A Better Pirates Team Won’t Improve the Discourse About Them on it’s Own

3-30-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

Oh yes, you’ve been hurt, and to some of you this team could win the World Series and it would only lead to your undying correctness. Truth is, eventually, you will be right. At some point they will come down the other side of the mountain they’re climbing whether they reach the top or not.

I’m kinda tired of fighting about it.

Look, this team is whatever you want it to be for you. If you want it to be a never ending grift like Mark Madden tells you every year in the 5 minutes he acknowledges the team’s existence, ok.

If the payroll being near the bottom outweighs where the actual on field talent looks to have the team like Tim Benz would have you believe in his yearly fly by of the laughingstock Pirates, have whatever you constitute as fun then.

Paul Skenes didn’t make the team out of Spring Training, so if that makes the team unserious as most members of the pathetic Pirates flag ship 93.7 the Fan would tell you. Well, unless they have “Shelty” on, then they totally understand if not full throated endorse whatever it is.

I’m not even going to touch all the obvious trolls, they’re here just to piss with you and try to steal joy from anyone who dares to just be happy their team started 2-0. “Yeah, World Series Bound!” They’ll crow, because clearly being happy about anything is equivalent.

Others have simply been around a long time and never allowed themselves to see anything change in this game, up to and including free agency. Parker leaving was their first lesson in this team being “cheap” and the league took care of the rest ever since. Each new owner was just a new poster boy for why we couldn’t keep anyone. They don’t want to hear salary cap stuff, or TV money, let alone financial restrictions this team might have, if it’s the league’s fault or theirs.

Thing is, aside from the obvious trolls, Madden included, everyone is at least a little right. Or, at least they will be.

It really struck me yesterday when the Pirates traded JT Brubaker, I mean, we don’t even have the return yet, but if you wanted it to be a salary dump, you’re 100% convinced it is. If you think every move the team makes is stupid, this move just got added to the list of evidence for you.

Winning is the only thing that’ll change this, and it’ll only change it long enough for most of these people to quiet down a bit. If they make the playoffs, guys like Madden will talk about it, stress how lucky they got with this guy they signed, or how they couldn’t screw up on Paul Skenes, but he’ll be gone by this year “Har har har har”.

You aren’t going to change minds, you aren’t going to fight people into thinking like you do, or being satisfied with sucking for 10 years to get a bite at the apple.

I see fans frustrated with it.

Fans who just want to enjoy baseball, or more specifically their team play the game they love. Fans who don’t hate the team throughout the process can feel like they have no place. No real home where they can just talk about this baseball team as it is now. Be frustrated with something and not have expressing it turn into a barrage of those same trolls you almost constantly fend off or ignore suddenly agreeing with you, or more accurately, over agreeing and taking your frustrations to their “natural” conclusion as far as they’re concerned.

It’s caused what feels like dozens of Facebook groups that “are going to be positive” and the thing is, that’s not how baseball works.

Think about Thursday’s opening day game in Miami. How can you have watched that game and think everything that happened was positive? They won, that’s the ultimate, but it wouldn’t have been exciting at all if it weren’t for those negatives.

You need the Yin and Yang of good and bad in baseball, that’s the game, a game in which failing 7 out of 10 times could get you in the Hall of Fame.

I’m not here to tell you anyone, or any site is your oasis. I mean, we try to be fair here, but make no mistake, sometimes that’s going to be negative, sometimes it’s going to feel like cheerleading. Our only rule here is be fair. If there are two ways to see something, let’s make sure we see and talk about both.

There are people who would legitimately be angry if Alika Williams hit a homerun or Bailey Falter tossed 5 scoreless innings. If only because they can’t help but think it means the Pirates will see it and ignore their sage advice that both of these players need DFA’d.

Again, I don’t see either of these guys as part of the future, but a win is a win, and I’ll take contributions from wherever they come. Even if it’s the only one they ever make.

This team is going to be relevant for at least the rest of the decade, you better get used to accepting all this stuff isn’t going away regardless.

160 more of these are on the way, hopefully even more than that. Instead of trying to be right, let’s focus on being honest, and open to hearing things we don’t like. But don’t you for one second avoid enjoying any of this, you earned it, and those who would rob you of that joy, well, they’ll earn their own reward.

They’re 2-0. That doesn’t mean much more than most of us who just want to watch our team win were happy a couple times. For far too many it’s a direct threat to the narrative they ran with. 7-0 won’t change that. 20-8 didn’t change that. A playoff appearance won’t either.

Spend energy on your joy, not trying to convince people to see it like you do. Ignore them, fight with them, whatever, but please quit acting like there’s a magic bullet of information that’s going to smarten them up.