The Pittsburgh Pirates and artisanal baseball
ByTom Guarriello warned me.
When I asked him to recommend an American team to a new arrived Canadian, he said.
"well, you could root for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but they are going to break your heart."
And sure enough, after a strong beginning, the Pirates are fighting for last place.
Loosing is pretty much what we do. In the words of Luke Cypers, we have a chance at
16 straight losing seasons, matching the 1933-48 Phillies for the worst streak in major professional sports team history. Last year the Bucs lost 95 games. Before that, 94, 95, 95, 89, 87, 89, 100 … And that's just this decade. Every baseball prognosticator projected the Pirates would fail to reach .500 again this season.
But what if we've got this all wrong. I wonder if we should take a page from Leonard Cohen and think of the Pirates as beautiful losers. Not for us, anything so vulgar or gauche as a championship. I mean, winning is so obvious, so bereft of subtlety, so shrill.
We play artisansal baseball. We make our wins in very small batches. This is handmade baseball. Bad to a purpose. Sure, we could do the vulgar, crowd pleasing thing, but, really, wouldn't that be a distortion of our game, a compromise of our aesthetic, a corruption of what we stand for?
References
Cyphers, Luke. 2009. That was then, this (sigh) is now. ESPN the Magazine. May 27, 2009. here.
6 Comments
May 28th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I grew up loving the Pirates of the late-70s/early-80s: Pops Stargell, Foli, Gardner, Madlock, Moreno, Parker, Tekulve, the Candy Man. LOVED the Pirates. Still loved them in the late-80s: Bobby Bo, Bonds, Van Slyke, Smiley, Drabek, Jose Lind, Sid Bream, Jeff King. Then I stopped rooting for them. Not because they were losing, I can live with that, but because the management was so God-awful. No plan, no idea how to build a team. I have a very eclectic, non-geographic, rooting interest: Red Sox, Steelers, Red Wings, Arsenal FC. What they have in common is strong management. Alas, the Bucs are still in the wildernss on this issue.
May 28th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
"But what if we've got this all wrong. I wonder if we should take a page from Leonard Cohen and think of the Pirates as beautiful losers. "
Don't do that, then you'll be @ssholes like Cubs fans (and Red Sox fans until they finally won)
May 28th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Yes thank you Nigel. I grew up in Chicagoland as a rare breed: a White Sox Fan from the North Side. But GOD help me if I'd turned out to be a Cubs fan who make losing look gauche and entirely unsportsman-like . It's not beautiful losers, its preppy douchebags clinging to losing because, well, a life of privilege means never having to lose, unless you want to in order to buy some sort of failure cred. That's not artisanal — that's buying distressed jeans at J. Crew. Gag.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:12 am
As a proud Cubs fan who grew up in Chicagoland, I have to defend my team here! I have to say that nothing would make us happier than a World Series championship–I don't know anyone who can stand the "lovable losers" tag, every single Cubs fan I've ever known hates that.
Whew, Grant, you've brought up a much harsher subject than maybe you expected!
May 31st, 2009 at 2:19 pm
I feel so bad about recommending my Buccos to you, Grant. Sixteen straight losing seasons. Sigh. But, we are a scrappy bunch this year and I have a strange feeling that we might just break .500. That would be a joy! More likely, however, the prospect of still another year of dashed hopes! No…I will not despair…Beat 'em Bucs! We will appreciate our wins so much more than those smug front-runners. Right? Someday…
June 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Pittsburgh Pirates should be always competitive enough to keep pace with the others. I really like them; they’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB. Just read about them here:
http://www.piratesdaily.com