Pirates of '97 retrospective

As I do now, I was around the '97 team.
It was a fun season for the simple fact they went WAY above and beyond expectations.

 

And keep in mind, after the '97 season was over, the P-G also did a special section commemorating that 79-83 finish. "A Season in the Sun," it was called, with Al Martin kneeling in grass surrounded by blackness.

And yes, sadly, I saved a copy of it.

 

One of my town's own was on that team and I made the trek to Three Rivers to chronicle that unlikely turn.
The Freak Show, as the guys in the press box called it, was a lot of fun.
My paper ran every AP gamer.
10 years later, it feels like a dream.

 

I do remember one moment distinctly:
Last game before All-Star break, in St. Louis.
Team wins, we put up a graphic of the NL Central.
They are at 43-43, leading the division by 1 over the Astros.
I get back to Pittsburgh that night, my father says "It won't last". I reply "Nope".
But, yet, they hung in there till the last week.
I still to this day think it was more fun than the 1990-92 teams, because they were expected to win, not the 1997 team.

 

I wonder what would have changed and by how much if the Pirates actually got into the playoffs that year?

 

Here is what would changed -- people in Pittsburgh would be bitching about this being their 10th losing season in a row instead of 15th

 

And I would be OK with that, having that one playoff season to look back at.

 

Nine years from now the Cincinnati Post will do a profile of the 2006 Reds, who won 80 games but finished just 3½ games out since the rest of the division was lousy.

 

Man, those awesome Pirates were never even .500 after Aug. 29 and out of first place by at least 2½ games for most of September.

 

Braves. Marlins. Mesa. Hargrove.

 

SCOREBOARD!

 

Bonds, Wakefield, both leave Pittsburgh in early '90s, but never leave the team they go to.