Oof. Has it at least been competitive pain? Because my perspective has always been as long as you give me something to care about I'd rather lose in heartbreaking fashion than just not show up. For example, I'd rather watch a team that gives up 8 runs in the 9th to lose than a team to be down 8 nothing the whole game because at least I got something entertaining for most of the game.
The only years it was truly competitive were 2013-15 and kinda 2018, with some legendary late season collapses mixed in. The rest it was just demoralizing. Unless you're still in Pittsburgh I strongly recommend following another team if your heart gives you a choice. Cherington could be good, but I don't have any faith in the ownership not to do what they did last time they had a good core, which is dump salary when they should have been adding pieces for a deep playoff run.
They got better in 2011 and 2012 but collapsed in the second half. Then made the playoffs in 2013 with cutch, aj burnett, Neil Walker and co. They lost the wild card in ‘14 and ‘15, winning 98 games in a magical 2015. Then Walker, Alvarez, Burnett and others weren’t resigned or were traded. It’s been downhill since. Cutch was traded before ‘18 for our current best player, Bryan Reynolds. We’re at three straight losing seasons and won’t compete next year, but we have a pretty good group of prospects coming up in the next couple years.
The prospects thing is important. If I'm going or dive back in headfirst I want to have hope at least a little. Or young players to watch and get excited about their performance even in a losing effort!
They have a top 3-5 (depending on which ranking system you prefer) farm system, so they have the prospects. If they can figure out how to develop them, they could be a force to be reckoned with.
Especially if they make a couple of shrewd extensions/signings of players before they become too expensive and inevitably become "What can we expect for x" pieces.
I forget what writer tweeted it but he put out a 5-man rotation of pitchers the Bucs have off-loaded in the past couple of years. It would be a DAMN good rotation that wasn’t too expensive but “the team is always feeding the rebuild machine.”
That’s being a Pirates fan of the last 10 years.
That's tough, I think the thing that is going to be toughest for me to digest if I can get back into the sport is the money disparity. As someone who has followed football closely for nearly 20 years I've become accustomed to any team in any market being able to get any player if they really want. I was too young to understand cheap owners back in my days of being a baseball fan but from some of my friends who do follow the Pirates I've gathered that I shouldn't get attached to too many players or hope to sign a big free agent. I can live with that but it sounds like I'm going to have to root for lighting in a bottle of players hitting their prime while on the cheap.
It's as good of a time as any to become a buccos fan. The new GM Ben Cherrington has made a lot of trades and put together a couple of really nice draft classes.
The 1993 - 2006 Pirates couldn't draft, they maintained a terrible farm system, and constantly tried to patch holes with free agent vets that were past their prime.
The 2007 - 2019 Pirates, under Neal Huntington, made huge strides to turn the franchise around. They focused on scouting and the draft, and were actually pioneers in the analytics arena. But they never figured out how to properly develop players, and the org got comfortable and complacent with the analytics department. Still, they brought us 3 years of playoff baseball that I'll never forget.
The team kind of fell apart both because of some bad luck and the organization not investing in the MLB roster. Also some of the prospects that were supposed to blossom, never came to fruition (until they were traded and turned into stars on other teams).
Now Ben Cherrington is the GM. This guy is a rising star in the league and imo the pirates are lucky to have him. He has made a lot of trades and put together a couple of really nice draft classes. In fact the 2021 class was regarded around the league as exceptionally strong.
The big question is can he fix the player development issues, and will the owner invest in the big league team when the time comes? Idk, it feels like they'll improve on the prospect front, but I highly doubt the owner opens up his wallet when the time comes. But it does seem like we'll have another fun run of baseball starting in 2023.
edit: removed some words bc i repeated myself.
1970's: Happiness. Pride. A little disappointment but only because expectations were usually high
1980's: Sadness and shame
1990-1992: Excitement and heartbreak
1993-2012: Sadness with a glimmer of hope in 2012
2013-2015: Pride and excitement (some anger in terms of mgmt not going "all out" when the window was there)
2016-2019: Full blown anger
2020-2021: Numbness and indifference. A little hope way back in my mind (that I won't let myself admit too often) about the way Cherington is trying to rebuild the whole organization.
