Well, tonight I called it a season for Marilyn and myself at PNC Park. When I bought tickets for this game, I was envisioning a game with possible post-season seeding implications, and a chance to see Chipper Jones one last time. Well, you know what happened. The game was meaningless and Chipper didn't play, but the Pirates did score a nice 5-1 win over the playoff-bound Braves. A solid start from Kevin Correia and a nice two-run homer by Garrett Jones were the highlights. Oh, and four, count 'em, four stolen bases by the Buccos!!
In all, I attended 16 games at PNC this season, and unfortunately, the team was only 6-10 in those games. Obviously, I was the problem! Interestingly enough, of the 16 games I attended, none of them were particularly memorable, as might be expected from a 6-10 stretch of games, save for three: back-to-back shutouts of the Cardinals on August 28-29, and the no-hitter pitched by the Reds Homer Bailey on September 28.
The team now sits at 79-82 with one game remaining, and a chance to sweep the Braves tomorrow and record 80 wins, the highest total in the twenty year drought, but more on that and what might have been later in the week. Before that, however, allow me to quote from my blog post of September 3, written after I returned from a horrible Pirates loss to the Astros on Labor Day. Looking ahead to the home stand. I wrote:
"So it comes down to this. Two more games with the Astros, and then three with the Cubs, another lousy team, over the weekend. Unless they win all five of those games, seriously, all five of them, kiss the wild card hopes good-bye. The goal then becomes winning 82 games and ending the streak, and if it comes to that, they are going to be seriously challenged to do so."
Again, you know what happened. They went 2-3 over those five games. Had they won all five, and everything else played out as it did, they would still have lost out on the Wild Card, BUT they would currently have 82 wins, and the - say it with me now - "longest losing streak in North American professional sports history" would be, well, history. Then again, that doesn't matter to Neal Huntington, only winning a World Series does. Does Neal have any idea of the feelings of the fan base?
Still, despite the 20 year losing streak and the disappointment of the final two months of this season, I still feel sad when I walk out of the ball park for the last time in a season, and tonight was no exception. Oh well, four-and-a-half months, more or less, 'til pitchers and catchers report.
It appears to me that Mr. Huntington has a triple deficit: no brain, no heart, no courage. I've enjoyed The Grandstander and like you await spring when hope returns with a new season.
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