On September 7, 2007 the Pittsburgh Pirates fired Dave Littlefield. Five years has since passed. On the morning of September 7, 2007, the Pirates were 61-79 and would finish the season at 68-94. In 2005 and 2006, the Pirates spent exactly 0 days over .500. And in 2007, they started the season at 4-2 and were later 6-6 but never spent another day that season over .500.

I think the fact that the team has spent the majority of this season at or above .500 shows that the organization has made some progress in the last five years. Neal Huntington took a ton of blame for 2010, even though Charlie was pointing out in 2007 that the Pirates could lose 110 games. He hasn't been a great general manager, but has been for the most part, a competent one, which is more than what could say for Littlefield and Bonifay.

So thinking back to that great day five years ago, where did you expect the Pirates to be in five years? Personally, I had no idea. I knew they wouldn't be on their way to winning a World Series. The mess left behind by DL was just too big for anyone to fix in five years, unless he got really lucky. I think at the time I just wanted to win or at the very least see a lot of progress towards making the Pirates a winning organization again.

If you can remember, what was your reaction to the firing and your expectations at the time?