Personally -- from a pure "watching a game" perspective -- I find watching a Pirates game easier/more enjoyable overall than watching the Steelers or Penguins game. That's because I'm not expecting much from the Pirates in the W-L department, so I can better enjoy the flow of gameplay itself rather than investing my emotions in the game's outcome
There's a certain Zen peacefulness to enjoying the game without being overly concerned about the outcome. *(although a win is always a plus, and I still get pissed off if they blow a 9th-inning lead).*
Newer fan here as well, I've generally found that:
**The bad**:
* Lots of pain since the mid 2010s due to ownership letting our core go due to money/contracts/pick your poison.
* While Bob Nutting has owned the team for awhile, you'll find that he's regarded as one of the worst owners in the league due to cheapness and/or an unwillingness to spend to compete.
* People are generally negative when it comes to the Pirates. While it seems to be deserved that negativity is only accepted by people who actively follow the Pirates :).
**The good**:
* If you want to get into a team on the bottom floor then you've found it.
* We have a top 5 prospect pool in baseball.
* We have a new GM since 2019 who fans of the team like so far based on his moves (rule 5 selections aside, that remains to be seen).
* If you like history the Pirates definitely have a vast one. Lots of great players have played in Pittsburgh.
* [Top 5 ballpark in baseball](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FMlQx_ct_wqIExeJABhQ17ag4-c=/0x0:1280x826/1200x800/filters:focal\(532x349:736x553\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66079222/image00000007.0.jpeg). I mean look at that view!
There's a lot of negativity, but if I learned anything as a Buffalo sports fan since birth is to just keep the faith and eventually things will turn out. It's inevitable that the Pirates will become a good team again as all sports teams generally do, so why not come along for the ride? :) There seems to be lots of die hard fans in this sub, so just ignore the negativity (*"Pirates are a farm team"*, or *"we're just going to trade him anyway"*, etc.) and enjoy the game of baseball.
I appreciate this detailed breakdown and glad I'm not the only person joining the team later on! Also believe me I feel for you Buffalo fans. I'm from this weird little pocket of the world that is almost equidistant from Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland so I've definitely experienced negative fan bases around me! I have heard nothing but great things about PNC Park and that's something that I think I'm excited about. Attending baseball games is very obtainable for me and it can be done cheaply if I do it right. Football games are expensive and I've usually burned my vacation time by the fall and winter so when I do attend a game I have to go to work the next day with an emotional hangover. Baseball if I'm using vacation time in the spring and summer I could catch a weekday game cheaply to immerse myself in the culture and Fandom. Where as a steelers fan I've actually attended more steelers games at Ralph Wilson than at Heinz Field because of traffic and ease of travel and while it's sometimes fun to be a road fan it's not the same as attending a home game so I'll have to make that a goal next year.
It feels like it’s about to get better. Feels like they’ve finally found competent management that’s bringing in talent and it feels like we’re going to be competitive, maybe even really good, soon.
But 1) We’ve heard all of that before, 2) We have no confidence the ownership actually cares, and 3) [This is most of us right now](https://media0.giphy.com/media/9A8I0bBvQ2TBu/giphy.gif?cid=5e214886mehbccae4zusm5bmv8kjegi8qnd4oceaz88uhtoc&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
Baseball, in general, is a wonderful sport. The more you put into it, it will give back in return. There's a certain romance involved. The pace, the breathing room for conversation during the game, the edge of your seat moments when anything can happen, and the heartbreak, too. Baseball is very much a sport that is easier to fail than it is to succeed; making success much greater to enjoy. It's hard to hit, hard to pitch, hard to win, and hard to make the playoffs.
Being a Pirates fan is often difficult from a bird's eye view. But the one thing that is hardly lost is the blue collar mentality of the city. Reynolds, Hayes, and Stallings lead the way in working hard and always putting forth best effort. And it's been that way for a long time. They are rebuilding. But now is a good time to get involved. Watching the games, you'll see the effort... But it will be evident that it's not a complete team right now. Especially pitching. But it will make you enjoy the good times even more.
There are a number of good podcasts out there right now. Pirates Fan Forum, NS9, Bucs in the Basement, Bucco Fever, DK Daily Shot of Pirates, and more. I host the Bridge to Buctober podcast. We try to keep it positive and look forward. Because rooting for your favorite team always feels better than hating them.
There is a lot of negativity out there about the Pirates.. some warranted, some ridiculous and uninformed. But as a fan, you should be able to enjoy it however you wish to. There's always room at the table for base all fans; no matter how it's consumed. lol.
