Pirates being Pirates

Baseball, Football, Major Sports

Posted by Obiora, August 1, 2008 - 12:20 pm

Maintaining loyalty in the face of extreme losing

It is a cruel irony that the man most responsible for establishing the Fall Classic was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the same day that has for the greater part of 16 years signaled the unofficial end of baseball season here in Western PA, the start of Steelers training camp. During Barney Dreyfuss‘ 32 years as owner, the Pittsburgh Pirates finished in 2nd place or higher 13 times, won 6 pennants and claimed 2 World Series titles. He would be mortified to know that his team is now working on its 16th straight losing season, a new US sports record.

In the past week, the Pirates have almost singlehandedly managed to inject new life into the AL East race by trading OF Xavier Nady and RP Damaso Marte to the Yankees and now OF Jason Bay to the Red Sox. Two-thirds of the most productive outfield in baseball gone for young players and prospects. As the ghosts of Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt and Chris Young circle around my head, I find both optimism and pessimism swirling through an endless, numbing void.

Baseball was actually my first sports love. I came to sports in the early 90’s when the Pirates and Penguins were winning and the Steelers were languishing in mediocrity. I remember when Pedro Martinez was called PJ Martinez because there was a Pedro A. Martinez in the Big Leagues; I remember when Joe Torre was the manager of a pretty mediocre St. Louis Cardinals team; and I remember when Barry Bonds was skinny, stole bases and batted lead-off. It was easy to enjoy the game.

All sports fans experience periods that test their resolve. Some fandoms, like that of the Chicago Cubs, are practically built around the (ridiculously idiotic) idea of “lovable losers”. Some emphasize the ‘experience’ of the game as a way to avoid facing losing - “Boy that park sure is purrty!”, others are simply cursed, such as the Cleveland Browns, and some just deserve to lose, such as any fandom in Philadelphia. But in most cases, a dearth of winning refers to winning championships, not winning seasons.

If your team is at least occasionally in the hunt, you can have hope. In order for Steve Bartman to have become an issue, the Cubs needed to be in contention in the first place. We have, on this site, rightly decried bandwagon jumpers, those mealy-mouthed cretins who enjoy the peaks and avoid the valleys.

But losing on the scale of the Pirates is, methinks, a different kettle o’ fish. It’s not that they haven’t reached the World Series since 1979 or that they haven’t won a Division Title since 1992. To my knowledge, the Pittsburgh Pirates have not had a .500+ overall record at any point past the All-Star break in any individual season since 1999. This hallowed .500+ post All-Star mark has been reached only twice since Barry Bonds took his big bat to the East Bay after the 1992/93 season.

I’ve picked sides in the World Series from time to time but I’m a homer and as such, I can’t truly cheer for another baseball team. But 16 years of spectacularly bad baseball have robbed me and many others of our passion for the (former) National Pastime. I don’t live and die with this team. I die and die with them yet still attend 5-6 games at PNC Park each season.

So the question is - should I be considered no better than the bandwagon jumper because I describe baseball season as the winter of my sports discontent or hang my head when the Pirates come on Sportscenter. When faced with such extreme losing, what’s a fan to do? Oh that’s right - Steelers training camp just opened. Here we go!

Photo Credit: Icon/SMI

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