Before, I prayed heavily for the Dallas Cowboys to jettison Terrell Owens, giving them rightful chances to rise back to the top with a potential quarterback, Tony Romo. I prayed greatly for the Los Angeles Lakers to find their pride again after trading Shaq to Miami, so the Buss family could pacify Kobe Bryant. I’ve now being praying mightily for the Chicago Cubs to snap a demoralizing curse and appease Wrigleyville faithful.
But I now find myself praying for the Pittsburgh Pirates. With years of futility, the Pirates are the one franchise that has encountered disappointment, hopelessness, and dispirited fans. In the Steel City, your enthusiastic sports fanatics merely wear French Mustard yellow and dark night black, representing the latest Super Bowl champs, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Fittingly, Pittsburgh is a football town and hockey town, not a baseball town and probably won’t be until 20 years from now. In recent memory, it’s difficult to remember the Pirates having a successful season.
You can only recall them compiling more losses than victories, which propelled unsettled fans to turn a new direction. Ever since then, PNC Park has been an empty ballpark, an environment where the players only entertain themselves and struggle to preserve victories.
Sorry, the Pirates are Major League’Baseball's most pathetic team. It’s obvious, when half of its fan base has turned away, and a dozen of former players are currently playing with different clubs. Since salvaging a winning season during the 1992 season with Barry Bonds, the Pirates have unraveled as the forgotten team in the majors. The most wins they’ve accumulated since the 1992 season are 79 in 1997.
It’s staggering for a team, which use to be dominant and consisted of great athletes. If the Pirates are ambitious about removing ineptitude and restoring back into NL threats, in likelihood they’ll need assistance from an unstable economy. But unfortunately, the Pirates have to patiently wait before improving into contenders.
Until then, they have a long time before flourishing and enthralling fans as if they were glimpsing at Ben Roethlisberger hurl a phenomenal pass to Santonio Holmes, or Sidney Crosby firing a powerful slapshot into the net.
During our fragile times, economic downturns and financial issues have impaired eminence, including the small-market franchise. Teams with limited finances are usually less fortunate and have the lowest payroll, particularly when times are horrendous.
In other words, if the league can manage to develop a more stable salary cap, maybe the Pirates winning a pennant is more rational in years to come. It will enable executives to rebuild an assuring culture, and actually hold on to players instead of dealing their potential players.
Rumor has it, the Pirates aren’t enthusiastic to win. Their payroll has drastically declined from $57 million to $23 million, which is perplexing after starting off the season fairly good enough to upgrade. It’s hard to tell if they care to win, or are more concerned with saving money, but whichever way the masses visualize the bewildered state of a futile organization, the Pirates will have to renovate and remodel through a healthier economy.
Otherwise, this team will always be identified as pathetic idiots, fans will always express unhappiness and they’ll suffer for at least two more decades. Over the years, the Pirates haven’t being able to keep their cohesive core intact, trading Aramis Ramirez, Jason Bay, and Xavier Nady.
I guess a team’s reputation follows after selling half of its promising future to other major league teams. Instantly, they traded some of their marquee players, like former batting champ Freddy Sanchez to San Francisco, Jack Wilson to Seattle, and Nate McLouth, who was considered a cornerstone for developing in the future.
For the most part, general manager Neal Huntington and owner Bob Nutting swear fans were content, once rooster changes were made. If anything, foolish moves should’ve made a distraught population worst and convinced them that a World Series title isn’t anywhere near. Of course, for years, fans have implored the franchise to rebuild. But that’s not rebuilding when you sale a dozen of your promising players.
Although the Pirates still have emerging rookies, such as outfielder Andrew McCutchen and a sensational Garrett Jones, the missing pieces are veterans who can be a powerful advisers. For 17 straight seasons, the substandard Pirates have suffered losing seasons, and counting, if management fails to install new attributes.
For now, all that’s left is to pray that the Pirates overcome pathetic losses.
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