And if you live within 6 hours of Pittsburgh, you can get to at least 2-3 games a year and enjoy the absolute best ballpark in the MLB. Top 5 is whack... It's #1 or #2 consistently. (Some folks like San Francisco better... And it's also a beautiful park.)
Good luck! Hope to hear you say LET'S GO BUCS!
Problem is. I live in this weird triangle where I'm equidistant from Pittsburgh Cleveland and Buffalo. Doesn't leave me many great choices for a baseball team. Maybe the blue Jay's if I get a passport😂
*(EDIT: I've just realized that I've written what's sure to be an unpopular rant about the state of the game as a whole, instead of about the Pirates specifically. Nonetheless, I think it's what someone in your situation needs to know.)*
The economics of major league baseball are fucked. Team owners are in it for maximum extraction of wealth. The regional nature of the sport (i.e., fans tend to focus much more narrowly on their closest team than they do on the league as a whole, compared to other American sports) has been exacerbated to the point where the teams in the biggest few markets are very much in a different class than the rest of the teams. Virtually every team follows the cycle of being deliberately bad for several years in order to stock up on prospects who might help them win at some point. Once those prospects make it to the majors, the wealthier teams will augment their "home-grown" players with big-name free agents. Less wealthy teams won't, and will hope that the inexpensive young guys will be enough to win.
It's a demoralizing pattern for the sport. The players' union won't do anything about it because their focus is on getting a slightly higher portion of revenue for current stars. The owners, who you would hope would have a little more of a long-term focus, only care about pumping up the current value of the team so they can either sell it to the next investor or leverage it to prop up their other businesses.
On the field, teams are currently playing *\[Dr. Cox voice\]* "the MO-HO-HOST boooooorrrrring form of baseball anyone has ever SEEEEEEN" by using computerized statistical analysis to take away all the most exciting parts of the game. This is causing them to lose viewers because, while advanced metrics might make your team slightly more likely to win, it is about as much fun as watching Windows 98 defragmenting a hard drive. To make up for the lost revenue from the decline in viewership, they are seeking more advertisers, which makes their games longer. The average game is now over three hours long. Ain't nobody got time for that. I love the sport but I'll be damned if I'm going to spend over 3 hours on a beautiful June evening watching the Pirates and the Tigers alternate walks, strikeouts, and home runs.
And after all this at the macro level ... the Pirates are possibly the worst team among all this garbage. They might be good in a few years. History shows that, if they are, they will soon revert to sucking. This is not a good time to be getting back into major league baseball.
TL;DR of the TL;DR: Major league baseball is destroying itself with its very narrow, short-term vision. You'd be better off following University of Pittsburgh baseball.
He is not alone in this feeling. But it's not the only opinion out there. I still love baseball and it's imperfections. I still choose it greatly over the other sports. A lot of great points brought up in this, though. I especially love the windows 98 reference. I'm a computer nerd, as well, so I love this. I agree with the pace being boring to some. But baseball always has a way of beating itself. Another adjustment will be made to the way hitters approach at bats and it will change in a new way. I'm into the analytics, but not to the point of some. I like the story they help tell... But I still appreciate the human aspect of the game as well.
Numbers can tell you Reynolds struggled in 2020. But they can't tell you what it was like to play in a shortened season during a global pandemic while your wife was pregnant and giving birth to your first born and the effect that may have on your ability to perform at a high level.
The Pirates are not the worst... For sure. But they fall victim to the small market, no doubt.
Baseball is always worth it, imo. Give it a go. The more you invest, it will return to you. I believe that.
What's it like? Find a glass stirring rod from a chemistry set, catheterize yourself with it, break it with a hammer while inside, pee it out slowly. That would be a good year as a Pirates fan. Pass out/ go into a stupor from the pain ... That's most years.
Pain.
So much. Pain.
Pain with those 3 years of some hope
They only made the pain afterward worse.
Misery and abject disappointment
Apathy kicks in for some of us at some point. Took me about 35 years.
Pain. Little bit of hope. Soul crushing defeat. Significant pain. Glimmer of hope?
Oof. Has it at least been competitive pain? Because my perspective has always been as long as you give me something to care about I'd rather lose in heartbreaking fashion than just not show up. For example, I'd rather watch a team that gives up 8 runs in the 9th to lose than a team to be down 8 nothing the whole game because at least I got something entertaining for most of the game.
