Baseball At Its Worst

Wednesday night September 23rd at PNC Park I saw major league baseball at its worst.

Consider this: in the top of the ninth inning Cincinnati Reds second string catcher Corky Millier (.149) hit a bloop single off Pirates mop up man Virgil Vasquez (2-5; 6.20 ERA) to score Adam Rosales (.204)

Miller’s RBI put the score at Reds 10 Pirates 2

The Reds twice more before the game mercifully ended (3:10) in a 12-2 rout when Pirate second baseman Luis Cruz (.167) nubbed a ground out.

Even after September calls ups, none of these players belong in the big leagues.

Pirate owner Bob Nutting should consider one of two options after disasters like these.

One, he could take a page from San Francisco Giant history by issuing certificates of achievement to fans who endure nine innings of Pirate baseball.

The Giants once handed out Croix de Candlestick pins (see it here) to fans who stuck it out to the end when their faithful braved nine innings of freezing temperatures and bitter cold winds at Candlestick Park. Read the pin: Veni, Vedi, Vexi (“I came, I saw, I survived)

Nutting wouldn’t even have to print many certificates up. By my count only about 250 diehards remained last night when Cruz dribbled his grounder.

Or better yet, as former San Diego Padre owner Ray Kroc did after a series of embarrassing losses, Nutting could grab the microphone to say: “People of Pittsburgh, I have never seen such stupid ball playing in all my life.”