I’m not bothered by it, whatever. I’m sure I will get annoyed with the national media coverage for three reasons. One, they act as if the Pirates don’t exist at all other times; two, they are not going to distinguish this team from past trainwrecks, as Charlie has done and three, they will make 0 mention of what Huntington and Coonelly are trying to do.

charlie, which moves would you place in that other 5%?

Kind of reminds me of that T.S. Eliot quotation, “this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper”

Boring game, just mediocre play, not blown out of the water but never really close, no one saw it in person and judging by the number of comments on the game thread not many people watched it either.

Kind of defines the Pirates over the past 17 years if you ask me.

More than anything else from the current streak, they remind me of the 64-98 1986 team, except that they’ve traded away many of the veterans this year (rather than waiting until the next season, as Syd Thrift did in ’87). As Bill James wrote in the 1987 Abstract:

There are two primary points to be made about the Pirates at the outset. One is that they are on the bring of being a much better team than they have been. The other is that, because they do have a few pieces missing, they have been forced to ask some players to do things that they’re not really capable of doing. Once the point is reached at which they can stop doing this, those individuals will probably play better, and the team may improve quickly.

…mainly as some sort of pseudo-historic event I thought might be cool to attend, and let me tell you guys, there was no better way to describe the past 17 years than the 82nd loss of the 17th season.

As Charlie mentioned, we didn’t play horrible, and were never really out of it, but you never felt we really had a chance either. There was just a feeling of the innings passing, without excitement or disappointment, onto the inevitable loss.

The flow of the game was matched by the weather. A constant day full of light drizzle, not enough rain to cancel the game, but just enough to make it unpleasent. It’s comparable to how the Pirates were never out of the game, just going through the motions, the weather wasn’t really bad per se, but it was just blah.

On top of it all, in our home ballpark, on a holliday weekend, PNC Park was invaved by Cubs fans. When Derek Lee hit 2 homers today, instead of hearing the typical silence or boos, you heard loud cheers and clapping throughout the stands.

I can’t think of a more fitting way for this streak to have been capped. The game, the weather, and the team were not all that bad, but they certainly weren’t good, which basically sums up the past 17 years.

Here’s to stopping it at 17.

With one exception, and not a very large one (83-79), the Royals have been losers for 15 straight seasons. Having that one slightly above-.500 year doesn’t make them any less losers than we are. And I’d have to guess that we’ll finally have a winning record well before they do. If the 1997 team had won two more games, we wouldn’t be hearing at all about this made-up “record,” but that wouldn’t make us any better than we are right now.

for the past year since we got to 16 years without a winner all we heard about was the pirates breaking this record. 17 years is a long time. but its not like its 20 i think if we slide to 20 losing years i mite be ready to give up hope, but not now, the future looks bright. so heres to moving on and not worring about the record, its ours. Now we can focus on having 17 winning years.

also to the guy who said joey bats was a questionable trade. the real question is why? you already saw what he could do, you dont know what diaz will do. he could be a vaulable player for years to come. if bautista was still around everyone would be wondering why he is still here. and Laroche still has a lot of up side, its only his first full big league season. i think he will eventually hit somewhere around .270 and hit 10-12hr with around 75-80 rbi. and i believe that he will and should be moved to 2b when alverez comes up. if he were to put up those kind of numbers as a second baseman he could be considered an above average secondbaseman. joey bats is a AAAA player.

Funny that we’re talking about Robinson Diaz. 23 years ago some fans were actually pumped about Mike “Rambo” Diaz as an emerging slugger because this journeyman masher managed 28 HRs over the ’86 & ’87 seasons. I remember a Rambo Diaz promo poster where he was holding 2 bats like machine guns with baseballs strapped like ammo. It was pretty ridiculous, almost like calling Garret Jones “The Legend.” As bad as the early/mid 80s Pirates were, it feels like a blip compared to the current streak.

Everyone focuses on 1992, but the real dread for me began a year earlier when Bonilla walked and Smiley was a salary dump. Bonds was FA eligible and negotiations on an extension were going nowhere. The best outfield in baseball was being ripped away in its prime and the Bucs would hedge on a myopic choice to resign Van Slyke instead of making a real commitment to Bonds. Smiley was gone and Drabek was soon to follow. Even the playoff appearances were bittersweet when you could read the writing on the wall. Pittsburghers were understandably not overly sympathetic to the players union or the owners and the pending labor dispute.

That said, I’m more optimistic about the state of the fanchise than I’ve been in ages, and it’s hard to connect the current players, coaches, or staff to the bad decisions of regimes past. They only own a small share of this piece of history, and they have a legitimate opportunity to break the cycle of losing.

Here’s another way to look at things. Desperate, perhaps, but these are desperate times.

The Pirates have won at least 35% of their games for 54 consecutive seasons. If they can win just three more their streak will reach 55 in a row.

There are plenty of clubs that can’t claim this. Like the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, etc. The list goes on.

Feel better? I know I do!

As soon as we get rid of all these minor leaguers playing for us (Andy LaRoche, Brandon Moss, Neil Walker, Steve Pearce, Brian Bixler, even Charlie Morton may be a minor leaguer, but he’s still too young to tell), maybe we can win a few more games. The lineup is a joke. I’m just ready for Tabata, Alvarez, MCutchen and some of the players of the future to be in the lineup, and they should be from Day 1 next season. Awful, awful lineup right now.

Next year’s Opening Day lineup should be…

CF – McCutchen
2B – Young
1B – Jones
3B – Alvarez
C – Doumit
RF – Tabata
LF – Milledge
SS – Cedeno
pitcher

Are all thee young guys ready? That’s debatable, but they are FAR and AWAY better than anything else we have at those positions.

Who is the only player to play for the Pirates both during their 17 conesecutive losing seasons and for their last World Series championship team?

how many players earned a World Series ring from another team after playing for the Pirates during this streak?

For all the hand wringing over the Pirates personnel moves, and perhaps not surprising, this is a pretty low number