Pirates Come Up Short In 6-5, 10 Inning Loss

Jameson Taillon retired the first two Mets he faced before Yoenis Cespedes singled on a weak roller to third. The Kid tapped back to the mound, and JT's first frame was in the books: 14 pitches, 12 fastballs, all 96-97. Noah Syndergaard let the JJ reach on a boot by Walker, and Cutch battled his way aboard by drawing a nine pitch walk. Gregory turned on an inside half 99 MPH heater and lined it to right for an RBI two bagger; JHK followed with a knock to right to make it 2-0 while chasing El Coffee to third. Then Thor the dominator showed up, getting a K, pop, and K to leave the remaining ducks on the pond.

The Mets opened the second with a rap to center; James Loney was then erased as the Bucs missed turning a DP by a heartbeat. That was followed by another single; JT is staying up in the zone. But no sweat; he got a curve rolled back to him to end the inning on a 1-4-3 DP note. After a pair of whiffs, JJ singled off an 0-2 heater before Cutch's bouncer closed out the inning. JT recorded his first K in the third, getting Alejandro De Aza swinging at a change. A two out walk on a full count hook that just missed didn't hurt. Gregory is playing Loki to Thor, leading off with another double, then stealing third. An out later, he was wasted when he was nailed at home on a contact play 5-2. Josh stole second before Fran walked. Then Josh stole third, but it didn't pay off; Matt Joyce's liner was gloved by Loney.

JT got his feet wet tonight (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

The Kid walked to start the fourth, showing a good eye on a couple of just-off-the-black deliveries. Next came a 4-6-3 DP. Good thing as Asdrubal Cabrera punched a two strike curve that was way off the plate the opposite way for a double. JT was squeezed a bit and fell behind Ty Kelly 3-1, fed him a heater down the middle and watched it fly over the RC wall (Kelly's first MLB long ball; Jameson's, too) to tie the game. S-Rod led off the Bucco half with a double and was bunted up. This time the Bucs cashed in when JJ drilled a slider to The Notch for another double. Cutch hit one on the nose, too, but it was an at 'em ball to Michael Conforto in left, and he got out of it when Gregory flew out.

Syndergaard opened the fifth with a double off the Clemente Wall, was bunted up and trotted home after a sac fly as the Metropolitans went small ball; maybe the Bucs could look into that concept. Josh doubled with an out and a tapper moved him up a station. A Joyce liner ended the frame; Thor has rubbing his horseshoe. Taillon tossed a clean sixth, but is due up and is at 91 pitches, so his last frame was his most efficient. He went six IP giving up three runs on six hits with two walks and three whiffs. The Bucs went down quietly.

The Pirates are short in the pen; Curtis Partch was sent down while The Shark and Neftali Feliz are off after pitching twice yesterday. AJ Schugel came on in the seventh, and fanned a pair in a quiet frame. Jim Henderson replaced Syndergaard, who was at 102 pitches. Cutch worked him for an eight pitch walk. Gregory pounded a 3-2 slider off the Clemente Wall; Cutch came in easily after Walker bobbled the relay, also allowing El Coffee to get to third. He plated on Josh's *yay* sac fly. Fran added a knock before the smoke cleared. And there was some smoke - Matt Joyce was ejected for beefing over a third strike call. Freeser cam in to play 1B, Jordy manned SS, S-Rod moved to LF and Gregory back to RF.

JJ had a pair of knocks against Thor (photo Pittsburgh Pirates)

AJ walked the first hitter, and that was it; Jared Hughes took the ball in the eighth. Two pitches later, it was tied when Conforto went yard. Hughes threw behind Cespedes to run the count full, and the benches were warned though we're not exactly sure why; it was after a homer, but in a tie game? Whatever; Yoenis singled and The Kid walked; both moved up on a wild pitch. A grounder froze them, and an intention walk *gulp* loaded 'em up. Against all odds, Jared kept them there. Hughes had his hand looked at during the action; the Bucs announced he had "pinky discomfort." Sheesh. Addison Reed worked a clean frame.

Cory Luebke, the last man standing, took the cowhide in the tenth. Back-to-back singles, a bunt and intentional walk juiced the sacks. A Wilmer Flores blooper to center plated a run before the gates were shut. Jeurys Familia looked to close it out. Fran fell behind 0-2, but worked an eight pitch walk to lead off, and Jordy followed with a four pitch free pass. S-Rod helped him out of the jam, bouncing into a 6-4-3 DP. Interestingly, Stew, the last bench player, came on to hit for Luebke and no one is left in the Pirate pen. Interesting. And surprise - he walked. But Freeser looked at a third strike, and it was in the books.