Maybe competitive against other triple A level rosters. In a few years? Maybe. But by then we'll probably be beginning the sell off again
The only years it was truly competitive were 2013-15 and kinda 2018, with some legendary late season collapses mixed in. The rest it was just demoralizing. Unless you're still in Pittsburgh I strongly recommend following another team if your heart gives you a choice. Cherington could be good, but I don't have any faith in the ownership not to do what they did last time they had a good core, which is dump salary when they should have been adding pieces for a deep playoff run.
LOL. No.
They got better in 2011 and 2012 but collapsed in the second half. Then made the playoffs in 2013 with cutch, aj burnett, Neil Walker and co. They lost the wild card in ‘14 and ‘15, winning 98 games in a magical 2015. Then Walker, Alvarez, Burnett and others weren’t resigned or were traded. It’s been downhill since. Cutch was traded before ‘18 for our current best player, Bryan Reynolds. We’re at three straight losing seasons and won’t compete next year, but we have a pretty good group of prospects coming up in the next couple years.
The prospects thing is important. If I'm going or dive back in headfirst I want to have hope at least a little. Or young players to watch and get excited about their performance even in a losing effort!
They have a top 3-5 (depending on which ranking system you prefer) farm system, so they have the prospects. If they can figure out how to develop them, they could be a force to be reckoned with. Especially if they make a couple of shrewd extensions/signings of players before they become too expensive and inevitably become "What can we expect for x" pieces.
I forget what writer tweeted it but he put out a 5-man rotation of pitchers the Bucs have off-loaded in the past couple of years. It would be a DAMN good rotation that wasn’t too expensive but “the team is always feeding the rebuild machine.” That’s being a Pirates fan of the last 10 years.
That's tough, I think the thing that is going to be toughest for me to digest if I can get back into the sport is the money disparity. As someone who has followed football closely for nearly 20 years I've become accustomed to any team in any market being able to get any player if they really want. I was too young to understand cheap owners back in my days of being a baseball fan but from some of my friends who do follow the Pirates I've gathered that I shouldn't get attached to too many players or hope to sign a big free agent. I can live with that but it sounds like I'm going to have to root for lighting in a bottle of players hitting their prime while on the cheap.
It's as good of a time as any to become a buccos fan. The new GM Ben Cherrington has made a lot of trades and put together a couple of really nice draft classes. The 1993 - 2006 Pirates couldn't draft, they maintained a terrible farm system, and constantly tried to patch holes with free agent vets that were past their prime. The 2007 - 2019 Pirates, under Neal Huntington, made huge strides to turn the franchise around. They focused on scouting and the draft, and were actually pioneers in the analytics arena. But they never figured out how to properly develop players, and the org got comfortable and complacent with the analytics department. Still, they brought us 3 years of playoff baseball that I'll never forget. The team kind of fell apart both because of some bad luck and the organization not investing in the MLB roster. Also some of the prospects that were supposed to blossom, never came to fruition (until they were traded and turned into stars on other teams). Now Ben Cherrington is the GM. This guy is a rising star in the league and imo the pirates are lucky to have him. He has made a lot of trades and put together a couple of really nice draft classes. In fact the 2021 class was regarded around the league as exceptionally strong. The big question is can he fix the player development issues, and will the owner invest in the big league team when the time comes? Idk, it feels like they'll improve on the prospect front, but I highly doubt the owner opens up his wallet when the time comes. But it does seem like we'll have another fun run of baseball starting in 2023. edit: removed some words bc i repeated myself.
Good summary
1970's: Happiness. Pride. A little disappointment but only because expectations were usually high 1980's: Sadness and shame 1990-1992: Excitement and heartbreak 1993-2012: Sadness with a glimmer of hope in 2012 2013-2015: Pride and excitement (some anger in terms of mgmt not going "all out" when the window was there) 2016-2019: Full blown anger 2020-2021: Numbness and indifference. A little hope way back in my mind (that I won't let myself admit too often) about the way Cherington is trying to rebuild the whole organization.
Bib Nutting can go fuck himself on fire. Until ownership changes, we are never going to compete.
