Pirates vs. Brewers

The Pirates just completed a three game series in Milwaukee where they were swept by the Brewers.  The scores of those three games:

• 7-1
• 14-0
• 12-5

And here's the thing:  None of those games were as close as the scores indicated.  The differences between the two teams were so obvious, and so glaring as to be positively embarrassing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but, of course we all know by now that Bob Nutting is incapable of being embarrassed.  Milwaukee is so much better, and so far ahead of the Pirates, it's like having the Alabama football team going up against a good WPIAL high school team.

Take a look at the Pirate box score from that 14-0 loss on Tuesday night:

Look  at those 6-7-8 slots - Suwinski/Triolo/Davis - in the line-up.  And Jared Triolo and Jack Suwinski are, it is being reported, guys that the Pirates "want to take a look at" as they prepare for 2026.  Like we don't already know who they are.   As my friend Dan asked me after golf on Monday, "Is there another team in all of MLB who would have Jack Suwinski on there roster?"  Don't think so.

On the bright side, in that 14-0 loss last night, the Bucs played true Sheltie-ball by having a position player, Triolo, pitch in the ninth inning, and tough guy skipper Don "Donnie" Kelly was ejected for the fifth time since he became manager in May.  Yep, Kelly takes no shit!

On another related matter, this screen shot from Pirates Announcer Greg Brown's Twitter feed was posted on Facebook yesterday on a Pirates fans group page:

Presumably, Brownie had a straight face when he posted that. Oh, and for those of you who didn't know the meaning of the word "shill", well, now you know.

Greg Brown, John Wehner, and the Infield Fly Rule

Were you watching the Pirates-Giants game last night when the Pirates made use of this baseball intricacy to their advantage?

Here was the situation:

In the first inning the Giants had runners on first and second with no outs.  The third batter, Willy Adames hit a high pop-up that had  third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes drift towards the pitchers' mound to field.  The second base umpire immediately signaled for the "infield fly rule, batter automatically out, runners advance at their own risk." Hayes let the ball drop to the ground and then saw that the runner on second base, Heliot Ramos, was drifting just a bit too far off of second base.  Hayes quickly picked up the ball, threw to second baseman Nick Gonzales and picked off Ramos.  Double play.

That was a numbskull bit of base running by Ramos, to be sure, and Pirates Chief Propaganda Minister Greg Brown immediately jumped all over it.  "That was an unbelievable base running mistake" screamed Brownie.  "How can you be in the big leagues and do something like that" chimed in John Wehner.  "What a smart play by Hayes, and, again, an INCREDIBLE, mistake by Ramos."  Both announcers went on, well into the next inning with words to the effect that a major league player just can't let something like that happen!!!

Considering the base running acumen demonstrated by the Pirates this season (we are looking at you, Oneil Cruz) and, in fact, over the last several seasons (remember the halcyon days of Starling Marte and Gregory Polonco on the base paths?), this was a classic case of throwing stones from inside a glass house.  Perhaps the most INCREDIBLE and UNBELIEVABLE thing about this gaffe was that it wasn't a Pirates baserunner who did it.   

I will give Wehner credit for a good line though when he said that this is the kind of a mistake that a player will only make once in his career.

The whole incident also brought to mind a great line from my father, who had a lot of great lines in his life.  He said that whenever you are faced with some blowhard sports know-it-all, someone who is obviously full of shit, calmly say to him "Can you explain the infield fly rule to me?"  That will usually shut said blowhard up.

A New Award

With this post, The Grandstander announces a new Award that he shall bestow from time to time, The Old Man Yells At Clouds Award.

The first awardees are Pirates announcers Greg Brown and John Wehner who more than earned this award with their excessive, over-the-top whining and complaining about the Reds' Derek Dietrich and his hot-dogging around the bases as he hit four, count 'em, four home runs in two games against the Pirates this past week.  

In an interview on 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday morning, Wehner said that he "hated" Dietrich, and invoked the name of Dietrich's grandfather, Steve Demeter, who had been a baseball lifer in the Pirates minor league organization.  Demeter was a "sweet guy" according to Rock Wehner, who is now rolling over in his grave over the antics of his grandson.  "He would not be proud of him" said Wehner.

That night, Dietrich tripled down on the Pirates and hit three home runs in that night's game.  With each homer, Brown and Wehner got deeper and deeper into baseball's hallowed Unwritten Rules and the ultimate dictum in the Get-Off-My-Lawn-ism, the need to properly "respect the game".  

In my own mind, here is the question that the Bucco Propaganda Ministers, aka, the broadcasters, should have been asking:  Why is an at best career journeyman infielder like Derek Dietrich turning the Pirates pitching staff into his personal punching bag?  And instead of wondering how the Pirates should "answer" Dietrich for his showing up the Pirates pitchers and not respecting the game by maybe planting a 95 MPH fastball in his ass cheek, maybe they should realize that the best way to retaliate is to be BETTER than him and maybe strike him out or get him to ground out to an infielder instead of serving him up fat juicy gopher balls to him time after time.  

By the way, Brown and Wehner were getting roasted across the country for their whining during the telecast, and deservedly so.

Derek Dietrich has now hit seven home runs against the Pirates in 2019, which causes me to say this to John Wehner (who in a career that spanned eleven seasons and 804 AB's hit exactly FOUR home runs):  I am betting that Steve Demeter, were he alive today would be very proud for how his grandson has been torturing the Pirates this season.

The Voice of the Pirates

Let's talk about Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play announcers.  Most long time - and by that I mean "old" - Bucco fans are near unanimous as to who is their all-time favorite Pirate broadcaster.

He's a guy who is an unabashed Pirates fan.  He makes no pretense about being objective in his broadcasts.  He wears his heart on his sleeve where the Pirates are concerned, and if you turn on the radio in the middle of a game, you know within 15 seconds as to whether or not the Pirates are winning or losing without being told the score.  He also has a million and one little catchphrases that he sprinkles in throughout his broadcasts, and many of those phrases become part of the everyday vernacular of Pirates fans everywhere.

I'm talking about Bob Prince, right?

Well, no, I am NOT talking about the legendary Gunner, although what I said above certainly can and does apply to him.  Actually, I am talking about the current Voice of the Pirates, Greg Brown.

Think about it.  You may criticize Brown for being a cheerleader in the booth, but is he any more so than was Prince?  And is "trip-trip-triple" that much different from "bloop-and-a-blast"? How about "Clear the deck, cannonball coming" from "kiss it good-bye"? And best of all, "Raise the Jolly Roger" from "we had 'em all the way"?  I don't think so. Near as I see it, the only difference is that Brown doesn't wear garish sport coats.

It mystifies me that people who wax poetic over the glory days of Bob Prince, who has been dead for thirty years now, God rest his soul, can be critical of Greg Brown.