So what has made me such a big Pirate fan? It certainly hasn't been the success of the team. I would post their record since the day of my birth here, but it would probably just depress me, and tonight is not a night to be depressed. To be honest I have absolutely no idea what has made me fall in love with this franchise. My parents were never into them growing up, in fact I was really the only one in all of my family and friends to ever really pay attention to the team.
Growing up, most of my friends loved baseball, that's just how it is with kids. But as we got older, got into our teens, baseball took a backseat to football and hockey, since that's what was successful in Pittsburgh. My friends stopped watching games, and would go only every once in awhile, and when they went it wasn't to see the actual team. All of my life I have been answering questions about who is who on the Pirates, where they came from, who they will trade next, etcetera, etcetera. For some reason that has given me a sense of pride. The ability to say that I know more about one major thing than anybody else around me is something that has motivated me and driven me towards loving this team.
At times I have thought that there was seriously something wrong with me, why would I put myself through loving a team that I had no reason to believe could ever love me back? Every year of my life they had disappointed, all I had ever heard about this team was negative. However, I stuck with it. I don't know why, I can hardly even take credit for it. It wasn't like I came to a point where I had to decide whether to continue following the team or not, it was always just an optionless thing (put your dictionary down, I'll tell you right now that the word "optionless" isn't in there). You don't choose what you have passion for, you just have it and it can't go away.
I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for a season like this, just for a whiff of contention and relevancy, and honestly it's been better than I had imagined. In the last couple of years I have become more than an average fan. This blog has given me a pretty decent sized following, and my work with TribLIVE Radio has allowed me to talk Pirates with hundreds of people listening. My devotion to the team is really starting to pay off, but it wasn't easy at all.
Through high school and my first 2 years of college, I took endless heat for following the team. You know how people are, negativity and criticism come easy. No one ever passed on an opportunity to let me know about how pathetic the Pirates were. I wouldn't hide my fanhood, people knew about me, and they were relentless in attacking it. Some were supportive, and I got respect from almost everybody, but there is nothing more frustrating than someone attacking you about something you have infinitely more knowledge than them about. Sure, most of the criticism was deserved, but the ignorance of these people was what drove me nuts at times.
The Pirates are competitive now, and if I had the chance to go back and shove it in the faces of every single person that gave me crap over the years, I don't think I would take it. Bandwagon fans are rising up every single day, I've heard dozens of people around me talk about the Pirates that didn't even seem to know the team existed in years past. I know that if this team ever competed, this is what would happen, so I'm kind of prepared for it, and I'd like to think I'm handling it well. This blog has made me very happy over the years I have been doing it, and the fact that people read it and appreciate my viewpoints and hard work makes everything worth while, regardless of what the team does on the field. That is why I'm not anxious to stick it to the doubters over the years, I just want to continue to love this team and help other people love them more. Not everyone is as blindly faithful to this team as I am, but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy the winning too.
As for now, every day is fun, talking about, writing about, and watching this team play meaningful baseball. The next step is winning that 81st game of the year, and then clinching a playoff berth. Those two things would be huge.
This is a whole different kind of summer for me, and I can't thank you readers enough for supporting me and reading my stuff. Please, leave comments or talk to me through twitter and share your Pirates story. We're all one big family now, bandwagoners welcome. Let's Go Bucs.