I grew up in central Pennsylvania, including time in the Altoona area. It has taken me a long time in my life to realize that I’m more Philly than Pittsburgh.
Maybe I’m just ready for Sixers basketball to return.
Sports provide a wonderful escape from daily life. Expression is one of the most important things for any human, and we all seek things which will make us cheer. It’s healthy. Very few types of screaming are accepted in this society, but the one universally accepted is standing up out of impulse, and with an uncontrolled smile, screaming “YEAH!!!!”
Sports provide that escape. If your day was bad, sports provide an opportunity to lift you back up.
There were several nights last year where I had a horrible day, and the Philadelphia 76ers turned it around. Tyrese Maxey nailing stepback threes and impossibly accurate floaters. Joel Embiid powering his way through the lane with two defenders and still making the basket, followed by a celebration which would get him fined, but live in the minds of fans forever as iconic. I’m very much looking forward to the additions of Paul George and Jared McCain this season. Basketball is like a chess game, and adding another big man who can shoot from three, plus another young shooter to join Maxey, opens up the board for an elite player like Embiid. This will be an exciting team to watch this year.
And that is one of the big reasons we’re all here.
No, not Sixers basketball.
Expression.
There are very few things in life that allow us to honestly express our views of the world, without drawing a heated argument and endless trolls. Sports provides that.
No one is going to find it controversial that I’m excited about an upcoming professional basketball season, with a specific interest in one team. If they’re also fans, they might delight at the opportunity for such a conversation about the game they, too, love.
I’ve been in airports wearing a Tampa Bay Rays hoodie and have had random strangers come up to me with excitement asking if I saw the game last night. I don’t tell them I’m a sports writer. My edibles may or may not have already kicked in by that point. I just match their enthusiastic level about the conversation piece, comment about Randy Arozarena hitting another home run (Dammit, Rays), and then we both leave happy with a positive interaction with another human being in this world.
That’s what we all seek. It’s what fuels us. Community.
Sports provides that opportunity.
Unless the team is horrible. Like the Pittsburgh Pirates have been lately.
There’s a catch to honest expression. When it’s negative, it needs to be universally regarded as negative to be accepted without argument. If there’s doubt as to the negativity, then debate begins to trend into the realm of disagreeable discourse. We’ve all been on Pirates Twitter.
Unfortunately for Pittsburgh Pirates fans, they’ve been universally regarded as negative for a long time, without argument. The Pirates have created a situation for themselves over the last several decades where positivity is treated with the caution usually reserved for negativity.
I’m more Philly than Pittsburgh. I’m more an AL East fan than an NL Central fan.
I did grow up following the Pirates closely. Half of my family is from Pittsburgh, and I was in their local broadcast market. I know full well that any big family gathering in Pittsburgh gets the ice broken with a conversation about the endless unconditional love for the Steelers, the hope for the Penguins, and the ever-long disappointment over the Pirates.
Not everyone follows all three teams. There are some who are just Pirates fans. Or, who put the Pirates first, for some reason.
I’ve spent years interacting with Pirates fans online. Way back in my college days, I would read and post on the MLB.com message boards. I would have endless debates that a walk was as good as a single, tout Moneyball and the dedication to the minor league system by other small market teams, and even get into heated blowups with some of the trolls. That was Pirates Twitter before Twitter was a thing. Some of those old message board posters are still around in today’s online discussions.
I had my role in early Pirates Twitter, including blowups with some trolls. And, blowups with some people who were just like me, with a different view, and a penchant to be on the lookout for the trolls.
In August 2021, I returned to the PNC Park press box for the first time in years. I happened to run into Dejan Kovacevic, who I had many online arguments with over the years. I apologized for my role in those earlier interactions. He breathed a sigh of relief and told me he thought I was going to beat him up. Last summer, I had a chance to share a game with Dejan in the press box, and it was very interesting seeing the game develop through his perspective as he was watching and reacting live. I’m talking the real live file.
I have nothing but respect for Dejan, even if we do disagree on some topics. He’s doing the same thing I’ve always aimed to do, and also on an independent level. He’s providing a place for fans of the team to escape into their entertainment world of choice and express themselves about their interest.
Every beat writer and every columnist is attempting the same, and I’ve got respect for all of their roles. Most of them don’t like me, and I like to think that’s because I’m the only one who gives myself the authority to write about the team. Each one of them was given permission by a boss to publish their words, with an editor to check what they say before it goes live.
Some of those beat writers are living out the early days of getting used to the idea that people read and react to the things they report — along with finding out how far from the stadium fans are interested in their lives. Others are beyond that point, and have reached the stage where they want to feel like they’ve actually reached their own version of the Major Leagues that they worked hard to achieve as a goal set many years ago. Some move on from the beat to be able to express their thoughts and opinions to the masses, as their own version of a a check in providing balance. No matter the stages or roles, each one of them fears a boss who decides their fate. Plus, an ever-diluting revenue stream throughout the industry which makes any outlet at risk of disappearing.
We all have that fear in common.
My role in this scene, in the 16th season I’ve covered this organization on this site, is to provide a check. Not even Dejan can match the check I provide.
