Its poetic.  The Pirates will surely win their last 2 games (finally sweeping the Braves).  Their 82nd loss came at the hands of the Reds in the 9th inning - echoing the 9th inning loss of 1972 in Game 5 of the playoffs.

There's more at play here than meets the eye... 

katoy2j wrote: No offense but this board is full of pessimism and always will be. The team is extremely young not one full of players a year away from free agency like the one inherited in 2008 by Huntington.

I can already see how the future complaints will be.

2013 - Pirates win 86 games.
Complaint: We didn't make the playoffs, everyone should be fired

2014 - Pirates win 91 games.
Complaint: Well we made the playoffs but we didn't win and it's because Nutting is cheap

2015 - Pirates win 93 games and make it to the World Series.
Complaint: We still suck because we didn't win

2016 - Pirates win the World Series
Complaint: It still wasn't worth it because we had to watch the Pirates lose over 100 games in 2010

2017 - Pirates win 91 games and lose in the playoffs
Complaint: This team doesn't care about it's fans. They have no interest in trying to win consistently.

2018 - Pirates win 88 games and just miss the playoffs
Complaint: Same old Pirates

katoy2j wrote: No offense but this board is full of pessimism and always will be. The team is extremely young not one full of players a year away from free agency like the one inherited in 2008 by Huntington.

I can already see how the future complaints will be.

2013 - Pirates win 86 games.
Complaint: We didn't make the playoffs, everyone should be fired

2014 - Pirates win 91 games.
Complaint: Well we made the playoffs but we didn't win and it's because Nutting is cheap

2015 - Pirates win 93 games and make it to the World Series.
Complaint: We still suck because we didn't win

2016 - Pirates win the World Series
Complaint: It still wasn't worth it because we had to watch the Pirates lose over 100 games in 2010

2017 - Pirates win 91 games and lose in the playoffs
Complaint: This team doesn't care about it's fans. They have no interest in trying to win consistently.

2018 - Pirates win 88 games and just miss the playoffs
Complaint: Same old Pirates

Obviously the potential is there.

But so much has to go right that I simply will believe it when I see it.

BAMSTEELERFAN wrote: 2015 will be a championship caliber team. I believe it. This team wasn't. We all knew it, but to be 16 games above .500 after 108 and the worst team in baseball for the last 54 is hard to wrap your head around.

2015 should have Heredia, Cole, and Taillon at the top. Cutch, Alvarez, Marte, Bell, Hanson, Polanco, Walker of some combo should be here. I still think Alvarez will be star. If you don't believe, what are you still doing here? Self flagellation?

gr1111 wrote: I'll say about the same thing I said last year at this time about next year's team -- I'm very hopeful, but not particularly optimistic.  On their shoestring budget, everything has to go just right -- minor leaguers have to develop, cheap free agents need to overperform, and all of them need to avoid injury.  But that just never seems to happen for this team.

This time last year, we were excited about the fact that Charlie Morton had turned the corner from terrible to effective and were counting on him to win big this year.  Didn't happen.  We were even more excited about the fact that in 2012 we were going to have four outfielders (Cutch, Tabata, Presley, and Marte) so good that none of them could be on the bench as the 4th outfielder (and we were thus going to trade one of them for another good player).  Didn't happen -- so much so that we had to trade for yet another corner outfielder (Snider) and will probably have to acquire another one in the offseason.

I'm not optimistic any more because I've been around for all 20 years, and my optimism has been taken out back and beaten with a stick so cruelly it is on life support!  That doesn't mean I've given up, or that I won't root for them to win every game.  I'm a Pirates fan, and that won't change regardless of results.  But Lucy has pulled the football away one too many times for me to be optimistic that next year or the year after that is "the year".

katoy2j wrote: How can you not be optimistic about the Pirates direction though? Go and read nearly every thread the last month and you would swear this team lost 110 games this year. You know what people were saying when the Pirates lost 100 plus games in 2010? That they just wanted a competitive team one that had a chance to win and what not. This years team is one that will finish between 78-80 wins. It has it's top 2 prospects on track to make the team next year that will join a core of players that range in the ages of 24-27. It has no bad long term contracts and the nearest core player is 3 years away from free agency.

