Saturday, April 30, 2005
Santia-Go
Il Duce brings very very very little to the team's present, and nothing at all to its future. This is not the kind of player we need on our roster. It was a mistake to bring him aboard in the first place, and it would compound the mistake now to keep him.
We have no business having any player on our roster who can't still be playing for us in three or four years. Our present-tense is useful only as an audition for the future. There is no now on this team. Or at least there shouldn't be.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Snapping Point, #2
Makes me look eagerly forward to my dentist appointment at 2:30. Maybe a root canal will cheer me up.
We'll see if I make it that far.
...addendum, 11:41 pm... Huzzah, I got my first complete game, no snapping. Took my earphone radio with me to the dentist's office, and kept the ballgame on while my teeth were being cleaned. A much-needed home win for Wells, and no cavities.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Rain Chicken
I think the forecast that really mattered was a prediction of poor attendance, after Monday night's crowd of a paltry 8413. [Not a surprising figure for a chilly weeknight when you sit alone in the cellar at 6-12, with bats more frigid than the temperature.] Why bother to turn on the lights and pay the hotdog vendors, when you can weasel your way to a "rainout", and reschedule the game for mid-July?
Memo to everyone concerned: Put on your uniforms and play till the umpire calls for the tarp.
Also from the same P-G article, reporting the club's raincheck policy:
All fans holding tickets for tonight's game can exchange them for any remaining Sunday - Thursday home date of the 2005 regular season including the July 19 doubleheader, at the value stated.When did they start treating weekend games differently from weeknights, putting restrictions on the redemption of rainchecks? They're not charging more for weekend games, so what freakin' difference does it make? As long as there are heaps of empty seats seven days a week, this is pathetic.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Events of a Saturday
2:20 pm -- Pirates at Chicago. Redman vs Maddux. If Rowdy doesn't even have any pregame warmup comments to make, then I won't attempt one when I haven't been paying sufficient attention.
1:30 pm -- Penn State Blue-White game. An annual rite in the central PA area, almost as celebrated as Buck Season. Major regional Tivo activity spike.
8:01 am -- Our first granddaughter enters the world. After DogBoy had three sons a generation ago, and three male grandkids prior to this one, he finally, finally, gets a little girl to dote on. She weighed a hefty 8 lb. 5 oz., and is 19-1/4" long. Her dad says she resembles her oldest brother, with a full head of dark hair. I've got the monkeyboys here right now napping, and as soon as they wake up, we're off to the hospital to see for ourselves. They would have preferred a brother, but they won't hold a grudge.
Friday, April 22, 2005
Obligatory 'Bull Durham' Quote
Game's been rescheduled to the previously off-day on 7/14, immediately after the All-Star break. Not like our guys would be needing the extra day to recover from the Home Run Derby, after all.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Snapping Point, #1
Day game today, at Cincinnati. The Reds were ahead by a single run, 1-0, in the top of the 2nd. Let me reiterate: inning number two, score one-to-nothing, we're behind, we're up. Snapping Point occurred when description of the Pirates' turn at bat was forsaken by The Voice Of The Pirates, in order to inform the radio listeners of both the beginning AND ending dates of the presidential term of office of Ulysses S. Grant.
Oh, the humanity. Knocked out of the box with less than six outs. Lit Up Early.
...addendum, 4:04pm... I had a doctor's appointment at 2:00, then got home in time to pick up the bottom of the 7th and the rest of the game. It ended better than it began, and we held on late for a 4-2 win. Five-and-eleven, woo hoo! Next round's on the house, hooples, drink up. It's not a CG for me though. Oh-For-One is my count, now that I'm counting.
Swap Meet
"Kevin? Please meet Chuck Greenberg, managing partner of the Altoona Curve."
"Chuck? Please meet Kevin McClatchy, managing partner of the Pittsburgh Pirates."
"Trade."
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Love Hurts
I read a comment today that referred to the upcoming summer's battle between the 'true fans' and the 'naysayers'. In light of my previous post, them's fightin' words. I replied there, and now here, with the following:
I don't think after 12+ years of crappitude and a consistently downward spiral (okay, '97 was a tiny and short-lived blip), that it can be put down to simple naysaying. It's a question of where you draw your own personal line on masochism - some people can take more of a beating than others. A dozen years, and the punches getting harder with each one? That's a helluva whuppin' by anyone's account, even if it is just between the ears. No shame in wanting to put an end to it. Who needs to play with expensive toys that do little more than take your money and slap you around?
It's not disloyalty, it's self-defense. 'True fans' are just allowing this insanity to continue indefinitely, under the guise of 'being loyal' and 'never giving up'. (I could draw a political parallel here that maps perfectly, but I'll defer.) What incentive do the owners have to change anything, when we support the lousy status quo? The only vote we have, and the only thing that matters to management, is the opening or closing of our wallets.
Tough Love is damn painful, but sometimes it's the only way. Sounds like deep-down loyalty to me.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Excuses, Obscenities, and Conspiracies
You've perhaps noticed that I'm in the middle of a serious Blog Block. (Note the time lapse since my last post.) Several reasons.
