For at least one more game, the Pirates delayed clinching their 17th consecutive losing season by beating the Cardinals today, 6-5.
I'm not sure I'm going to have anything too poetic to say about the record when it finally happens. We've certainly seen a lot of terrible baseball in the past 17 years, but as Dejan Kovacevic points out, this year's team isn't particularly embarrassing. They're certainly not in the top ten or twelve ugliest teams of the streak. They even have a number of downright competent players, and few outside the bullpen who don't really look like they belong in the majors. And if you look at what the Pirates are actually doing, as the New York Times does in this excellent article, it's clear that the new management's methods are distinctly different from those of its predecessors, and that the people in charge can present good arguments for what they're doing. It's not a very interesting story, really. The seeds for a 17th consecutive season were sown long ago by a management team that has since been dismissed.