Since the Buccos Slid

[lethalweapon3]

Is this really about to happen? Finally?

Full disclosure: I was a Pirates fan in the early 80s (one of my fallback teams behind the Phillies... I know, ick...), but by the time I moved to Pittsburgh, my fandom waned, right as they embarked upon what seemed to be a certain dynasty behind Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke, skinny Barry Bonds, and Doug Drabek. The first baseman on the 1990 team that won the division pennant for the first tie since the We Are Family champs from 1979? Sid Bream. He hit free agency after the season.

Now cheering on the Bravos, i can't help but feel like Sid put a hex on them on the way out the door.

When Sid Slid two seasons later, capping a 9th-inning rally and clinching the Braves' return to the World Series in 1992, there was only the slightest hint we were witnessing an epic crossroads of fate.

The long-suffering Braves rattled off 12 more consecutive division titles, winning its first title in Atlanta a few years after ousting the Pirates from the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the 3-time-world champion Pirates' franchise completely fell into an abyss.

A win in Milwaukee tonight would put Clint Hurdle's troopers at 81 wins and grant the Pirates a ,500 record for the first time since that ouster at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium way back in 1992. That's over two decades, folks. 9 of those seasons in dead-last place in their division.

Six presidential elections in that span since the Braves win in October 1992. Michael Keaton was still Batman. Sinead O'Connor had just crapped on her own career, and "I Will Always Love You" was looking like a probable hit for a spry Whitney Houston. Kurt Cobain was an up-and-comer. Cartoon Network just premiered on cable, while on network TV, it seemed this Jay Leno character just might pan out on The Tonight Show. A saxophone-playing governor was on the verge of becoming President. A Pirates fan born on the day When Sid Slid may be able to legally drink an Iron City Light beer next month.

I'm still holding out the possibility that the Pirates get swept the rest of the way and screw it up again. In the past two seasons, the Pirates were sitting pretty in mid-summer before falling all the way down to 4th place.

On July 19, 2011, the Buccos won and moved a half-game ahead in the NL Central with a 51-45 record... then they went 21-45 to finish the season at 72-90, 24 games behind the Brewers.

Last season, fans figured the Pirates were in the clear after making it all the way past the first week of August with a sizable winning record. August 8, 2012, they won to move to 63-47 (16 games above .500) and just 2.5 games out of first in the division. They sputtered to the finish line, going 16-36 to clock in at 79-83, 18 games out of first.

It looks like they're finally going to get over that losing-season hump. Something keeps telling me, though, to believe it only when I see it.

~lw3

[ATLHawks3]

I still can't get used to them being good. I hope that we face them in the NLCS because I believe that Dodger team is massively overrated, and it will be 2 of the best teams in baseball going head to head, 21 years in the making.

[macdaddy]

There is nothing better for baseball than the Pirates and Royals finally looking decent. To me NFL is successful for a whole bunch of reasons but one of them is that they rarely have teams that go 20 years without sniffing the playoffs. I don't know if its really parity or not, but having baseball teams just there to get beat up and lose talent isn't a good thing.

[frosgrim]

Here's to the Pirates making the playoffs. While I hate the Steelers, all things Philly, and the Nittny Lions, I have a lot of sympathy for Pirates fans. I even sort of like those early 90s Pirates teams. They played the game the "right" way and had some guys that just flat out good players (pre-steroids Bonds, Van Slyke, Dreybeck, Jose Lind, etc.)

Second, being an Atlanta sports fan I get the long and suffering thing and I wouldn't whish that on any fan base, well except Cowboys, 49ers, and TB Bucs, oh, and of course Florida.

So, I'm all for the Pirates going as far as they can in the NL playoffs until they meet the Braves. And, I'll cheer for them against all other teams, except my adopted hometown Boston Red Sox.