ContactQuestions? Comments? Tips? Email: WHYGAVS [at] gmail [dot] com WHYGAVS? PollSearchBest of WHYGAVSThe Garrett Mackowiak ExperienceWhy I can't stay away from the ballpark Super Bowl XL The Pirates/Office Space Comparison Pirates and Royals: LIVEBLOG One Craig Wilson Logo History Masumi Kuwata Elimination Challenge Letter to the Nuttings Moving Day WHYGAVS Goes to Camden Yards WHYGAVS Night Photo Essay Why's he calling me meat? I'm the one driving a Porsche In the Canyon 16 years  |
andy coulter
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... I think your title said it best! And as much as I can't wait to see Cutch score that run to bigger and better, I'm just as excited to see this blog when it happens! We can all celebrate, then I'll I can add to my two Steeler and one Pens championship hats! I've been saving room on my closet shelf for that one!!!! |
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klingston
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agreed. i'm with ya pat. theres no sweet without the sour. and because our sour is the equivalent of eating 20,000 lemon drops consecutively with no water, our sweet is going to be something insanely awesome. whether that comes in 2011 or 2026 i am willing to wait. it may be sad, but i wont ever be able to drop my allegiance to this club. |
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Roby
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... Thanks for writing that Pat. ill always proudly wear my bucs cap and t-shirt and keep taking the crap from sports fans everywhere because i have hope like you. What makes the sweet even sweeter will be when we finally do win, it will come knowing that we came from the lowest of the low to get there. And like klingston said, it will be insanely awesome. |
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Sherlock
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... What are the odds that those four will ever be in the same lineup? When is McCutchen trade eligible...err..arbitration eligible? After the 2011 season? |
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bucsfanforever
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Yay! Another Pittsburgh Record :( I agree with all those who say that once a situation gets really bad, that means that something extremely, positively big will happen for our Buccos-look at the Indians-all the crappy '80's teams and they became the first team ever to score over 1000 runs. What will it be for the Pirates? I KNOW something that never has been done, and, by God, they better cover whatever it is on all the networks when it happens. I want 3 WS wins in a row to start, what's anyone else want? |
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Nuttingonyou
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... People will sometimes say to me, "I used to like the Pirates when I was a kid, but somewhere along the lines, I couldn't take all the losing so I switched to liking the (Cubs, Yankees, Cardinals, etc.). You're the only guy I know who still follows them with passion. I don't get it. Why?" My response: "Because someday the Pirates will break out and be the talk of baseball. And people like you who gave up years ago will be thinking, 'Man, I bet Matt is having the time of his life right now.'" |
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Ron J
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The beginning For those of that are young this all started in 1988 Carl Bargrer fired Sid Thrift who built a great team . I am a life long bucs fan and will always be we had a chance to be great for a long time until this happened if you or anyone look and see Sid made the most unpopular trades as NH has lets all hope it ends the same . |
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JerryG
said:
Staying with them.The common perception is that sports are all about winning. That if your team didn't win, you had a bad year and that there's nothing positive to be taken from it. I think that's hopelessly misguided. Sports are about everything that happens before your team wins, which is what gives value to the championship when it's celebrated.Yep. I keep thinking how great it's going to feel when the Pirates start winning. That'll be a lot of fun. I remember the early 90's when people here in Iowa didn't like the Pirates because they seemed to beat up on the Cubs and Cards a lot. I miss that a lot. |
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Zogger
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Well Said..tears to my eyes! Very well said. A true fan does not change teams because they win or lose. They are a fan for always. Just a month ago, I made a trip to Cooperstown. I am walking down the street with my Pirates hat on. A guy, I didn't know, is sitting at an outdoor cafe stands up and sticks out his hand. He has a Bucs cap on as well. We give each other a high five and yell "Go Buccos!". My wife thinks I am crazy, but that is a fan! Next year will be brutal but wait until spring training of 2011! WOW! The talent on that field could be most young talent the Bucs have had since the 70's. They may not win in 2011, but they will really fun to watch! |
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w.k. kortas
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... I have two moments in my never-mind-how-many years as a Pirate fan that stick out for me. One is during the near-impossible dream of 1978, when the Bucs made their run at the Phils; the two teams were playing on Game Of The Week, but I couldn't find anyone to switch shifts with me, so I was sneaking away from the grill at McDonald's every ten minutes or so to call my mother for updates (Luzinski beat us with a homer which pretty much sunk the season). The second was during the Freak Show season; I was driving to the store and listening to KDKA fade in and out when Lanny said the Pirates had received permission to print playoff tickets, and I start yelling and pounding the steering wheel like a goddamn lunatic. Baseball makes us feel absurd and inexplicable emotions, and makes us do crazy and unimaginable things. Thank God. |
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Caroline
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... Thank god. After all the damn things out there yelling "17 17 17171717171717 what FAILURES", I knew I needed to come here and get away from that annoying shit. You haven't disappointed, that was beautiful. Also, your link to the Penguins picture from 2008 isn't working. |
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Pirate in Montana
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Good for you... ... Pat. A man can always dream. Please keep up the good work. |
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Anthony C.
