PNC Park may be major league baseball’s crown jewel, but its first decade was spent with the peasants rather than the royal family. This was a place of bad baseball and bad teams. Fans rarely came for the baseball; many times they rarely came at all. Other than the All-star Game in 2006, the park was home to exactly zero meaningful moments, zero big games, and, really, zero chance of either.
Now, summer, 2011: Jose Veraz stares down Big Papi in the 9th. Jose Tabata drives in Xavier Paul to beat the Phillies in 12. Joel Hanrahan mows down batter after batter, night after night, 9th inning after 9th inning. Neil Walker fills the hometown city with pride. Andrew McCutchen blossoms into everything we always hoped for, the superstar the Pirates have been missing for, you know, nineteen years.
These are the scenes we’ve been waiting for. These are the moments we never thought we’d see. This is summer on the North Shore turned upside-down, where the Pirates are the ones who get all the breaks, pull out the close games, hustle on the bases and beat good teams. For the first time ever, luck and fortune reside in the home dugout at PNC Park. It’s happened now through 90 games, over half a season. It’s not just a fluke anymore. Improbably, amazingly, incredibly, the 2011 Pirates just might be…good.
Not really good, though. Who are we kidding? After all, the Pirates aren’t a good team by most traditional measures. They’ve scored less runs than the worst team in baseball, the Houston Astros. The team batting average is .247. If you go to the sortable team stats on mlb.com, a quick scroll through will reveal that Pittsburgh lies in the bottom third of all teams in most hitting and fielding stats. All things considered, it’s a small miracle that the Pirates finished the first half of this season with a 47-43 record, a game out of first place in the National League Central.
Most baseball minds are predicting that the team will never keep the current pace. Logic, not to mention 19 years worth of hard evidence, suggests that they will eventually slide back toward their usual resting place, otherwise known as last place. Nothing to see here, move along. Just another summer in Pittsburgh.
But we must celebrate something, right? How about meaningful baseball games? How about actual fans in the seats? How about 19 years of bad momentum swinging all at once in the other direction? How about a pitching staff who can consistently deliver? How about a skipper, Clint Hurdle, embracing his young team, becoming every manager we’ve ever wanted?
Let’s pause here for a look at just how unlikely this Pirates season has been so far. Their best power hitter (Pedro Alvarez) batted .202 with 2 home runs; he’s only played in 36 games but still leads the team with 67 strikeouts. Their top free agent power bat and opening-day cleanup hitter (Lyle Overbay) has an OPS of .667, only 10 points higher than light-hitting Ronny Cedeno. Their best pitcher has given up 17 home runs, fifth-most in the majors. Their starting shortstops and third basemen have 25 errors combined.
Notice that there hasn’t yet been any mention of injuries.
Injuries have wracked the team from the very beginning. Alvarez has missed 54 games. Jose Tabata, the only known player in major league history to be carted off on a stretcher for a quad strain, has missed 19. Starting catchers Ryan Doumit and Chris Snyder have missed 56 games apiece. Pitchers Ross Ohlendorf and Evan Meek have appeared in 22 2/3 innings combined. Almost half the current roster is from either Triple-A or the waiver wire.
And yet…the Pirates have a winning record at the break for the first time since 1992. Three all-stars for the first time since 1990. Meaningful games in July for the first time since 1999. A manager who knows what he’s doing for the first time since…Jim Leyland?
Things are different now. People don’t watch Pirate games at bars; they go to bars to watch Pirate games. The standard joke – “Is it football season yet” – has been retired, and not just because of the NFL lockout. Fans are going to PNC Park to actually see games and not fireworks.
Remember all those trades we hated? Remember when July meant giving up our best guys for “prospects” and “depth”? Well, the payoff is here, in a way: the Pirates didn’t miss a beat this season, even when half the team went on the disabled list. The guys from Triple-A were called up, and the team kept…winning. Depth. Just what we always wanted.
The Bucs now find themselves in a most unusual and unfamiliar position entering the stretch run. They’re on the other side of the bargaining table. Maybe they won’t make a move, because the roster will already be overstuffed when the platoon of injured players returns. But just knowing that our favorite players will still be around in August is refreshing. This team will get a chance to finish what it started.
The 2011 Pirates may or may not finish with a winning record. They might slide slowly back down the standings, where they seemingly belong. The first 90 games may ultimately turn out to be a fluke. But really, who cares? It’s 2011, and the Pirates might be good. There’s a pennant race, and the Pirates are in it. Good teams come to PNC Park and lose. A superstar plays for our team. Pirate hats are worn around town with pride. These are the scenes we’ve been waiting for