For years, I used my database brain to know everything there was to know about anything involving baseball player development inside the Pittsburgh Pirates system. I knew a revolving group of 200 minor leaguers by face and name, with the ability to tell you a full report on the spot. The Pirates media relations people would ask me to identify players for them every Spring Training. I also knew what most of those players were working on, and had worked on throughout their careers. And I knew the coaching and development approaches they were being taught, even down to a visit in the Dominican Republic.
Before I stepped back from reporting in 2019 for health reasons (my brain nearly exploded that July), I was advocating for better conditions for the minor league players. To their credit, the Pirates made those changes earlier than Major League Baseball required them.
When the Pirates kept seeing prospects fail in Pittsburgh, only to go on to have success elsewhere, I was one of many people writing that they needed a change. I didn’t like calling for Neal Huntington’s firing, personally. I respect the man, the baseball knowledge, and the kindhearted approach he took. Yet, I also knew the reasons why the Pirates needed a change at the time. If I’m going to grade certain prospects to ultimately fail based on the results, especially when the results run stagnant, then I have to take the same approach for any member of the organization.
That’s true of any reporter or writer.
It’s a great power, and one which I try to wield with great responsibility.
The last four years have been surprisingly methodical, despite the madness that may have been portrayed from my evolving process.
I spent 2021 evaluating the entire Pittsburgh Pirates universe, from the media, to the rapidly expanding online scene of podcasts and new prospect social accounts, to the Pirates early rebuilding efforts, to the rapidly evolving landscape of internet advertising and subscription revenues, plus the evolving internet itself.
I spent 2022 trying to make the best site possible, attempting the old group approach that led to burnout in 2018. It led to burnout in 2022, but it showed me the ceiling for this operation that I’ve run for so long, and how to get there.
In 2023, I tried to avoid burnout with the group site, while also finding time to write my own articles to make revenue as the advertising industry was in flux. That all blew up, and I spent most of October watching Sixers basketball, rather than paying any attention to the Pirates, or writing on this site. It was nice to get a break from another lackluster offseason, to be honest.
This year was always the real year for me. Back in 2020, when I laid out my long-term almost rehab to return to writing full-time, this was the year that I committed to being a sports writer again, full-time, until I decide to quit for good. I’m a different type of check today.
I don’t know all of the players by name and face, but I can tell you the story of almost all of them with my rebuilt database memory. I can also tell you some of the overarching strategies that have taken place, along with the success or failure contributions of each approach. I spent all of 2022 watching this system through the eyes of the writers at Bucs on Deck, while essentially producing their future site with what worked and what didn’t. I added my own version of advanced scouting research with my own live reporting throughout the year.
In 2020, when I mapped out this long-term approach to my site, I knew that by 2024 we would have an indication of whether this rebuilding plan was working or not.
If it was working, 2024 would be easy. Every sports fan wants to talk about the positive involving their interest. Writing about the positive is fun.
If it wasn’t working, I’d be entering my own opinion into the reason as to why it wasn’t working. And we all know how the negative can be perceived. Especially from a team that tells everyone to just wait until it eventually works.
This is not working.
That’s not to say the Pirates can’t be contenders with the right adjustments. The thing about establishing a long-term plan back in 2020 is that no one really knows the future enough to map out when things will be up, and when things will be down. There are a lot of changes that need to be made to contend, but they merely involve adjusting the approaches set several years ago which aren’t working.
Today, I wrote about why the organization is failing from owner Bob Nutting all the way to the Dominican Academy. It all starts with Nutting ending his MLBPA grievance-causing aversion to spending money on Major League payroll. There are more things the Pirates need to do to improve, starting with their hitting approach. All of it is for nothing if Nutting doesn’t eventually spend.
READ: The Pittsburgh Pirates Are Failing, From Owner Bob Nutting to the Dominican Academy
Honestly, after finishing writing that article, I am ready for Sixers season. I don’t blame you if you’re ready for Steelers season. It’s difficult to see how the Pirates right now are anything but universally regarded as negative in a deserving way.
But, if you’re still following the Pirates the rest of the year, I’ll be here. And there are other articles to read on the site when you’re done with that column, including the daily articles linked below.
There’s no place to express your comments on this site, as I didn’t want to deal with moderating a comment section this year. Plus, I grew tired of writing articles about young prospects developing, only to have someone comment that the player would be a bust, all because the Pirates lost the night before.
I’m available at TimWilliamsP2 and PirateProspects on Twitter, and I check the r/buccos forum occasionally. I’m even known to issue an argument in favor of Jazz Chisholm Jr. from time to time.
Two Draft Picks Make Their Debuts
Fifth round outfielder Will Taylor and seventh round left-hander Connor Wietgrefe were added to the Bradenton Marauders roster. Both players made their pro debuts on Tuesday. Wietgrefe pitched a scoreless inning, striking out the side. Taylor went 0-for-3 with a walk. You can read about their debuts, with velocity information on Wietgrefe, in the latest Pirates Transactions.
Pirates Prospect Watch
Billy Cook hit a grand slam, leading Indianapolis to a 5-4 victory. Termarr Johnson had two hits. Zander Mueth hit 97 MPH in Bradenton. Isaias Dipre continued his breakout in the DSL with his seventh homer. Read about all of Tuesday’s action in the latest Pirates Prospect Watch.
Song of the Day
It’s been so long. And I’ve been putting out fire…
