The first batch of 2012 Annuals is currently on its way to Tim’s doorstep, and should start shipping by the weekend. The section of the book that I enjoyed working on the most was easily the story of the early 1990’s Pirates teams. Beginning with Syd Thrift’s discovery of undrafted free agent Bobby Bonilla in Europe in 1981, the section details how the Pirates rebuilt from the troubles of the mid-1980’s to become one baseball’s best teams in the early 90’s.
To commemorate the release of the Annual, I am going to take a trip back to my childhood, and I would love for you to join. On Thursday at 7 PM, I am going to dust off my old Pirates highlight videos, power up my newly-purchased used VCR and live-blog the heck out of whatever happens next. I own the videos from 1988, 1990 and 1991, so those are the ones on the evening’s agenda. I have no idea if videos were made for the 1989 or 1992 seasons, but even if they were, I don’t own them.
So join me on Thursday night, and relive Junior Ortiz’s broken collarbone, Neal Heaton’s screw-knuckle-change, Curtis Wilkerson’s walk-off grand slam, and everything in between.