A broken record to be sure, but 3-for-16 w/RISP and a short bullpen that imploded cost the Bucs a game that they should have taken. A couple of uncommon factors were in play - a doubleheader followed by an extra inning game and Frankie's recent mound meltdown bringing on JT's spot start, leaving them no choice but to send a reliever down - but this was a tough one. Taking the series from the Mets was sweet, but a sweep was within reach.

Plate ump Alan Porter squeezed Taillon like a stress ball (welcome to the league, kid), but Jameson didn't help himself either, staying up in the zone too often and spraying his fastball some. His command may have been a case of the butterflies compounded by Porter, and he did show a very nice curve. One pitch to Kelly ruined an otherwise pretty solid performance, but it should prove invaluable to his learning process.

 Off to the wacky makeup in Colorado, then back home to face the Cardinals. And a day of rest is on the horizon; the Bucs are off on the 13th after a brutal stretch of games.

• Gregory had three hits tonight, all doubles, and JJ added a pair with a two bagger of his own.
• The Mets started seven lefties against Jameson Taillon tonight, even though he had a reverse split at Indy: lefties hit .148 against him, righties .224. They went 5-for-19 (.263) off him.
• Syndergaard hadn't surrendered three or more runs since May 1st, and the Buccos five extra-base hits are the most he's yielded in his short career.
• The crowd tonight was 28,084 for JT's debut.
• The Pirates win streak against Gotham ended at nine straight. The Mets have suffered a 10-game losing streak to another opponent just once in the past 30 years, the Marlins in 2004.
• Jeff Locke is in Colorado; he went a day early to rest and acclimate. Gerrit Cole will stay in Pittsburgh to save wear and tear as he opens the Card series Friday; maybe you'll get to see him at Consol  Center tomorrow night.
• For all the moaning (OK, my moaning - mea culpa) about runners not being moved along and in by the Bucs, Elias Sports Bureau posted "The Pirates lead MLB with 117 productive outs this season..." Nevertheless, still cranky about stranding runners at third with no outs.

Home Grown Buccos

Trent Rosencrans of CBS Sports has put together a series where he examines the lineups of teams if they would have kept their home-grown players together. His Pirate lineup is below, and this link takes you to the complete roster.

1. Andrew McCutchen, CF
2. Neil Walker, 2B
3. Jose Bautista, RF
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B
5. Ryan Doumit, 1B
6. Jeff Keppinger, SS
7. Ronny Paulino, C
8. Nyjer Morgan, LF

We're not real sure that he ever saw Dewey play first, but hey...either him or Brad "Big Country" Eldred, right? And Nyjmo?

City of Champions

GW was reading Dejan Kocacevic's piece in the Post Gazette today about championships, MVPs, and all the glory of Pittsburgh sports in the past 40 years.

GW is 61 (no, that's not in dog years!) and has raised his mug for six Steeler Super Bowl wins (and hopefully seven by tonight), three Stanley Cup championships for the Pens, Pitt's college football crown, and three World Series winning Bucco teams.

In fact, Pittsburgh first became known as the "City of Champions" when the Pirates, Pitt Panthers, and Steelers took home trophies in the seventies.

Thinking back, they all had one thing in common - the titles all came on the heels of some truly miserable stretches of losses.

Pitt in the Dave Hart/Carl DePasqua era was thinking about deemphasizing football, until Johnny Majors and the Hawk came along. The Steeler's Chuck Noll went 1-13 in 1969, his first season. The Penguins had to be terrible twice, once to draft Mario Lemieux and later to select Sidney Crosby. As recently as 2005, they had finished last for three straight seasons, followed by a lockout. They were an inch away from moving a couple of times.

And the Bucs? They rallied from their dark days of being the "Rickey-dinks" in the fifties to humble the mighty Yankees, and stayed fairly strong until the nineties.

The moral: what the Pirates are attempting to do, making chicken salad out of chicken feathers, is no sure thing. But it has been done by every team in this City. They eventually blend together the right recipe of talent, management and luck to break the losing mold.

So don't give up hope yet. As you watch the Steelers climb the stairway to seven, remember that they too were accused of being cheap and putting out their "Same old Steelers" team year after year by the fans and media. Look where they're at now.

They're at the heights the Pirates want to reach again. And if local sports history teaches us anything, it's that they'll eventually get there.

What If...

Among GW's quirks is a taste for alternate history; you know, the "what if" stories. Here's a alternate history baseball tale from Paul Francis Sullivan in the Hardball Times that every Bucco fan should read.

It's "what if" is what if integration began in 1938 instead of 1947...and what if it began in Pittsburgh, with the Pirates purchasing the contracts of a few select Homestead Gray and Pittsburgh Crawford players, like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, "Cool Papa" Bell...?

