Column: Bucs fans, don't walk the plank
Published April 30, 2010
Having been born in Pittsburgh and raised in north Texas, I've grown up with a certain affinity for Pittsburgh- and Dallas-based professional sports teams. I wouldn't go as far as to say I necessarily live and die with any one of those organizations, but I'll definitely keep track of their progress throughout the season and never miss a chance to root against the Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins.
I like this mix of programs from those two cities, because their sports teams are in opposite leagues or conferences in their respective sports and have experienced moderate success recently. Four championships in a little more than a decade among the seven teams in the four major sports have made it enjoyable and fulfilling to follow them.
Every franchise in every sport seems to go through cycles of highs and lows, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to foresee when that peak might come for my Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Pirates have endured 17 consecutive seasons without a winning record, recently suffered an eight-game losing streak (including a historic 20-0 home loss at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers last week), and it is hard to doubt that 18-straight might be around the corner.
They've tried to build a team through draft picks and young prospects. They've tried building a new stadium. Cellar-dwelling payroll doesn't help, but they've even tried to lure established, bigger name players, only to promptly continue their infamous fall year after year (after year, after year, after year, etc.). It might be hard for me to say this (because it's a shameless pun but also because I love this team), but it's difficult to cheer for the Pirates' perpetually sinking ship.
It's not like the Pirates are the first team that hasn't been good. It's difficult to complain when the Cubs haven't won a World Series in more than 100 years, and the baseball team I tend to fall back on, the Texas Rangers, have yet to win a playoff series. But those two have at least had pretty good seasons sprinkled in and a promising future ahead of them.
The Pirates have young talent (years of high draft picks will aid that cause) but they also own an impressive list of promising prospects they've traded away.
There once was a time when all was good. The Pirates won five World Series before this dry spell. It hasn't always been this way, but these are the only Pirates I have known. Yet, I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.
Losing day in and day out is no fun; it's absolutely awful, and I'm not even the one playing. But when things eventually do start to click, when some semblance of order eventually does make its way to the city with three rivers, all the years of toil will make the victory all the sweeter.
The Tampa Bay Rays floundered in baseball's lowest echelon for 10 years or so before things changed dramatically for the better, but now it seems as if they have finally built a lasting contender. Who's to say that couldn't be the Pirates of 2011 or 2012? It seems to me that every dog eventually has its day in sports. Here's hoping that that day comes for the Pirates sooner than later.