Master Index of Archived Threads


"Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Edgy MD Jul 05 2012 07:19 AM

At the close of play on July fourth, your Pittsburgh Pirates in sole possession of first place in the NL Central.

Lefty Specialist Jul 05 2012 07:36 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

When you absolutely, positively have to be in first place overnight... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeK5ZjtpO-M

Frayed Knot Jul 05 2012 07:38 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

I guess the surprising part is that they're starting to hit a bit. Remember early in the season when they were like 17th out of 16 teams in runs scored and just about every other offensive category and only great pitching was keeping them from not being like 5-30? Well they're still below average but have worked their way 6 spots up from the bottom which means that over the last 40 games or so they've got to be at least average if not above. McCutcheon's a legit MVP candidate while Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker & Garrett Jones have started to hit. The rest of the lineup even allowed them to send down Jose Tabata to keep him from being a vortex of suck (his ABs are going mostly to Jones). And their hurlers are still 3rd best in the NL in runs allowed.

Edgy MD Jul 05 2012 07:44 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Yeah, it was like, "What's gonna give? Are the pitchers going to start floating toward the mean, first, or the hitters?" And to their credit, like John Smiley and Doug Drabek in the days of yore, the pitchers kept grinding until the hitting came 'round.

Lefty Specialist Jul 05 2012 08:01 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

And the Pirates are getting nice production out of AJ Burnett, got the Yanks to pay most of his remaining salary and sent them a couple of pieces of driftwood in return.

metirish Jul 05 2012 10:25 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Lefty Specialist wrote: And the Pirates are getting nice production out of AJ Burnett, got the Yanks to pay most of his remaining salary and sent them a couple of pieces of driftwood in return. He has won 9 in a row? Not an AS either.......

Frayed Knot Jul 06 2012 07:11 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Last night's 2-0 shutout of the Astros gives the Pirates 14 wins in their last 19 and puts them 10 above .500 for the first time since George Bush was in the White House ... the first George Bush. (closing day of the 1992 season to be specific)

Frayed Knot Jul 26 2012 11:05 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Harvey not the only one with a good ML debut tonight. Pittsburgh called up highly touted OF prospect Starling Marte today and stuck him in the leadoff spot for their game in Houston. Marte homered on the first pitch of the game and the first ML pitch he saw. btw, if the line were set at 1.5, who would have taken the over on active major league players named 'Starling'

Edgy MD Aug 02 2012 03:17 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

McCutcheon wins NL PotM for the second straight month.

Frayed Knot Aug 19 2012 08:37 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Pirates score 3 in the 19th to beat the Cards 6-3 -- this was after the teams traded single runs in the 17th The win keeps the Bucs 2nd in the NL Central, on the good side of the line for one of the two WC berths, and 15 wins away (out of 40 games remaining) from their first winning season in 21 years. 14 wins will take them to exactly 81 wins while 15 nets them a true winning season, although I hope their fans are setting their sights a bit higher at this point.

Gwreck Aug 19 2012 08:47 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

They sent out playoff invoices to their season ticket holders.

G-Fafif Aug 19 2012 09:37 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Bringing this over from the "Let's Go ____" thread because it's Piratecentric and really good besides. Grantland's Michael Weinreb with the Bucs fans who've grown up without. Will almost make you forget the lingering bad taste from September 1990. In September, when (and if, always if) the Pirates win their 82nd game of the season, a couple of things might happen. The first is that my friend JB, who has been flipping the bird to the Port Matilda highway exit as a spiritual release anytime he drives back through central Pennsylvania, may finally let his anger go. The second is that a man named Tim Crouse may engage in a solitary prayer ritual in Columbus, Ohio. Crouse grew up sitting in the cheap seats at Three Rivers; on that night in 1992, he sat by himself in the dark, in an armchair situated about two feet from the television because the rest of his family had gone to bed. He was 16 years old, and the next morning in the hallway at school, nobody really spoke. He has never gone back and watched the ninth inning since. Crouse lives in Columbus now. He, like Pat Lackey, is a member of the Lost Generation, one of those Pirates fans scattered across America who has spent the past 19 years feeling lonely and disconnected. A few years ago, his brother-in-law, as a taunt, gave him a baseball card, an Upper Deck commemorative shot of Bream's foot touching home plate while the Pirates' catcher, Mike LaValliere, lunges at Bream's thigh. He keeps it in his wallet as a reminder. "I'm just a really optimistic guy by nature," he tells me. "I don't think I ever really got close to giving up on them." Since he left town, Crouse's city has evolved, even as his baseball team has struggled to keep up. The transformation that Midwest cities like Cleveland and Detroit are trying to muddle through has already taken place in Pittsburgh. This is largely because of the fortune that industrialists like Carnegie and others endowed to local institutions; Pittsburgh is no longer one of the largest cities in the country, but it is a pioneer of Rust Belt urban renewal. If the Steelers represent the city's ties to what it used to be, it is not hard to imagine that the Pirates can become the embodiment of the new Pittsburgh, an extension of the aspirational ethos that led Barney Dreyfuss to build Forbes Field. There is no reason to endure history anymore, which is why, when (and if) the Pirates win their 82nd game, Crouse plans to remove the baseball card from his wallet, whisper some sort of invocation, and then set the damned thing on fire.

Frayed Knot Aug 27 2012 07:19 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Pirates, stumbling in the midst of a 9-15 August, currently sit 1/2 game behind the Dodgers, 2 games behind StL, and 4-1/2 behind Atlanta for the two WC spots (not to mention 8 full in back of division-leading Cincy) Tonight they start a 3-game series at home vs St Louis. Winning 2 of 3 seems like a minimum requirement. On the other hand, on this date last year the Cardinals were 10 games in back of the Braves

Ceetar Aug 27 2012 07:27 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Much like the Mets with Wright, Pirates struggle when McCutchen doesn't hit for two.

Frayed Knot Sep 08 2012 07:48 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

* 13-21 since August 1st * 5-11 over your last 16 * 10 games out of the division lead * Tied with Dodgers 1-1/2 games behind StL for 2nd WC spot * Need to go 10-15 or better over the remaining games just to reach the streak-breaking 82 win plateau And committing [u:yvfp8jpy]SEVEN[/u:yvfp8jpy] errors in last night's game while getting blown out (12-2 ... w/9 of the runs unearned) by the freakin' Cubs is not a good start on those goals.

Frayed Knot Sep 11 2012 07:37 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Not that winning the Central is even in the cards for them anymore, but the Pirates started a series in Cincinnati last night. Tied in the 14th, the Pirates loaded the bases with no one out ... and failed to score (FO, GO, GO) And you can probably guess the rest -- Cincy wins it in the bottom half on a wild pitch followed by an infield single with two outs. That's now 4 straight losses; 9-21 since Aug 9th; 2-7 in September; 2.5 games out of the 2nd WC slot ... and [u:1uhby9um]only 4 games over .500[/u:1uhby9um]

Frayed Knot Sep 18 2012 07:03 AM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Pirates won in Chicago last night in a game that [u:2q5eym95]didn't start until 10:42 PM[/u:2q5eym95] due to rain. That gave them a split of the 4-game series which are their only two wins in the last eleven but it does keep them both on the fringes of the WC race and on the right side (+2) of the .500 mark. The one big advantage Pittsburgh has going forward? -- They have a four-game series with the Mets next week. That seems to be a tonic lately for NL teams who are looking to either secure (Wash, Atl) or fight for (Milw, Phil, Pitt) a post-season berth ... come on by and beat the Mets.

Frayed Knot Oct 03 2012 01:42 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Pittsburgh gets shut out on 4 hits by 8 Braves pitchers in their final game of the season to finish at 79-83

G-Fafif Oct 03 2012 01:45 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Pirates. Royals. Astros. Mets. Only four teams to not win as many as 80 games in any of the past four seasons.

TransMonk Oct 03 2012 01:52 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

Ouch.

themetfairy Oct 03 2012 02:00 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

The Pirates have not had a winning record in my two son's lifetime.

G-Fafif Oct 03 2012 02:12 PM Re: "Pittsburgh's perfect, Peter. May I call you Pete?"

While the Pirates have avoided .500 from 1993 forward, one team has never not had a winning record in that span. The MFYs' last losing record came the same year the Pirates last won anything. And fuck them.