Pretty interesting stuff, especially if you're familiar with some of the ol' local Negro League stars (and if not, never fear; Sullivan has even figured out their WAR!) Hey, well worth a read on a snowy January night.

Today In The News

OK, GW is back from his jog around Schenley Park, and now flipping channels for Pitt and the Penguins (whoever invented the clicker is my hero), and still has to get a post out to his hard core holiday readers.

So, my turkey-stuffed buds, this piece will a quick romp through Pirate history that happened today:

-- On November 26th, 1986, the Yankees traded Doug Drabek, along with Logan Easley and Brian Fisher, to the Pirates for vets Rick Rhoden, Cecilio Guante and Pat Clements. Drabek will go on to win the Cy Young Award after posting a 22-6 record for the Bucs in 1990. In six seasons in Pittsburgh, Drabek logged 1362-2/3 innings of 3.02 ERA ball and won 92 games.

His son Kyle is a highly-touted pitching prospect of the Blue Jays, and was born a year after the Yankees-Pirates trade.

-- Bob Walk was born on Monday, November 26, 1956, in Van Nuys, California. He was 23 years old when he broke into the big leagues on May 26, 1980, with the Philadelphia Phillies. Walk spent three years with the Braves, and then pitched for the Pirates from 1984-93, finishing with a 105-81 slate and 4.03 ERA in his 14 year career. Now he's a Bucco talking head on Fox-Pittsburgh.

-- The Gravedigger, Richie Hebner, was born on November 26, 1947, in Boston, Massachusetts. He debuted for the Pirates in 1968, and played for ten seasons in a Bucco uniform during his eighteen year career. Hebner ended with an overall line of .276/203/890.

Hey, that's today's baseball fix. More tonight or tomorrow, and have a happy Black Friday.

Nightline

-- The seventh game of the 1960 World Series has never been reshown in its entirety because there was no tape of the game...or so it was thought. The estate of Bing Crosby was rummaging through his wine cellar where he kept his old films, looking for Der Binger's performance tapes to transfer to DVD.

And lo and behold, the researchers came across a five-reel kinescope recording of the game. Crosby, a part-owner of the Pirates, was superstitious; he and his wife Kathryn went to France during the October Classic so he wouldn't jinx his beloved Buccos, listening to the series over short wave radio.

He had the deciding game filmed so he could watch it when he came back home - if, of course, Pittsburgh won. And Billy Maz made sure of that.

Now the MLB Network plans to televise "The Best Game Ever" in the off-season, with interviews and other programming included and Bob Costas as the host.

(The story was told by Richard Sandomir of the New York Times.)

-- John Russell talked to Jen Langosch of MLB.com about his status for next season, and said:

"I've said it a million times -- the day I start worrying about my job is the day I stop doing my job well," Russell said. "I can't worry about that. I'm under contract for next year and fully intend to be here. I don't see any reason why I wouldn't be here, in my mind."

"It's not a matter of 'if' but a matter of 'when,' and it's closer than a lot of people think," Russell said. "Absolutely, I want to be here. I would like to be here, because I've watched it grow. Whether I'm here or anybody else is here, it's going to happen."

It must have been his day to address the matter; Dejan Kovacevic of the Post Gazette had an article on it, too.

-- Rudy Owens and Alex Presley will be honored prior to Friday's game for being the organization's Minor League pitcher and hitter of the year.

-- Jim Callis of Baseball America on the odds of drafting Anthony Renton first: "He's the favorite to go No. 1, but the 2010 draft is deep. Don't be surprised if the Pirates decide a college pitcher like Gerrit Cole, Matt Purke or Matt Barnes is the way to go."

When asked about LHP Justin Wilson, he said that "the Pirates need arms and Wilson's stuff jumped up a notch this year. If he pitches well in Triple-A to start next year, I could see him in Pittsburgh at midseason."

-- Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki stroked a fifth-inning single to center to collect his 200th hit Thursday, extending his own record with his 10th straight season reaching the milestone. He set the record last year, passing Wee Willie Keeler. Ichiro also tied the record for 200-hit seasons in a career, with 10, which he now shares with Pete Rose.

By the way, he's been in MLB for ten years. Pretty consistent career, hey?

The Shape Of Things To Come...

OK, for the past two hot stove leagues, Pirate faithful have scratched their heads and wondered what in God's good earth were the suits doing to their team? But this season, there actually may be an answer swirling in the mist.

GW was among those that thought the team could be competitive - not championship, mind you, but competitive - with some tinkering and patience. The suits differed.

Our guess is that they were just feeling out the organization when the pitching imploded in 2008, and the minors were found to be virtually devoid of MLB talent. Those two things determined the future blueprint of the team - complete ground-up rebuilding.

