What's to say about the Pittsburgh Pirates? Since the day that Francisco Cabrera singled home Sid Bream to eliminate the Pirates, they have been irrelevant when the topic was winning. After that game, Barry Bonds went free agent. At the time, he was an exciting young player at the top of his physical ability. No one dreamed that he would ever challenge Hank Aaron. Now, Bonds is a ramshackle pariah, a living joke and a symbol of baseball's excess. It took a long time to reach that point. All of which illustrates just how long it has been since the Pirates mattered.
They haven't won a pennant since the days of Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, John Candelaria, and Kent Tekulve. It is sad, but as a Cub fan my sympathy is limited for any team I have ever witnessed a World Champion. I started watching baseball in 1979. I can still remember seeing them take on the Orioles on a raised up TV in the Einstein School gym during a Cub Scout meeting. Back then, Scouting came first. Big mistake; I missed some 1984 playoff games that way. By the way, the Orioles haven't been prominent much lately either.
What I'm saying is, gee, the Pirates still exist, but, well, don't bother worrying about them. They only threaten the Cubs in the role of spoiler. I'm much more worried about LaRussa's Cards, Dusty's Reds, and Ozzie's Sox ruining our season with some demoralizing and disrespectful defeats at the worst possible time (Cub fans, we are not short of arch-rivals these days. Especially since our sort-of arch rival Milwaukee is very, very good now).
What do the Pirates have? Tom Gorzelanny (Triton College player and Chicago native), Ian Snell, and Paul Maholm. In a best case scenario, they become the best three-person group of starters in the division. But what usually happens in Pirate land these days is that they count on certain players and then those players go out and let them down.
They also have Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, Xavier Nady, and Jason Bay. It's an acceptable core, sort of. it's just not enough. The only hope for the Pirates is to keep this team together and hope they bond and jell as a unit while improving as individuals. And of course, those three pitchers need to come through again. Even so, it still wouldn't be enough.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment