Who's on First?
I've explained the following to several of my baseball-fan friends of mine down here in Miami, and been met with nothing but understanding, but have hesitated on blogging about it because once upon a time our tag-line was "don't be cynical." However, after scanning the PBC Blog today, I've removed it from my bookmark list (which seems like my personal interaction with the internet most akin to this notion the kids have these days about "unfriending" (or is it "defriending") people on the facebook--I don't go to the internet but for a few hours a day (though this is sure to increase now that I've got a job-with-responsibilities-that-include-things-like-going-to-the-internet-during-workdays-to-check-my-email), so my bookmarks are few and unexciting in the first place, but the Pirates had managed to cling to a spot there (I guess I could also compare this to my telephone's speed-dial, but I've never had a telephone with a speed-dialer (except that I press-and-hold "1" to call my voice mail on my smellphone))).
We here on the blog, and our father as well, have discussed several times over the past handful of baseball seasons, that Kovacevic's blogging is about the only thing that makes the Pirates follow-able. So, in honor of that, here's a final quote of inspiration:
Way back in the '90s, probably around the time of the steroid-fueled homerun mayhem that for many people apparently revitalized the National Past-time, I seem to recall losing about all interest in Major League baseball. I think I still probably went to a few games with the family (perhaps I maintained a... mild interest (and enjoyed shouting at Aramaramirez, back when he was a pudgy, mopey third-basemen (feeling, probably, a kindred spirit of the pudgy-mopey type)), but--and I'm not great at inventing personal historical narratives--the loss of interest must have happened, because later on, at some point during college, and re-vampedly so a couple of years ago, I more or less decided to follow the Pirates again, mostly for the sake of relating to others.
That renewed interest generally led to a blogged-about-in-the-past following of the Pirates every year at the beginning of the season until they got so terrible that they were impossible to bother with. But this year, that loss of interest has happened before they even got out of the gate. The PBC Blog is just not doing it for me, and not even the fact that it's trying to do it for me is doing it for me.
So if they miraculously do well, and Jeff Clement has less than, like, 24 errors at first base, you can call me a fair-weather fan if I ever mention the Pirates again. But otherwise, I just can't bother any more.
(Though, as an ever-important fashion note (and what do I like to talk about more than my own clothing), I will continue to wear my increasingly awesomely worn-in Pirates-give-away-cap-with-logo-of-advertiser-torn-out until further notice.)
We here on the blog, and our father as well, have discussed several times over the past handful of baseball seasons, that Kovacevic's blogging is about the only thing that makes the Pirates follow-able. So, in honor of that, here's a final quote of inspiration:
In the past, this feature was an analysis of five reasons why the Pirates will win, five reasons why they will not. But, in the interest of full disclosure, I truncated the whole thing to three because I had genuine difficulty spreading out five facets in the winning column.Going to Spring Training, in of itself, was an enjoyable experience. The field is nice, and the atmosphere is great, and the general vibe of being at Spring Training is fun (though the second of the two games that I attended was a double-digit-runs-having festival of boredom). But golly, what have I taken away, about the Pirates? That they're terrible. And there's a small handful of players that it might be entertaining to follow. So what's the point. I can email with my brothers about plenty of other things.
Way back in the '90s, probably around the time of the steroid-fueled homerun mayhem that for many people apparently revitalized the National Past-time, I seem to recall losing about all interest in Major League baseball. I think I still probably went to a few games with the family (perhaps I maintained a... mild interest (and enjoyed shouting at Aramaramirez, back when he was a pudgy, mopey third-basemen (feeling, probably, a kindred spirit of the pudgy-mopey type)), but--and I'm not great at inventing personal historical narratives--the loss of interest must have happened, because later on, at some point during college, and re-vampedly so a couple of years ago, I more or less decided to follow the Pirates again, mostly for the sake of relating to others.
That renewed interest generally led to a blogged-about-in-the-past following of the Pirates every year at the beginning of the season until they got so terrible that they were impossible to bother with. But this year, that loss of interest has happened before they even got out of the gate. The PBC Blog is just not doing it for me, and not even the fact that it's trying to do it for me is doing it for me.
So if they miraculously do well, and Jeff Clement has less than, like, 24 errors at first base, you can call me a fair-weather fan if I ever mention the Pirates again. But otherwise, I just can't bother any more.
(Though, as an ever-important fashion note (and what do I like to talk about more than my own clothing), I will continue to wear my increasingly awesomely worn-in Pirates-give-away-cap-with-logo-of-advertiser-torn-out until further notice.)
2 Comments:
Jeff Clement at first base is going to be like 1985 Tony Pena in Pure-Stat Baseball. Who, at least in the IBM release, had his fielding percentage fatfingered as 02 instead of 92.
There's a longer discussion, maybe, in why I similarly started following the Pirates again around 2004-2005 after losing interest for years, along with picking up the Steelers: I think the short answer is that graduating from college left me with a lot of time on my hands and leaving Pittsburgh made me want a nostalgic connection to the place. But I plan on following this season for a while, dammit. First because I think Kovacevic manages to write great stories about completely negligible games. And second because I can't last all the way until the NFL season starts reading mock drafts, Roethlisberger sexual assault allegation news, and Santonio Holmes' Twitter feed. Third because despite watching Sidney Crosby prevail in that fantastic Canada-USA gold medal hockey match I just can't bring myself to get into the NHL.
Well, you're quitting Kovacevic's blog just in time for it to go into the Post-Gazette's pay-for-access section. So you'll save yourself $3 or $4 a month.
Spring training mostly left me feeling disappointed I won't be able to see more than a couple games in person this year. They don't come to Queens till September (and for midweek games, blah), and recent history shows that the Pirates are basically unwatchable that late in the season.
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