I was never much of a Pittsburgh Pirates fan growing up.
I don’t really remember the Barry Bonds throw to try and get Sid Bream at the plate.
I didn’t follow the 1997 Freak Show. At all.
The Pirates were my most local team, spending the first 12 years of my life in central PA. I enjoyed going to games with my family, and I was in the upper deck of the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game in 1994 when Ken Griffey Jr. put on a show. After I left for Virginia, I didn’t really follow them.
That changed in 2003.
I gradually stopped following my childhood team, the Baltimore Orioles, after Cal Ripken Jr. retired. I was in college in 2003, wrapping up the end of my freshman year. I returned to my dorm room and put the Pirates on for Opening Day and seeing that Reggie Sanders and Kenny Lofton had homered. There’s a feeling you get when a free agent name you’ve heard of signs with the team you follow and starts doing well. In my case, Sanders and Lofton made the team interesting to follow in a way that asked: Could the Pirates finally be good?
That team began the season with four straight wins and finished with 75 wins. Not to throw cold water on the current 5-0 start by the Pirates, but there’s still a lot of season remaining.
Still, there’s a feeling that the 2024 team gives…
*****
I had a day off on Wednesday.
This was a scheduled day off, and I was happy to get to Wednesday morning and realize that I was ahead of schedule with my writing, allowing me to take the day. I had ideas to write, but I made an effort to avoid writing all day, and to avoid baseball as much as I could. The idea of the off day is to refresh my mind so that I can return strong the following day.
Despite this off-day focus, there was no way I was going to miss the Pirates game at 6:45 PM.
This Pirates team is fun to watch. The feeling they give is that each game could be entertaining. You’re not going to plan your entire day around unwinding with the Pirates, only for them to wind you up in the early innings. In fact, it’s more likely that they’ll score in the early innings and help you unwind with a roar as two runs cross the plate. And even if they give up four in the early innings, the offense is still talented enough to keep you watching.
Rowdy Tellez and Michael A. Taylor aren’t the same in name power as Sanders and Lofton in 2003. Tellez and Taylor play specific roles that help this team — power at first base and defense in center field. Anything else from them is a bonus.
This time around, the draw is from the big names that we’ve been hearing about all through the Pirates “build”. There’s Henry Davis behind the plate, Oneil Cruz getting a chance at his first full MLB season, Jared Triolo showing what he can do as a starter, and then the core that includes Bryan Reynolds and Ke’Bryan Hayes. There might be some Jeff Suppan quality with Martin Perez or Marco Gonzales, but the big draws on the pitching side will be Mitch Keller, Jared Jones, and eventually Paul Skenes.
When you watch this team succeed, it’s a team that is built to be together and grow together for years. And that makes the feeling they give even better, knowing it’s only going to get better as the years go on.
*****
I spent the 2017-2019 seasons banging the drum that the Pirates needed to have a singular focus with their attempts to win. That meant going all-out with a full rebuild and focus at the minor league levels, until they had a group of players who were ready to be built around at the Major League level.
The Pirates did that in their build under Ben Cherington.
They spent three years tanking, with some of the lowest payrolls in the league, and zero focus on free agents. This led to two first overall picks, which led to Davis and Skenes. They also spent creatively during this time, including front-loading an extension with Ke’Bryan Hayes, which will pay him under $10 million per year for most of the remainder of his deal that has team control through 2030.
The prospects who were added were all on a similar timeline to the majors. The Pirates ended up with a convergence of young players arriving over the last two years, which coincided with their increased focus in free agency.
Overall, Ben Cherington has done a great job to build this team up to a point where they could contend for years. Most of their core players and top prospects are under team control through 2028-2030. The early start to this season gives hope that 2024 will be the opening of a window that extends through those 2028-2030 seasons.
Pittsburgh deserves a long winning stretch from the Pirates. This is a town that relies heavily on sports for their entertainment, and for social purposes. For decades, the Pirates have mostly brought their fans shame and embarrassment to be known as a person who spends their time watching a losing franchise. When the Pirates are winning, and the bandwagon starts to fill up with old fans and new, there’s a certain energy that is unmatched by any other fanbase.
It’s enough to make anyone want to cheer on this team.
