The best team in Major League Baseball
It’s that time again. This is my third annual homage to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I’m hoping it’s not me who jinxed them two years in a row. My 2011 tribute appeared here on July 25. The Pirates were tied for first place in the National League Central Division that day. Soon after, “The Slump” commenced. They finished the season looking up at just about everybody in baseball (22 games out of first place and losing 18 more games than they’d won).
I was more hopeful last season, despite the fact that on the day my Pirates’ feel-good piece was published (July 16) they were one game behind the National League Central-leading Cincinnati Reds.
I’d not anticipated that the Pirates’ superstar, Andrew McCutchen, who was batting .372 at the time, would get beaned 16 games later by a 100 mile per hour fastball. The fate of both McCutchen and the Pirates took a precipitous nose dive from that point.
McCutchen’s average dipped 46 points by the final game of the season, and the Pirates ended the season 18 games out of first place. But enough about the stats.
They don’t really mean a lot anyway, if all you’d like to do each summer is envision your team playing through October. (To be a little more specific, this year’s World Series is tentatively scheduled to start on Oct. 23, with a deciding game seven being played no later than Halloween night).
There’s one word I could use to explain a night at PNC Park in late October — Burrr!
The road to October hasn’t been kind to the Pirates for over two decades. So, these days, whenever I proudly walk around town with my Pirates hat on my head, I’m invariably greeted by people who’ve rediscovered the newly reawakened Pittsburgh Pirates, with the sound of cautious optimism in their voices.
“Sure hope they can keep it together this season,” they say, and without ever acknowledging who is the “they” about whom they’re talking.
Whenever I get the chance, I explain to them that during my nearly 65 years, the Pirates have only won three World Championships. So another year of frustration doesn’t really bother me that much. Then, I always give them my stock response. “I’m just enjoying the ride.”
There’s a good reason, though, for the optimism. They’d become THE BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL on June 29.
But there are also lots of good reasons for the caution. The Pirates have famously taken those two belly-flops long before all of the kids went back to school. They haven’t even been close to winning a pennant since William Jefferson Clinton occupied the White House.
Curiously, my neighbors seem to have stopped offering me normal salutations. They now see me and ask what I think about the Pirates. My first response, under my breath, of course, is to ask them, “What do I look like, Bob Prince?” My respect-based upbringing prevents me from blurting out those kinds of things. I just nod approvingly, then go on my way.
But that’s how things are when the home team — in whatever sport — shows signs of being THE BEST of anything. Suddenly, I’m seeing fewer Steelers jerseys, while more-and-more people are wearing caps and jerseys with “P’s” on them.
That’s not to say Steelers apparel-wearers won’t be leaving their hibernation in a few weeks. But, for now, baseball is the game of choice among Pittsburgh area sports fans.
PNC Park has become a destination — not unlike Disneyland — for some people. It’s that beautiful patch of grass along the Allegheny, where, on lazy Sunday afternoons and on sunny but cool evenings, the Pirates continue to try to shed that two-decade curse.
Oh, it can be an expensive pursuit. Hot dogs and popcorn that could force you take out a second mortgage. But there, on the field, with the city as a backdrop and the stands filled with passionate well-wishers — it’s all worth the price of admission.
Let’s Go, Bucs, so we might be able to Raise the Jolly Roger — in October!
Uniontown native Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net