Now that the futility record is in Pittsburgh's trophy case, what's the diff if the Pirates win now or a couple of years along the road? The pressure's off; the constant drumbeat stilled.

Hey, admit it - everyone can live with Ryan Doumit, Matt Capps, Zach Duke, and Paul Maholm on the block now without yelling about a conspiracy theory. The fans have bought into the Pirate prospectus, or at least are accepting its inevitability.

First, they addressed the pitching. Goodbye, Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny, John Van Benschoten and Bryan Bullington. Hello, Ross Ohlendorf, Charlie Morton, Kevin Hart, and Dan McCutchen, with Donnie Veal, Tim Alderson, Brad Lincoln, Jeff Karstens and Jose Ascanio waiting in the wings.

The minors? Well, that takes time. They embarked on signing as many high school kids as they could to infuse the lower levels, guys like Jarek Cunningham, Robbie Grossman, Quinton Miller, Wes Freeman, Chris Aure, Brooks Pounders, Zach Dodson, Zach Von Rosenberg, Billy Cain, and Trent Stevenson. For a team accused of being tight-fisted, this was a costly make-over, but one that was sorely needed.

They're not ready now, and may never be, but West Virginia and Bradenton finally have real prospects instead of too-old college kids filling their rosters. The ones that survive the process will show up in PNC in the next two or three seasons.

The trades made sure that there was mid-level talent to put in the organization, guys like Nate Adcock, Brett Lorin, Hunter Strickland, Aaron Pribanic and Josh Harrison. None may have much upside, but they'll contribute to decent depth and competition in the system, and could become fringe pros.

The upper levels are a different animal. Take away Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, and Steve Pearce, and there wasn't much to write home about in Altoona and Indy. So they traded, took a shot at Rule 5 help, and scoured the waiver wires.

Altoona will reap some benefit, with draft picks Pedro Alvarez, Tony Sanchez, Chase d'Arnaud and Jordy Mercer all expected to make appearances there this season. Bryan Morris and Jeffrey Locke should be wearing Curve uniforms sometime in 2010, too.

Indy is a tougher nut to crack, because so many young guys were thrown into the show.

Except for Jose Tabata, Gorkys Hernandez and maybe Jeff Clement, all the hot shots are already wearing Pirate uniforms. The pitching potential has improved dramatically, but the position players are still a year or two away from suiting up for the Tribe.

At any rate, the Bucco farm has gone from the poster child of ineptitude to at least middle-of-the-pack, maybe even touching the upper half.

But the proof is in the pudding, and the final course is the major league product. And there sure ain't been much to brag about there. But that could change.

The outfield is closest to being a finished product. McCutchen is set in center for as long as Bob Nutting will pay him, and there's some heated competition for the corners.

Lastings Milledge has a foot up on the rest of the field, and Jose Tabata is a year away, maybe two, with Hernandez right behind him. We like Rule 5 pick John Raynor; Brandon Moss better rediscover his A game if he wants to hold him off. And Starling Marte is a fast-riser in the minors.

The pitching is in transition. There's a ton of potential; whether it translates into performance is the million dollar question. Duke and Maholm are proven inning eaters. That makes them valuable to Pittsburgh, and also to the rest of league.

We don't think they can afford to lose them both. Ohlendorf and Morton look ready to take regular turns on the mound, and after that are some upside arms without a track record. The bullpen appears OK, even without Jesse Chavez and maybe Capps.

Meek and Joel Hanrahan should be able to handle the late innings, Steve Jackson did enough to hold the bridge spot, and a sixth starter will probably become the long man. They need to find three middle inning guys, and that can be done without busting the wallet wide open.

Catching is problematic. They're set with Doumit and Jason Jaramillo, but if Doumit's dealt, then they're looking at a veteran bargain store pick-up to share time with Jaramillo, who hits lefties like they're all Sandy Koufax clones.

The infield, to us, is set with Andy LaRoche - Ronny Cedeno/Bobby Crosby - Akinori Iwamura - Garrett Jones, and that's not a bad set of gloves. But the bats? Oy! And we're not buying into the Jeff Clement scenario; Clement at first and Jones in right is an error waiting to happen.

What we like so far about this year's player movement is that we can finally see where it's going. They had a hole at second; they filled it. They needed an option at short; they got one. (BTW, Cedeno settled his arbitration by signing for a year at $1.125M).

Neither position has anyone near ready to challenge from within the system, so there's no block, and the trio of Cedeno, Crosby, and Iwamura are all on one year deals. Perform, and the Bucs might tie you up for a couple of seasons or you'll get a better nibble on the market. Fizzle, and the team cuts its losses.

Our take on the signings is that the better of the Cedeno-Crosby pair stays, and Iwamura is a one-year guy or a July trade, especially if LaRoche can handle second after Alvarez arrives.