One: I'm way busy with real-life stuff lately, ranging from the aforementioned litter of beagle puppies (now 4 weeks old, on their way to 8 when they leave us), to the un-aforementioned fact that I'm a couple days away from becoming a Grandleeeny for the fourth time. Oh please do not swoon from the shock of this revelation! Trust me when I say that due to complicated family details, I am unusually young for the position.
Two: I've become completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, addicted to Deadwood this season. [And to the jaw-droppingly-gorgeous guy who plays the sheriff, but we won't go there right now.] This obsession has taken over a good bit of my allotment of computer-avocation time. Whereas I have previously made a nuisance of myself on the Pirates list and at Honest Wagner and so forth, lately I'm spending that time at Television Without Pity and some other Deadwood boards. One just cannot answer for a virulent addiction - or to put it in the words of the late Dr. Thompson, "There is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a person in the depths of a Deadwood binge." All I can say is that I'm far from alone on this one.
Three: For the first time since probably the 1994 strike, I just don't give much of a f*ck about the Pirates right now. (Blame Deadwood for my language. Sure. My frustration with the Pirates has nothing to do with it.) The beginning of my malaise was evident even as I returned from Bradenton - it just didn't feel right. There was none of the psyched-up-for-the-season emotion that I have managed to dredge up before all our prior hopeless seasons. This time I was inordinately depressed by what I saw from our guys, especially on offense (my posts from my time in Florida will bear me out on that). My internal prognosis for the season was simply Mo' Misery and Mo' Futility and Mo' Boredom, and that was the most depressing feeling of all. And as events have borne out so far in the admittedly young season, I have seen nothing to change my mind one whit. I am just fed up with being fed up with being fed up, and I see no remedy while the Pirate Ship retains its current set of Ahabs at the wheel. And I don't mean McLloyd or even Littlefield- they are just a couple of the symptoms, not the real disease.
And another thing: I'm also fed up with hearing Frattare and Blass on the radio/TV. I'm very very quick to turn games off now, if either of these guys starts blathering about golf, or the Upper St. Clair Jaycees, or US Presidents' Middle Names, while things (even lousy things) happening on the field are being ignored. I've tiptoed around this topic a time or two before so as not to sound peevish, but I have finally lost all patience for listening to crappy games through the mouths of crappier announcers. No more Ms. Nice Leeeny: GET THESE TWO BOZOS OFF THE AIR. Hire Ken Levine to DESCRIBE THE GAME PROPERLY, AND TO WITTILY ENGAGE US WHEN THE ACTION ON THE FIELD SUCKS. I'd KILL to be able to listen to Ken and Walkie at the same time.
Now you know my state of mind. Where the Pirates are concerned, it ain't happy, campers.
Digression: I would like to clarify here that I have been a steadfast Bucco fan since before Three Rivers opened up (I saw one game at Forbes Field before they tore it down, when I was of single-digit age). So this crisis of attitude is not something to write off to fair-weather-fanism. Anyone who knows me at all knows better than that.
But Leeeny, you ask, what has, at least for the moment, prodded you out of your funk, and gotten you to post at last?
This: my buddy Russ Steele, Temporarily Canadian Sage that he is, put together some thoughts in a list message today that really gelled some of my unformed underlying opinions (and those of others too, going by Russ's comment about the quantity of emailed replies to his post). He's graciously given me permission to quote it in its entirety. I've done only very minor correcting for syntax. If you are the tinfoil-hat type, go get your Alcoa Wrap now (we'll wait).
If one accepts the possibility that the Pirates braintrust makes decisions that are designed to allow for a never-ending rebuilding cycle (maximizing profit under a low-risk model), then most of the personnel decisions [both roster-makeup and playing-time] make sense.
The Kendall trade, the Ramirez trade, the handling of Sanchez/Hill, the handling of Craig Wilson, the handling of Kip Wells, the future handling of Oliver Perez, etc... everything makes sense if you realize the Pirates live by two principles:
1) Don't lose more than 95 games
2) Don't win more than 85 gamesIf they lose more than 95 games, then the hope of rebuilding is quickly lost.
If they win more than 85 games, then there will be public backlash at losing good players. If they live in that 18 game window, they can (at least for a while) draw enough people to the stadium without extending the payroll to the point where profits suffer.
Think about the genius behind maintaining a mediocre team: if you are NEVER good enough to invest significant money to lock up good players, then you never have to have a high payroll. If you never take chances on high-ceiling prospects, you will never have a set of players good enough to put you in a situation where the team freakishly wins a large number of games to raise expectations (think Marlins two seasons ago).
I know it sounds like an Out There conspiracy theory, but once you begin realizing that McClatchy and the Nuttings are able to sustain their profit model under a state of mediocrity more than they would be under a state where the team was competing (and raising expectations and forcing a concomitant increase in player salaries), it's not so Out There.
Don't be surprised if Bay, Craig Wilson, and Perez are traded within 3 years because the team is not good enough to justify giving them large salaries.
The only thing I have to add is that I don't think this scenario will change until people STOP. BUYING. TICKETS., and the Nuttings are forced by their own declining balance sheet to sell the team. Until then, I truly believe that someone should build a big archway across General Robinson Street, carved with the inscription
All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter PNC.
I've reached that place. It's just the toybox, and this toy is BROKEN. And the c*cks*ckers have nobody to blame but their own f*ckin' selves.
