Okay, this is going to be a blog about the Pittsburgh Pirates. I am going to attempt to follow the style that The Pensblog uses in their blog (as outlined at the bottom of this post and probably elsewhere in their archives, but I don't feel like searching). I am going to try to use their style, a style which I highly admire and probably won't even come close to duplicating, to talk about the Pirates. Like the Pensblog, for the most part I will try to focus on the positive aspects of the Pirates and not focus entirely on negatives (although unlike the Pens, the overall journalist impression of the Bucs, outside of Dejan Kovacevic and a few others, is one of apathy). Obviously, there will be some negatives (this is the Pirates we're talking about after all). I am not going to bog down this blog with tons of statistics (if you are interested in that sort of thing, I suggest reading WHYGAVS, one of the Pirates blogs that I read), although there might be a few basic references.
As the Pirates losing streak is almost old enough to vote, I figured now is as good a time as any to start a blog like this, especially seeing as today is Opening Day (you know, the only sellout game besides maybe a SkyBlast game). One thing I love about the Pensblog is that even when the Pens were the crypt-keepers of the NHL's basement, they were always able to take something positive from most games, and I will try to do the same with the Pirates. For now, I will probably try to do a preview and summary for each series the Pirates play, although if I feel it is appropriate I might do individual game posts. This blog will be mostly concerned with the Pirates, but I am a follower of all Pittsburgh sports, so if I feel something is noteworthy not related to the Pirates, I will write a post about it. I am still a college student right now, so I will try to keep up with this blog as best as I can.
A little about me
I have been an off and on Pirates fan nearly my whole life. I went to my first game around 1990 (I was 3). I played little league baseball for about 6 years, and volunteered as an umpire for a few years afterwards. When I was a kid, I didn't watch many sports games and only started seriously watching sports about three years ago, except for the Steelers, where I have watched almost every game since about 2003. Football is different from other sports though, in that it doesn't require as much of a commitment as hockey and baseball do. For the most part in football, there is only one game a week. Hockey averages about 3 games a week and baseball about 6. For a kid with as short an attention span as I had, especially with Pittsburgh's hockey and baseball teams not doing so well (baseball more so than hockey) as I was growing up, I missed out on a lot of games, which I regret now. We went to a few baseball or hockey games every year, and that is what I remember most about those teams. Not necessarily who was playing, but having fun at the stadium or arena with my family and friends, regardless of how bad the team was playing that day. Things like Mario burying it on some joke and the Igloo erupting. Things like Bluto asking if it was "over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor" when the Bucs were down by 7 runs in the bottom of the ninth. I remember a few names (Drabek, Van Slyke, Bonilla, Bonds, Kendall, Bay, Giles, Wilson, Sanchez, and others), but I couldn't tell you who was playing what position in a certain year. Maybe I was a bandwagon fan, I don't know. All I know is I decided to seriously pay attention to the sports teams in Pittsburgh a few years ago, and I don't ever plan to change that.
One reason I started this blog is to help me learn more about baseball outside of the Pirates. I know a few players on other teams, but nowhere near the level of knowledge that some fans possess. The more I write about the other teams, the more I have to research and the more knowledge I will gain. This will benefit this blog in the future.
First game of the season in a little over 11 hours.
Preview later today.
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