The light at the end of the tunnel looks a little less like a train than before, but it's still too far down the tracks to be certain. It sure would be nice if the light was Pedro carrying a torch, leading a pack of young, hungry Buccos to Pittsburgh instead of a Chessie locomotive

Bye-Bye Boys

Hey, ever wonder what happened to the Buccos that got caught up in the new suits' brooming? Here's their post-Pirate track records:

-- IF Jose Bautista (sent to Toronto): Joey Bats has hit .232 in his time as a Blue Jay as a utility guy, with 16 HR and 50 RBI in 392 at-bats. He's in his final arbitration year.
-- OF Jay Bay (sent to Boston): In 200 games with the Red Sox, Bay has hit .274 with 45 homers and 156 RBI. He's in his walk year, and is supposed to be looking for a contract worth $16M/season over 4-5 years.
-- LHP Sean Burnett (sent to Washington): Burnett has helped stabilize the Nationals' bullpen, making 30 relief appearances. In 25 innings, Burnett had a 3.20 ERA, giving up 14 hits, walking thirteen and striking out 20 as their LOOGY. He reached arbitration at the end of this season.
-- IF Jose Castillo (waived): Castillo was claimed by Florida in 2008, waived, claimed by the Giants, and waived again, finishing the year with the Astros. He hit a combined .246/6/37 in 449 at-bats. He signed with the Nats in the off-season, but instead played in Taiwan this year. Now he's wintering with the Caracas Lions.
-- LHP John Grabow (sent to Cubs): Grabow was the same ol' Mr. Reliable for the Wrigley nine, appearing in 30 games as a set-up guy with a 3.24 ERA. He's a free agent, and is reportedly in talks with Chicago to iron out a two year deal.
-- LHP Tom Gorzelanny (sent to Cubs): Gorzo was 4-2 with a 5.63 ERA for Chicago. In 38-1/3 innings, he walked 13 and struck out 40, but 6 homers were his downfall. He's arbitration eligible this year.
-- 1B Adam LaRoche (sent to Boston, then to Atlanta): After hitting .263 in six games with Boston, LaRoche hit .321/.401/.557 in 57 games with the Braves, with 12 homers and 40 RBI. He's a free agent.
-- LHP Damaso Marte (sent to Yankees): Hurt much of the time with shoulder woes, Marte is 2-6 with a 7.11 ERA for the Yankees in just 46 appearances. But he rallied during the playoffs, pitching eight times without allowing a run in four innings as a LOOGY. The Pinstripes signed him through 2011, with a 2012 club option, at $4M per year.
-- CF Nate McLouth (sent to Atlanta): McLouth missed time because of injury three different times after joining the Braves, but still got 396 at-bats. He hit .257/.354/.419 for Atlanta, with 11 homers and 36 RBI and stole 12 bases in 18 attempts. He's signed through 2011, earning $11M over the next two years, with a 2012 team option.
-- OF Nyjer Morgan (sent to Washington): Morgan hit leadoff and played in center for the Nationals. In 49 games - he missed the last month with a broken hand - Morgan stole 24 bases in 31 attempts. He batted .351 with 35 runs scored, and is arbitration eligible in 2011.
-- OF Xavier Nady (sent to Yankees): In 59 games in 2008, Nady hit .268/12/40 for the Bronx Bombers. He signed a one-year deal worth $6.55M, and then tore up his elbow in April and had Tommy John surgery, putting his baseball future up in the air. He's a free agent this season.
-- C Ronny Paulino (sent to Philadelphia): Philly shipped him to the Giants, and they sent him to the Fish, all before the season started. He hit .272/8/27 in 266 at-bats for Florida. He's entering his first arbitration season.
-- 2B Freddy Sanchez (sent to San Francisco): Steady Freddy played only 25 games for the G-Men, having knee surgery in September and now rehabbing a sprained shoulder. He hit .284/1/7, and inked a 2-year, $12M deal with them.
-- RHP Ian Snell (sent to Seattle): Snell continued his frustrating ways with the Mariners. He was 5-2 with a 4.20 ERA, but in 64-1/3 innings, he walked 39 and struck out just 37. Snell is signed for next year at $4.25M, with club options in 2011 and 2012.
-- RHP Salomon Torres (sent to Milwaukee): He was the Brew Crew closer in 2008, with 28 saves in 35 chances, 51 strikeouts in 80 innings of work, an ERA of 3.41, and a record of 7-5. But he faded badly at the end, and made good on his vow to retire in 2009.
-- SS Jack Wilson (sent to Seattle): Wilson hit .224 in 31 games with the Mariners, missing huge hunks of time to injury. But he did lead all MLB shortstops with a 20.4 UZR/150 games, and is renegotiating his contract with the M's.