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A smile to my face Even though the record has been set, I do not feel disapointment after yesterday's game. Just like the post said, I see hope in the future, and more wins to come. I After reading the post, and comments, a big smile was brought to my face because I know that I am not the only one thinking and hoping the Pirates will be a contender once again. Thank you all for your hope in the Pirates. |
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ExileInDC
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... Nice piece, Pat. But today, having been a Pirate fan since a sunny day at Forbes Field in 1968, I can feel nothing but outrage at the continued dismissiveness of Management towards this ignominious record. Yes, the Record does matter, and Management should have fought harder to avoid it. The Record (and may we pray that it stops at 17) may still be talked about as the standard of sports failure 100 years from now. Crazy? How about those 1908 Cubs? Or, ask a Red Sox fan what it felt like to carry 1918 around all those years. My disgust is that current Management always falls back on the simplistic line about the importance of "building a winner," as if that were mutually exclusive of "winning." We as fans are presented with the rigid (and false) choice that one must choose between a respectable team now and a good one in future years. But couldn't Management have made some, but not all, of these moves, fielding a respectable team that at least had a shot at avoiding 17? In fact, The Future is going to be built more with good drafting (which it appears that current Management is capable of), than with acquiring middling prospects in return for serviceable veterans. Methinks that the strategy of destroying the franchise to save it has more to do with providing Management a three-year window during which they can respond, "Be patient, it is still too early to judge" to every question. And I will believe that until the day I actually hear Management admit that any one of its trades (ANY one) of the past two years was, yup, a mistake. (But right, now, it is too early to judge, right?) In short, it is fine to believe in The Future, but we ought to hold Management accountable for the present. These games count too. |
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Joshua
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... Yeah, I would be upset, but then I have to remember that there was a light at the end of the tunnel for the Phillies as well. They broke the streak in 1949, then won the NL Pennant in 1950 with the Whiz Kids. I think we may be on the precipice of that. |
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DGL
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Keep in mind ...that while the Phillies had "only" a 16-season losing streak, they preceded it with a 78-76 season in 1932, which was preceded by another 13 seasons below .500. I, for one, would rather see the Pirates lose 17, 18, or 19 straight seasons, then follow that with an ongoing streak of competitive seasons, than have the Bucs break the streak with one season at 82-80 and then be below .500 for another ten years. |
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TheTaxidermist
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... At the end of every Pirate season I tell myself "I'm not gonna watch the Pirates anymore". Then the next April, where do I find myself? In front of my TV, watching the Pirates. At the ballpark, watching the Pirates blow a 9th inning lead. And people ask me, "Why?" Your post Pat, summed it up better than anything I ever said. People I know that don't watch the Pirates, and they just hear about what the Pirates are doing as regard trades and the fact that they continue to lose. When I try to explain to them that the only way they can compete is to get the farm system going. "More trades for prospects. Predictable Pirates." They don't understand that we aren't winning with those players. The prospects are the only thing that will make them compete ever again. Then when the Pirates put up another losing season next year, they will say "Pirates traded for those prospects, and they still lose! I thought those prospects were going to make a difference?" Once again, a lack of understanding comes into play. Yup, they may not compete next year or the year after. But mark my words, they will compete. There was one series that gave me hope this year. The series against the Phillies where we won 2 out of 3. There was a different feeling in that series. Maybe I'm delusional, but in all my years as a Pirate fan, I have NEVER felt hope. I do now. LETS GO BUCS! |
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matskralc
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... This is part of a Fan Post I wrote two seasons ago at Bucs Dugout: I've long thought that I never really can give up on the Pirates. I identify my childhood extremely closely with my love of baseball. Baseball was my childhood, and of course the Pirates were the team I chose. To give up on the Pirates is to cut ties with my childhood, and I just can't bring myself to do it. I know sports fans like to talk about the "pain" of defeat, but to do that would, I think, be something painful to me. I can't give up on the Pirates because I want to be a little kid again. My first baseball game was freaking Game Three of the 1992 NLCS. I want to be in the stands again the next time the Pirates enjoy glory again. I can't just leave and come back. That wouldn't be right. I know that if the Pirates ever rose again, and I had quit on them (and on myself), I wouldn't be able to truly enjoy that triumph. I'm rambling uncontrollably now. I am intrigued by sociological study of sport, specifically that modern sport is an awful lot like religion. The symbols, the "saints", the leaders, the congregations. I almost feel like ditching the Pirates would be harder than converting my religion. I can withhold my money from the McNuttings. But I can't withhold my fandom from the Pirates. I always get overwhelmingly sad whenever I sit and think about sports and myself this way. I just want to be a happy little kid again. I want to sit in the "cheap" outfield seats at Game Three surrounded by a bunch of other little kids, both literal and figurative, and watch my boyhood heros win. |
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RFS
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... It's sad when the best thing a Pirate fan can say is "at least we aren't as bad as (insert worse team for that year)" |
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Stacey
said:
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Great article I'm an Orioles fan but your article speaks to me as well. I'm too young to hold any ill will towards the Pirates the way my parents and grandparents do. The WS the O's lost to them are a lifetime away and now I feel our teams have a bond in that few other teams fans feel what we feel year in and year out. Keep the faith. When our teams meet for a third time in the World Series we will both know a joy that Yankee fans will never understand. |
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Jim Poole
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... Being an Upstate New Yorker, I'm a Yankee fan. But since I went to college in Western PA (years ago) and my son now lives in Pittsburgh, I've become a Pirate fan, too. It's difficult to explain from a Yankee fan's perspective, but watching a team on the rise--or trying to get on the rise--is intriguing, and, frankly, fun, which is what sports is all about. I love the Yankees, but expectations are so high every year, disappointment comes pretty often. It isn't that way with the Bucs, obviously. Watching them take small steps forward, as with Andrew McCutcheon, is encouraging. The seemingly endless debate over whether Pittsburgh's management plan will work generates interest in the team--and hope for the future. I know I'm speaking from an embarrassment of riches, but the only thing we Yankee fans debate is which free agent to sign. I know Pirate fans may envy that position, but believe me, it gets old sometimes because there's rarely any uncertainty. |
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