operation in an interview with the Post Gazette’s Jason Mackey.
• There will be six Pirates’ bobblehead days next year, featuring: Kids & Moms Wonder Woman (May 10); Joe Musgrove (May 23); Billy Maz Gold Glove/1960 Celebration (June 16); Josh Bell (July 4); Trevor Williams Star Wars (August 6), and Doug Drabek Cy Young/90′s Night (September 12).
• Indy’s 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes and 1B Will Craig were named 2019 Rawlings Gold Glove Award Winners, minor league version. It’s Hayes’ third (he and cup-of-coffee 1962 CWS 3B Ramon Conde are the only players to win three-in-a-row) and Craig’s first.

• RIP to OF Bobby DelGreco, who was born in the Hill and lived post-retirement in Baldwin. He played for his hometime Buccos in 1952 and 1956, with his career lasting until 1965.
• The Washington Wild Things’ indie Frontier League has merged with another independent group, the Can-Am League. The new mashup will operate as the Frontier League, and hopes to add to its current 14-team, two-division lineup in the future.
• Once-upon-a-time Bucco OF Gorkys Hernandez, 32, was outrighted to to AAA Pawtucket by the Red Sox after clearing waivers.