A Matter of Trust

We're sure you've seen Chuck Finder's piece in the Post Gazette that says Perry Hill, contrary to the Pirates' statement, does want to coach in 2010, just not at Pittsburgh.

That's no surprise; otherwise the Buc suits wouldn't have held him to his option year, which basically means that Hill has to get their OK to take another job next season.

No one can harp on the ramifications of a business decision, which both parties came to last week after a messy, finger-pointing negotiation. But what is clear is that the relationship between the suits and the uniformed staff are not exactly lovey-dovey.

The Coonelly/Huntington era has been marked by a series of dust-ups that would have ended in PFAs if they were domestic instead of baseball-related. And we think the franchise will be better off in the future if the management end of the operation took a little more human approach into the business decisions and relationships they enter.

Listen, we understand they had to break up the Bucs, and that's not an easy process. But they oftentimes seem to be operating a cold fantasy baseball world of sabermetrics and predicted values rather than what at heart is a people business.

They could fill a Hollywood celeb blog with their dealings with Pedro Alvarez and Scott Boras, Miguel Sano and Rob Plummer, Nate McLouth, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Splat, Ian Snell, and writer John Perrotto, not to mention the Pirate nation as a a whole.

We're not debating their business model. Time will tell if they're on the right track or not. But we think it's about time that they lost the attitude, took the chip off their shoulder, maybe invest in a Dale Carnegie book or two, and realize that business relationships are built on personal relationships; they are not and have never been mutually exclusive.

Moves have to be made, and not all are popular. But honest communication with the players and coaches would make the whole tear down-build up phase they're currently working on a lot more bearable on both sides of the equation.

As the Pirates grow as an organization, we hope that their people skills sprout, too. Eventually, the trust they build - or lose - will have an effect on players now in the system signing on with contracts after arbitration has run its course, or on bringing in hired guns from the free agent market. And the product they put on the field will be the measuring stick for Pittsburgh fans.

Hey, all they have to do is look at Heinz Field or the Igloo. The Steelers and Pens are widely praised for having organizations people eagerly line up to join. Partially, that's because they win. Just as importantly, it's because of how they treat their hired hands.

After all, when's the last time an ex-player from the Rooney or Lemieux clubs called their old team a "laughingstock?" Create a professional atmosphere that treats the people in the locker room like family instead of chattel, and it shouldn't happen again.

Does Anybody Care...?

--Attendance Nosedives: The Pirate attendance was at its lowest level since the 1998 season, when the "Freak Show" of 1997 was followed by a last place finish.

-- Best Sports City: Last week, The Sporting News ranked the best sports cities, and as USA Today noted, "despite the Pirates, Pittsburgh comes in at No. 1."

-- FSN Ratings: The Nielsen rating for the Pirates on FSN Pittsburgh was 3.25. That was higher than those of 11 other teams, including the Dodgers, Mets, and Angels.

What that means is completely in the air without age breakdowns. But the Bucs do have more of a local following than their record deserves, which we suppose proves that Pittsburghers follow Pittsburgh teams. That gold "P" is a decent brand even when the product isn't so hot.

-- Billy Maz Home Run: Several hundred people were outside the old red brick wall in Oakland yesterday to celebrate October 13th, 1960, just as they've been since 1985, when Saul Finkelstein sat down and played a tape of Game #7 of the 1960 World Series on his beat-up boom box.

A few players always show up; this year it was Roy Face and Bob Friend. The last time I was able to weasel out of work and join the party, Friend, Bobby Del Greco, and Nellie King were there, along with Sangy and Steve Blass.

And at 3:36 PM, the Game Seven Gang's CD played the call of Maz's drive over Yogi Berra's head and the most improbable World Series win ever. The crowd cheered; when I was there, it evoked my dad getting mom and my brothers in the wagon and adding to the Oakland gridlock, the joyful mob, the ripped newspapers flying through the air, and even walking home from St. Wendelin's with the transistor radio stuck to my ear.

And judging by the age of the couple of hundred fans gathered for the 49th anniversary, they must have similar memories. The only guys under 50 are college kids wandering aimlessly, wondering why there's an AARP meeting on campus.

Do these few disparate threads weave into a coherent cloth? Well, maybe.

Except for the 30,000+ that spun the turnstiles on gameday during the PNC inaugural season of 2001, the Bucs haven't drawn over 25,000 since 1990. That's a 24% drop in warm fannies, pretty steep, but considering the streak and payroll dump, probably not all that bad.

The Sporting News, FSN, and The Game Seven Gang all show that the Pirate brand still has its loyalists.

