The Pirates have closed out the figurative first half of the season on somewhat of a high note, winning five of their last seven games, including two of three form the floundering defending champs, the Cubs (and doesn't your heart just ache for Genius Joe Maddon?).
Today's thoughts, however, are elsewhere.
I hope that all Pirates fans read Joe Starkey's column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday. It was headlined "Pin the Pirates Pitiful First Half On the Players". I won't restate it here, but it was good reading, and I urge you to check it out.
Towards the end of the column, however, Starkey made one statement that summed up perfectly my feelings that have existed towards the management of the team since the trade deadline approached last season:
That is not to absolve management or ownership. It must stink to be a baseball fan here because the Pirates are constantly worried about saving a buck. The minute somebody shows promise, the question immediately becomes: How soon before they get rid of him? Nobody can enjoy McCutchen’s renaissance because he could be tossed out the window any second.
That’s no way to live.
And that is the problem in a nutshell. Since Memorial Day, Andrew McCutchen has been playing at a level that has equaled, if not exceeded, the levels that made him an MVP caliber - and the 2013 MVP - in the early years of this decade, but how can you really savor them knowing that the man who has symbolized the resurgence of the Pirates will be gone, if not by July 31, then surely in the off season,
It ain't easy being a Pirates fan.
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