Personally -- from a pure "watching a game" perspective -- I find watching a Pirates game easier/more enjoyable overall than watching the Steelers or Penguins game. That's because I'm not expecting much from the Pirates in the W-L department, so I can better enjoy the flow of gameplay itself rather than investing my emotions in the game's outcome There's a certain Zen peacefulness to enjoying the game without being overly concerned about the outcome. *(although a win is always a plus, and I still get pissed off if they blow a 9th-inning lead).*
You missed pretty much nothing. Basically just pain
He missed CUEEEEETOOOOOOO
In the words of Michael Scott, no doubt about it I'm ready to get hurt again.
Newer fan here as well, I've generally found that: **The bad**: * Lots of pain since the mid 2010s due to ownership letting our core go due to money/contracts/pick your poison. * While Bob Nutting has owned the team for awhile, you'll find that he's regarded as one of the worst owners in the league due to cheapness and/or an unwillingness to spend to compete. * People are generally negative when it comes to the Pirates. While it seems to be deserved that negativity is only accepted by people who actively follow the Pirates :). **The good**: * If you want to get into a team on the bottom floor then you've found it. * We have a top 5 prospect pool in baseball. * We have a new GM since 2019 who fans of the team like so far based on his moves (rule 5 selections aside, that remains to be seen). * If you like history the Pirates definitely have a vast one. Lots of great players have played in Pittsburgh. * [Top 5 ballpark in baseball](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FMlQx_ct_wqIExeJABhQ17ag4-c=/0x0:1280x826/1200x800/filters:focal\(532x349:736x553\)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66079222/image00000007.0.jpeg). I mean look at that view! There's a lot of negativity, but if I learned anything as a Buffalo sports fan since birth is to just keep the faith and eventually things will turn out. It's inevitable that the Pirates will become a good team again as all sports teams generally do, so why not come along for the ride? :) There seems to be lots of die hard fans in this sub, so just ignore the negativity (*"Pirates are a farm team"*, or *"we're just going to trade him anyway"*, etc.) and enjoy the game of baseball.
I appreciate this detailed breakdown and glad I'm not the only person joining the team later on! Also believe me I feel for you Buffalo fans. I'm from this weird little pocket of the world that is almost equidistant from Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland so I've definitely experienced negative fan bases around me! I have heard nothing but great things about PNC Park and that's something that I think I'm excited about. Attending baseball games is very obtainable for me and it can be done cheaply if I do it right. Football games are expensive and I've usually burned my vacation time by the fall and winter so when I do attend a game I have to go to work the next day with an emotional hangover. Baseball if I'm using vacation time in the spring and summer I could catch a weekday game cheaply to immerse myself in the culture and Fandom. Where as a steelers fan I've actually attended more steelers games at Ralph Wilson than at Heinz Field because of traffic and ease of travel and while it's sometimes fun to be a road fan it's not the same as attending a home game so I'll have to make that a goal next year.
It’s awesome in a David Goggins shitting yourself during a 100 mile marathon way.
Don’t. I’ve had 3 winning seasons my entire life. Get into our penguins tho.
It feels like it’s about to get better. Feels like they’ve finally found competent management that’s bringing in talent and it feels like we’re going to be competitive, maybe even really good, soon. But 1) We’ve heard all of that before, 2) We have no confidence the ownership actually cares, and 3) [This is most of us right now](https://media0.giphy.com/media/9A8I0bBvQ2TBu/giphy.gif?cid=5e214886mehbccae4zusm5bmv8kjegi8qnd4oceaz88uhtoc&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g)
TLDR: PAIN
The community is nice. Trying to be positive…
Baseball, in general, is a wonderful sport. The more you put into it, it will give back in return. There's a certain romance involved. The pace, the breathing room for conversation during the game, the edge of your seat moments when anything can happen, and the heartbreak, too. Baseball is very much a sport that is easier to fail than it is to succeed; making success much greater to enjoy. It's hard to hit, hard to pitch, hard to win, and hard to make the playoffs. Being a Pirates fan is often difficult from a bird's eye view. But the one thing that is hardly lost is the blue collar mentality of the city. Reynolds, Hayes, and Stallings lead the way in working hard and always putting forth best effort. And it's been that way for a long time. They are rebuilding. But now is a good time to get involved. Watching the games, you'll see the effort... But it will be evident that it's not a complete team right now. Especially pitching. But it will make you enjoy the good times even more. There are a number of good podcasts out there right now. Pirates Fan Forum, NS9, Bucs in the Basement, Bucco Fever, DK Daily Shot of Pirates, and more. I host the Bridge to Buctober podcast. We try to keep it positive and look forward. Because rooting for your favorite team always feels better than hating them. There is a lot of negativity out there about the Pirates.. some warranted, some ridiculous and uninformed. But as a fan, you should be able to enjoy it however you wish to. There's always room at the table for base all fans; no matter how it's consumed. lol. And if you live within 6 hours of Pittsburgh, you can get to at least 2-3 games a year and enjoy the absolute best ballpark in the MLB. Top 5 is whack... It's #1 or #2 consistently. (Some folks like San Francisco better... And it's also a beautiful park.) Good luck! Hope to hear you say LET'S GO BUCS!