But - you knew there had to be a "but," right? - that support, to the naked eye, is in a demographic that Pittsburgh is a world leader in - golden agers, like me. Take away Skyblasts, concerts, and weekend bobbleheads, and the thing you see at Heinz Field and the Civic Arena, twenty and thirty somethings backing their teams with their wallets and hearts, is sorely lacking at PNC.

And that's the problem the new suits are going to have to solve. While the Steelers and Penguins have been winning Super Bowls and Stanley Cups, the Pirates have been losing at a rate that would embarrass the French military.

They're working on a second generation of Steel City sports fans that don't know Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente as anything but bronze statues and TV specials. Oh, the old bones are loyal, probably to a fault, but they were raised on Forbes Field and Bob Prince, not PNC Park and Greg Brown.

The Pirates are very near the point of utter irrelevance. If McCutch, Pedro, and whoever can't turn it around, the franchise may never recover; they've lost too much ground to the other local squads.

It can be done. The Black and Gold were loveable losers for decades, and the Pens had a Pirate-like streak between Mario and the Kid. Both play in front of sold out houses now.

And that's why the Pirate suits had better bring their A game to the table now. The other teams, to be sure, used the draft to bring in their stars, much like the current Buccos. But then they spent a buck or two and brought in a couple of guys from outside the organization to make the team competitive, and then championship, quality. The transition from terrible to titlist happened quickly.

Yah, yah, both are in salary-cap leagues. But the point is that they spent their money to the limit, not only bringing guys in but securing their stars, the players the fans identified with, for the long run. Would the Steelers trade Big Ben or the Pens deal Sidney for a handful of prospects?

The Pirates haven't dealt anyone of that magnitude, but admit it, there's still a disquieting little voice in the back of your mind wondering where Andrew McCutchen will be playing after he reaches arbitration.

The old suits tried to prop the team with free-agent signings and trades; the new guys are going the draft and trade for prospects route. It should be obvious by now that the answer lies in the middle.

The Bucs are at the point where they have to build some trust, both among their fans and their players. Keep bringing in young talent. Sign guys and hold on to them. Patch some holes with market players. Quit talking about tomorrow and start working on today. Try to feel the urgency that the fans feel.

Because if Andrew McCutchen and Pedro Alvarez can't lead the team to the promised land and the suits go back to the drawing board for yet another rebuilding phase, baseball in Pittsburgh will be dead.

Everything Old Is New Again...

Hey, those of you that stop by regularly have probably figured out by now that GW is into Pirates past. Well, that's only as it should be - your humble blogmeister has lived through half of the Buc's history.

When GW was a pup being whelped in Oakland, everyone spent the summer sitting on their stoops, listening to the Bucs religiously on their transistor radio with an Iron City close at hand. GW has seen games in every Pittsburgh ballyard that's been since they tore Exposition Park down. One's a Pitt building now and the other's a parking lot. That's progress, so they say.

Yep, he has snow on the roof and gonna hit the big 6-0 this year. GW is certainly not a veteran among ball bloggers, but he has been around long enough to be their gramps. So when he gets a note that suggests a return to Pirate roots, he's all ears.

After seeing the post featuring some Gunnerisms written a few days back, long time Pirate fan Lonnie McCartney of Beaver took the time to send an e-mail with a plan to tie the old and new together at PNC Park. Lonnie said:

"Most of the current Pirate fans grew up with Lanny. At PNC, when a homerun occurs now we have fireworks and music. With all the available technology why couldn't the Pirates replay some of the famous sayings from Prince and Rosewell? When the young people ask, "who is that?", Dad or Grampa could tell a story about "Raise The Window Aunt Minnie" and "You Can Kiss It Good Bye." They could create a computer enhanced image like the little story before each game on the Jumbo Tron. This storytelling in the stands would educate the present fans about Pirate Voices of the past. Visiting the Gunner's Lounge is one thing, (but) to hear him call a homer at PNC would be awesome."

Well, GW loves the concept, and thinks that if anything, Lonnie's idea should be expanded.

We understand that the Pirate management has been doing everything they can to draw warm bodies into PNC, short, of course, of fielding a team. Fans get fireworks, bands, bobbleheads, cartoons, rock's greatest hits, weenies and t-shirts shot into the stands, pierogie races, and fan interviews, ad nauseam.

While that may be cool with the younger crowd, the oldsters pay to see a ballgame, not a variety show. Do you remember any AC/DC blaring or Jalapena Hannas by the dugout in "The Field of Dreams" or "The Natural?" Yah, some fans are still that old school - like GW.

So instead of blasting stadium rock and flashing lame 'toons across the screen for three hours, why don't the Pirates put that zillion dollar Diamond Vision Jumbotron to a higher use and show some clips of the good ol' days? Hey, it's not like it's tough; any intern worth his salt could put a few together over the winter.

