Even if you have the most elementary knowledge about sports, you probably know at least a few things about the worst teams in sports. You may have heard the jokes that God hates Cleveland. You may know that the name “Buffalo Bills” is synonymous with depression and agony. And everyone knows that the city of Philadelphia has been more tortured than possibly any other city in the nation. But do you know about the plight of the Pittsburgh Pirates? Do you know that they recently just clinched its record setting 20th losing season in a row? If not, let me take you through what it’s been like to be a Pirates fan in this era of sports where winning anything but a title is a failure.
The first thing I ever wore was a Pirates jersey. It still hangs on my wall today. Pittsburgh was named the City of Champions during the 1970s when the Steelers won four Super Bowls, the Pirates won two World Series, and the University of Pittsburgh won a national title in football. Oh, how times have changed. Nowadays there’s a popular slogan in the Steel City that goes, “Pittsburgh: the City of Champions...and the Pirates.” When I tell people that I’m a Pirates fan, it’s usually met with a look like I just told them that my dog was hit by a truck. People feel pity for me. How can I root for a team that has never had a winning season in my entire life? The last time the Pirates were any good was 1992 when they lost to the Braves in the playoffs when a young Barry Bonds was unable to throw out Sid Bream at home. I don’t even have to look that up. I know it’s right because I’ve seen the clip 35235 times.
You know how the older members in the family always like to say something like, “In my day…”? Well the common phrase in my ancestry is, “You know that Pittsburgh used to be a baseball town, right?” And you know what? It’s true! The Pirates used to be the toast of Major League Baseball. Some of the greatest players in baseball have gone through the town in different eras: Honus Wagner, Bill Mazeroski, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Jack Wilson…just kidding (I’m sure nobody got that). This is a team that beat the Yankees, the Yankees, on a walk off homerun in game seven of the World Series in 1960. Even though they haven’t had a winning season in 20 years, they still have won five World Series, good to tie for sixth most all time.
So how does a team go from the cream of the crop to the bottom of the heap? When absolutely EVERYTHING goes wrong. Bad signing, bad players, bad managers and, most of all, bad owners have contributed to the worst streak in sports history. I didn’t get into sports until about 2005, and when I did, I didn’t know much. I knew of the Pirates, but I didn’t know how they had turned into the downtrodden, ugly sister, Snooki-like team of baseball. I knew they had a brand new beautiful stadium, PNC Park, and a few good players like Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay who carried the load, even though the load was like 2 trillion anvils. I’ve been rooting for a team that had little to no chance. The Pirates have been known to make the most ridiculous signings and the worst possible trades. In 2007, they traded talented, young outfielder Rajai Davis for aging, veteran pitcher Matt Morris. Morris is now out of the league, and Davis is regularly on Sportscenter for highlight diving plays and for his 43 RBI’s this past year. When I researched this article about Matt Morris, I found this little gem from Yahoo! Sports:
“Pittsburgh has some talented young starters in Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm and Zach Duke — none over 25 years of age.”
Every single one of those starters is now gone. Every single one. How can a team let all of their starters go in the matter of five years? That would be like the Patriots trading away Brady, Welker, Gronkowski and Lloyd all in the matter of the next season or two. Somehow the Pirates managed to slowly start turning things around. In 2009 I thought that I had seen the last straw when management traded away Nate McLouth, the best player on the team at the time, for three prospects that nobody had ever heard of. I was outraged. So outraged I called my grandma to let her know my displeasure. But miraculously, and I mean miraculously, it worked out. Taking his place was Andrew McCutchen, who has turned out to become a National League MVP candidate and the brightest star on the Pirates in arguably 20 years. Some dead weight was cut, like the LaRoche brothers (I still personally miss those boys) and a new manager was brought in, Clint Hurdle.
Last year, the team exploded out of nowhere to capture the heart of Pittsburgh and remind fans what it was like to root for a winning team. People were thinking this would be the year the dreaded streak (which I like to call the Curse of Bonds) would finally end, and maybe even with a postseason berth. But the Pirates lost on a controversial play in the 19th inning in a game in Atlanta and everything unraveled. They clinched their 19th losing season a few weeks later. Still, there was no shame. This team actually put up a fight and showed that the times may be changing. Hope was high for this season based off the start the team got off to the previous year and the potential that young studs like Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and Sterling Marte showed.
I follow baseball, but not like some people. I know a pretty solid amount of the league basically just from watching Sportscenter a lot and going on ESPN.com. This year I put my strongest amount of effort into being a Pirates fan. I read the recap of the previous day’s game each morning, watched the highlights and watched any game I could. I was here for summer B when the Pirates started making their run. I’d get updates from ESPN each time they scored a run. The runs and the wins kept piling up and up. I remember seeing that the Pirates killed the Giants on the final day of the first half and thought, “Wow, this is actually going to be the year.”
Then in typical Pirates fashion, they started to play baseball like a person rides a bike with no wheels. The Pirates, who were 16 games over .500 on Aug. 8, went to finish the season with another losing record, capping the biggest collapse in Major League Baseball history. There’s just something so depressing about the fact that the Pirates most successful season in 20 years left the city and fans with close to no hope.
So, what now? Now it’s back to the drawing board. It’s back to convincing myself that Clint Barmes is a totally solid player. Time to think that Clint Hurdle isn’t a choker and can actually hold up down the stretch. No matter what I try to tell myself, there will always be the lurking feeling that it doesn’t matter. This streak seems unbreakable. It’s like being born with a birth defect that seems so easily curable, but there’s no cure in sight. One day I’ll know what it feels like to root for a winning baseball team. I just hope it comes in my lifetime.