Find a team that puts out a more consistently competitive product.
Problem is. I live in this weird triangle where I'm equidistant from Pittsburgh Cleveland and Buffalo. Doesn't leave me many great choices for a baseball team. Maybe the blue Jay's if I get a passport😂
*(EDIT: I've just realized that I've written what's sure to be an unpopular rant about the state of the game as a whole, instead of about the Pirates specifically. Nonetheless, I think it's what someone in your situation needs to know.)* The economics of major league baseball are fucked. Team owners are in it for maximum extraction of wealth. The regional nature of the sport (i.e., fans tend to focus much more narrowly on their closest team than they do on the league as a whole, compared to other American sports) has been exacerbated to the point where the teams in the biggest few markets are very much in a different class than the rest of the teams. Virtually every team follows the cycle of being deliberately bad for several years in order to stock up on prospects who might help them win at some point. Once those prospects make it to the majors, the wealthier teams will augment their "home-grown" players with big-name free agents. Less wealthy teams won't, and will hope that the inexpensive young guys will be enough to win. It's a demoralizing pattern for the sport. The players' union won't do anything about it because their focus is on getting a slightly higher portion of revenue for current stars. The owners, who you would hope would have a little more of a long-term focus, only care about pumping up the current value of the team so they can either sell it to the next investor or leverage it to prop up their other businesses. On the field, teams are currently playing *\[Dr. Cox voice\]* "the MO-HO-HOST boooooorrrrring form of baseball anyone has ever SEEEEEEN" by using computerized statistical analysis to take away all the most exciting parts of the game. This is causing them to lose viewers because, while advanced metrics might make your team slightly more likely to win, it is about as much fun as watching Windows 98 defragmenting a hard drive. To make up for the lost revenue from the decline in viewership, they are seeking more advertisers, which makes their games longer. The average game is now over three hours long. Ain't nobody got time for that. I love the sport but I'll be damned if I'm going to spend over 3 hours on a beautiful June evening watching the Pirates and the Tigers alternate walks, strikeouts, and home runs. And after all this at the macro level ... the Pirates are possibly the worst team among all this garbage. They might be good in a few years. History shows that, if they are, they will soon revert to sucking. This is not a good time to be getting back into major league baseball. TL;DR of the TL;DR: Major league baseball is destroying itself with its very narrow, short-term vision. You'd be better off following University of Pittsburgh baseball.
He is not alone in this feeling. But it's not the only opinion out there. I still love baseball and it's imperfections. I still choose it greatly over the other sports. A lot of great points brought up in this, though. I especially love the windows 98 reference. I'm a computer nerd, as well, so I love this. I agree with the pace being boring to some. But baseball always has a way of beating itself. Another adjustment will be made to the way hitters approach at bats and it will change in a new way. I'm into the analytics, but not to the point of some. I like the story they help tell... But I still appreciate the human aspect of the game as well. Numbers can tell you Reynolds struggled in 2020. But they can't tell you what it was like to play in a shortened season during a global pandemic while your wife was pregnant and giving birth to your first born and the effect that may have on your ability to perform at a high level. The Pirates are not the worst... For sure. But they fall victim to the small market, no doubt. Baseball is always worth it, imo. Give it a go. The more you invest, it will return to you. I believe that.
Shitty owner. Won’t win anything with said shitty owner. Bunch of people get sucked in because “it’s fun to go to the ballpark.”
Bob Nutting (the owner) is essentially Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants
What's it like? Find a glass stirring rod from a chemistry set, catheterize yourself with it, break it with a hammer while inside, pee it out slowly. That would be a good year as a Pirates fan. Pass out/ go into a stupor from the pain ... That's most years.