Maybe between innings we could relive Maz's home run, Roberto's throw to third in the 1971 Series, Captain Willie crushin' one, or Candyman's no-no.

Vids of great moments and great players - and Pittsburgh has its share of Hall of Famers, championship-caliber athletes, and retired numbers - might actually add to the PNC experience, unless the suits have written off the fortysomething and older geezers as part of the team's youth movement.

Say what you may, GW still believes that baseball is the ultimate family sport, passed on from dad to the kids, and that connection is what links the generations, not just of families, but of franchises.

And for Lonnie's original idea...imagine a shot into the Allegheny, followed immediately by the face of Rosie, the Gunner, or Lanny on the scoreboard gleefully exhalting "Open the Window, Aunt Minnie," "Kiss It Good Bye," or "Go, Ball, Get Outta Here," then a starburst erupting over the Pittsbugh nighttime skyline. Just sayin'...

Afraid of the Dark...?

Hey, things are getting kinda boring here in Pittsburgh. You can only spend so much time pondering if the Pirates will sign Mark Loretta or Derrick Turnbow, if anyone will take Jack Splat, John Grabow, or Ronny Paulino off Neal Huntington's hands, or if the Bucs will set a league record for special assistants for the GM.

GW knows that Halloween is pretty far back in the rear view mirror, but still, these cold, dark nights are perfect for gathering around the internet campfire and swapping spook stories. How about this one from Dan Gordon and Mickey Bradley's Haunted Baseball...?

An entire chapter of the book is dedicated to the ghost stories from players staying at the Vinoy in St. Pete, home for teams playing the Tampa Bay Rays. Reds relief pitcher Scott Williamson told of running into a ghost at the Vinoy in 2003, as did some Pirates and Blue Jays reliever John Frascatore.

Water faucets turning on by themselves. Doors opening and closing mysteriously. Money flying through the air and midnight visitations. All these pranks and more are supposedly the results of mischievous spirits floating through the Vinoy. In fact, several Bucco's sighted one old, well-traveled spook during their stay.

Here's the chapter featuring the things going bump in the night and the 2003 Pirates, Stompin' at the Vinoy.

Andrew Stockey of Channel 4 Sports even did a spot on the spooks and the Great One's death premonition:


As that old Danish skipper Hamlet said "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." And somehow, it's not at all surprising that this all happened under Dave Littlefield's watch, hehe. Pretty spooky, hey?

Getting Desperate Here...

OK, the Pirates refuse to make a move in the off season other than hiring a slew of special assistants for Neal Huntington and a couple of coaches for John Russell.

By Thursday, they have to set the 40-man roster, and that might give us something to talk about. Or maybe they'll hire some minor league managers; they only have one now.

But geez...so far no clue on the free agent market, nor any movement on signing Nate the Great, Paul Maholm or LaRoche the Elder to contracts. What's a blogger to do? GW has to post something before the December 8th GM meetings. There are only so many ways to serve steaming Paul Byrd rumors.

Hey, stuff has happened before on November 17th on the Bucco front:

> In 1992, the Pirates lost OF Alex Coles to Colorado and P Ramon Martinez to Florida in the expansion draft.

> In 1993, the Atlanta Braves traded 1B Brian Hunter to the Pirates for Cuban C José Raúl Delgado. It was a little late for the Bucs, though.

Hunter had already hit a 3 run HR vs Pittsburgh in Game 7 of the 1991 NLCS at TRS, putting the game away and propelling the Atlanta Braves to the 1991 World Series date against the Minnesota Twins.

> The Pirates made a FA splash in 1998 when they inked IF Mike Benjamin to a two-year contract worth $1.4M. They liked him so much that they brought him back in 2002 for $925K. He hit .150 and never played MLB again.

> 2000 saw Pittsburgh sign Jason Kendall to the richest contract in team history. The $60 million, six-year contract extension, which includes a $4 million signing bonus, starts with a base salary of $6 million in 2002 and peaks at $13 million in 2007.

> In 2005, Jason Bay, coming off two of the best career-starting seasons in Pirates history, agreed to an $18.25 million, four-year contract that covers his arbitration-eligible seasons.

In 2004, Bay hit .282 with 26 home runs and 82 RBI in 120 games played while becoming the first Rookie of the Year in club history. He won the award despite missing the first five weeks of the season after shoulder surgery.

Bay followed by hitting .306 with 32 homers, 101 RBI, 110 runs scored, 21 stolen bases and a .402 on-base percentage in 2005 despite playing on a team that lost 95 games. He finished 12th in the National League MVP voting after playing in all 162 games.

Boston loves him now.

That's all, folks. Hopefully, GW can get more motivated tomorrow...throw us a lifeline, please, Neal. Make a move. Baseball Reference can only do so much.