Now that the Super Bowl is over, some folks have noticed that the baseball season is about to start. So far, it seems to be talked about in hushed tones after other subjects have run dry. It is known in a few circles that I am a Pittsburgh Pirate fan from way back – and way back was a better time to be a fan than today. I run into a goodly number of folks from Pittsburgh, but while they talk freely about the Steelers the Pirates are hardly mentioned. It could be because some other teams have signed or traded for some big stars.
The Pirates on the other hand traded their best player for two 19-year-old players who may play some day in the majors, but need to see if they can play in the low minors for now. Their big signing has been a second sting catcher with a life time batting average of .151, but they are hoping that he might make .200 this year. It almost makes me want to turn my large photo of Forbes Field that hangs over a couch so that the back shows. The Blonde in the house would probably object though.
Forbes Field is where Honus Wagner, Pie Traynor, Ralph Kiner, Roberto Clemente, Big Poison (Paul Waner), Little Poison (Lloyd Waner) and a host of other good players played. Today, it would be hard to mention a Pirate who most people would recognize. Heck, Lloyd Waner hit 198 singles one year. It would take some of the existing members of the Pirates a couple of years to hit that many. There is a better chance of that happening though than someone on the team hitting home runs like Ralph Kiner or Willie Stargell did for more than one year. However, I think that I did mention they have a second-string catcher with a .151 batting average. Perhaps, he will become known as he is a whiz defensively, or so they say.
Luckily, I have friends who support other teams who do not comment much about the Pirates and just let me suffer quietly. For example, they did not point out that a listing of projected starting pitchers for the 2020 season showed that the Pirates’ was number 29 out of 30. At the same time a former Pirate was rated #1 and another #4. The Pirates are fairly good at raising great players for other teams and then taking prospects when the salaries get too high. The poor Pirate fans can’t even say, “Wait until next year”. They might try “wait until the next decade”, but that probably won’t work as their tight pockets’ owner is pretty young so he will probably match Kirk Douglas in age.
I wish I could be like one of my friends who is a very optimistic fan. However, he hedges his bets by supporting two teams with one in each league. He likes the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians. He knows that he has a pretty good thing going with the Cardinals as they are in the same division with the Pirates which will provide for some easy victories. The Indians have a tougher hoe, particularly since they have adopted some of the same strategy as the Pirates and traded away some of their best players. However, he is optimistic so who knows what he might see in 2020. A Cardinals-Indians World Series would be a big stress test for him!
This will be the last baseball article I write – at least until the next decade!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com.