A Pirate fanboy venting...

And that's the reason for the prolonged stinkage. If you're the Pirates, you'd better be growing your own so you have them for six years of ML service time. Otherwise, you're out there chasing the leftovers of the FA market and paying too much for trash like Burnitz and Mondesi.

 

http://mondesishouse.blogspot.com/2007/03/79-reasons-why-its-hard-to-be-pirate.html

 

Into this city I was born.

Into this team I was thrown.

 

A lot of us have turned away. I still pay attention to what they do, but I haven't had any real emotional investment in the team since 1992. They weren't as blatant about not trying back than, and it was a different ownership group, but when you lose Barry Bonds and Doug Drabek for nothing a year after losing Bobby Bonilla the same way and dumping John Smiley for prospects, it all becomes a bit of a joke.

What has followed goes beyond that -- a nightmarish mixture of a baseball's built-in inequities, owners who care only about their profits and piss-poor work by the oranization's baseball people. Argue all you want about which factors are more or less important. The combination has created a disgrace of an organization.

I had been through losing teams before. I really wasn't much of a fan yet when the Pirates won the World Series in '79. Strangely enough, I fell in love with baseball in the early '80s, when the Pirates were pretty lousy. But I still loved going to that crappy ballpark and watching guys like Rick Rhoden, Tony Pena and Johnny Ray try to lift that team from the toilet, to no avail.

Then something strange happened -- they found front office people with a clue and built a contender. They had some home-grown talent like Bonds and Smiley, but trades were the real key to the team that won 3 consecutive NL East championships from 1990-92, bringing Drabek, Andy Van Slyke, Bonilla, Mike LaValliere and Jay Bell among others.

I still remember thinking I had to savor the '92 season because I knew this was coming. Maybe I didn't realize quite how bad it would get, but it was going to go down fast.

Now that list 93Devil posted isn't quite fair to the Pirates. It leaves out the best player they have developed since that '92 season, Aramis Ramirez, who was signed as an amateur free agent in '94. They acquired Jose Guillen the same way in '92. Of course, both were dispatched for very little return. But his overall point stands. Their record of player acquisition and development is a disgrace.

Frustrating as the incompetence has become, that isn't why I don't care anymore. I've been through that before. Even the ridiculously uneven economics of baseball, which were what I blamed most in '92, are no longer the killer for me. But the lack of trying to contend, the refusal to spend even the money from revenue sharing on the team...well, at some point loyalty just isn't enough.

 

I love Pirates threads.

Not being a smartass.

Find them fascinating for all the wrong reasons.

 

I used to care about the Pirates, too, even up to 1997 when it seemed as if the Bucs had a fighting chance. Now, I can only wearily laugh every time I watch a playoff baseball game, because at one point in each game I'll say aloud, "Wow, look at all those Pirates rejects out on the field."

 

I'm a Reds fan now living in the 'Burgh and just bought an 8-pack of tickets for every bobblehead night they're having this year. This year you get Dave Parker, Richie Hebner, Al Wilson and a bunch of others that I can't remember.

The team is secondary, IMO. The park is the best of the new bunch in the majors. I'd watch a T-Ball team play there.

 

Yep, that's the way to do it. Cash in on bobblehead night and watch a game at a beautiful ballpark. You're going to see a team win. Chances are, it won't be the Pirates.

 

Paging Trey Beamon...

 

Being a Pirates fan is kind of a nice summer vacation from the tension-filled, yet rewarding grind of being a Steelers fan. Sure they're always disappointing (their last winning season ended just before my bar mitzvah),
and somewhat embarassing, but it really grounds us pittsburgh fans into reality. life's not all immaculate receptions, big ben tackles and hines ward smiles. life is full of rajai davis', j.j. davis' and pat meares signings.

I always enjoy the two rites of a Pirates season, which invariably follow each other, it seems: When the Pirates put together a good start or a nice run and go above .500 and all your friends start e-mailing about how this is the year, and then the ensuing 20 losses in 22 games streak that all but ends the season in June.

if the pirates ever somehow pull a season together, a la the indians in major league, it will be something to behold. a pirates playoff game would draw a frenzied crowd of drunken yinzers that would awe even myron cope.

 

Well said. It's a crime what that organization has done. I mean that in the literal sense.

 

Agreed. A legitimate playoff run would be 100 times more fulfilling to watch than the steelers winning the super bowl.