This 20 year streak means nothing to me. If we won 82 games or 80 it's irrelevant for me. What does not having a losing season accomplish? Do you think free agents will be lining up to sign with us if we won 82 games? It comes down to money first and foremost but I seriously doubt those extra couple of wins will tilt the decision in either direction. Agents and players are smart. They can see which teams look like they will step forward. The Nationals finished with an 80-81 record. Edwin Jackson chose them over the Pirates as they had Harper ready to step through next year. If a free agent has a choice between Pittsburgh and the Mets or Mariners, most players would pick the Pirates.

gr1111 wrote: I'll say about the same thing I said last year at this time about next year's team -- I'm very hopeful, but not particularly optimistic.  On their shoestring budget, everything has to go just right -- minor leaguers have to develop, cheap free agents need to overperform, and all of them need to avoid injury.  But that just never seems to happen for this team.

This time last year, we were excited about the fact that Charlie Morton had turned the corner from terrible to effective and were counting on him to win big this year.  Didn't happen.  We were even more excited about the fact that in 2012 we were going to have four outfielders (Cutch, Tabata, Presley, and Marte) so good that none of them could be on the bench as the 4th outfielder (and we were thus going to trade one of them for another good player).  Didn't happen -- so much so that we had to trade for yet another corner outfielder (Snider) and will probably have to acquire another one in the offseason.

I'm not optimistic any more because I've been around for all 20 years, and my optimism has been taken out back and beaten with a stick so cruelly it is on life support!  That doesn't mean I've given up, or that I won't root for them to win every game.  I'm a Pirates fan, and that won't change regardless of results.  But Lucy has pulled the football away one too many times for me to be optimistic that next year or the year after that is "the year".

Sangue wrote:

 

The Pirates winning percentage is .307 over their last 52 games.  That's a pace to lose 112 games.  When the Pirates finished 80-82 in 1973 no one cared about not finishing .500. 

The Pirates have shattered baseball and the 4 major sports record by 4 whole years and counting:

The NBA's Kansas City/Sacramento Kings and the NHL's Vancouver Canucks each lost for 15 consecutive years, the Kings from 1983-98 and the Canucks from 1976-91. The NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished below .500 for 14 consecutive seasons from 1983-96.

The Philadelphia Phillies held the previous Major League Baseball record with 16 losing seasons in a row from 1933-48. The Baltimore Orioles broke their 14-year streak of consecutive losing seasons this year and are competing for a playoff spot.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/pirates /a-look-at-the-pirates-20-years-of-futility-655651 /#ixzz28AgFdt3C

williamjpellas wrote: I have the opposite feeling toward the Steelers. I have been a diehard football fan my whole life until about 3 years ago. I got bored. Everybody got too big, too fast, hit too hard, the rules had to change. I have been spoiled rotten by the Steelers. I almost miss the 90's when we were a Quarterback away from multiple championships. Made it interesting. Once we got the QB and won a couple (which were great, and I wouldn't trade 'em) I've lost interest. I still watch, but I don't really follow. The game is so different. It's a have's and have not's game, more so than baseball. The days where Mark Rypien can win a championship are gone. It's not the team game it was. If MLB wouldn't kick the fanbase in the balls at every turn, they could make up the ground. I'm convinced Bud Selig is the Anti-Christ.


Selig-ula! 


I know we can't veer too far off the baseball path here, but since you mentioned it, BAM, I've had the exact same feeling about football ever since just after the Steelers beat the Cardinals in the Super Bowl.  I asked myself why that was, and it finally occurred to me that I could get exactly the same (if not better) experience playing Tecmo Bowl on my Nintendo set that I did watching The League Formerly Known As The NFL.  Seriously: it's not football anymore.  It's some kind of horrible, frenetic, pinball game or video football game.  Nobody runs the ball anymore except on gimmick plays, everybody throws for leventy-million-thousand-umpteen yards every single game, nobody can play honest defense because the rules are so ridiculously skewed in favor of the offense, the only way to stop even the worst offenses is to strip the ball or intercept it---so nobody tackles anymore, the offensive linemen hold on every single play....it's freaking terrible.  A lousy, boring, overhyped, distorted, form-over-substance product that is light years removed from the game I knew growing up.  Bleeeccchhhh.


PS In the college game, it's even worse.  Everybody runs "the spread".  West Virginia just beat Baylor 70-63.  That's a basketball score, not a football score except maybe once in a generation.  But it's every week now that you see multiple scores like that.  It's so bad that even some of the sports talk shills are complaining.  I don't recall who it was, but I heard two of them last week talking about how the college game had turned into Tecmo Bowl---the exact same comparison I had already come to. So now the college game is just like the pros.  Isn't that special.  Barf, barf, barf, bleeecchhhh.  Honestly, I'm not a fan of football anymore and it used to be that I never missed a Sunday.

katoy2j wrote: No offense but this board is full of pessimism and always will be.