I've got nothing. There were about three people there, thanks in part to the G-20 summit. I know Lastings Milledge homered in this game, and he's probably about the last player I'd accuse of phoning in this last month or so, but when he grounded into a double play with no outs in the ninth against Francisco Cordero, who couldn't have found the strike zone if it smacked him in the face, I had to hold my head and chuckle at the absurdity, especially when I realized that the next batter was the great Brandon Moss.
I wonder what we'll think about this last month or so in half a year. I suspect it will be a blip on the radar, that in April the Bucs will return to their usual brand of mediocre play. I also supported, and continue to support, a lot of the moves that led to this roster being constructed the way it is--they were intelligent, future-oriented moves that should improve the Pirates' chances of eventually contending. But wow, this just feels like the end of baseball as we know it right now. The broadcast of this game was and "MLB.tv exclusive," presumably because no one else cared. PNC Park has this bizarre, post-apocalyptic feel, like an institution soldiering on even after 95% of the world's population has been eaten by killer ants, or something. It's really just an amplification of the way PNC usually feels in September, but it's amazingly intense this year.