From 1933 to 1948 the Philadelphia Phillies lost...a lot. Every year during that span the Phillies were under .500 at the end of the season to set the Major League record for most consecutive losing seasons at 16. Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates are in grave danger of making history by tying that record in 2008. The Pirates are just a mere six months away from history and barring a miracle, they are going to easily hit the record.
The Pirates have been losing since 1993. As of right now, our streak sits at 15 seasons. The Pirates have been losing since that '92 NL Championship Series when the Pirates took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning in Game 7 against the Braves. Since the Pirates put in Stan Belinda in the middle of the inning and gave up a single to left field to Francisco Cabrera. Since Barry Bonds' bullshit throw to the plate to get a slow Sid Bream trying to score from second. And they have been losing since that play simply known as "Sid's Slid."
Think about that for a minute. 1992 was the Bucs last winning season. Do you know how much the world has changed since 1992? I was 10. The Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona, Spain, the Penguins swept the Chicago Blackhawks for their second consecutive Stanley Cup, the Bulls were winning championships with Michael Jordan, Windows 3.1 was released, there were no blogs and the Internet was nothing of what it is today. Yeah, that was a long time ago. Other teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks have come into the league and won a World Series title before the Pirates can just put together 82 wins in a season.
With all that said, what are the chances that the Buccos can turn it around and end their futile drought? As much as I would love to see the Pirates turn this around and just win...forget about it. The Pirates changed general manager, manager and coaching staff in the offseason, but they barely changed the bulk of the roster. A roster that lost 94 games last year. But they have a new manager in John Russell! Big deal, the Pirates have been changing managers since losing Jim Leyland (remember Gene Lamont, Lloyd McClendon, Pete Mackanin, Jim Tracy). The managerial change does not excite this Pirates fan. However, the GM and front office changes do provide more hope for the future. But even the new GM in town Neal Huntington has admitted that their effort is to improve the team through the draft and with prospects and that won't happen this year or even the next. Yaddi, yaddi, yadda...we've all heard it plenty of times before in the past 15 years.
In the meantime, the Pirates roster is pretty much the same as last year. Management is banking on a career year from a lot of players and it's too much to ask or even expect. Sure the pitching is a positive with Ian Snell and Tom Gorzelanny having great seasons last year...but players having a couple great seasons consecutively is not something that happens recently in the Pirates organization. They're hoping for Jason Bay to stay healthy and get back to his home run-bashing days, hoping that Adam LaRoche can avoid hitting .210 in April and May, hoping that Freddy Sanchez can put together another year of being a .300 hitter and hoping that anybody they throw out in the bullpen can hold on to the few leads the Pirates will have this year. It's a recurring theme for the Pirates every year...too many things have to go right for them to compete.
Lastly the biggest obstacle for the Pirates, forgetting about whoever they put on the field, is overcoming the fact of losing all the time. Over the past 15 seasons, the Pirates have made an art of losing. They invent ways to lose a baseball game. In essence, it's really not that hard to have a winning season. 83-81 is hardly a playoff team and many teams do it and call it a bad year. For the Pirates, an 83-81 season would mean so much more...an end to the curse.
Watching this team play over the last 15 years, I seriously began to believe that the individual players and coaches didn't even think they could win. And once the losing begins and May hits, it becomes status quo and everyone only shows up to collect a paycheck and go home. It's a sad thing to watch and it's what Pirates fans have been dealing with for longer than anyone should.
What once was a respected organization with tradition, World Series titles, Hall of Fame players and a rich history has quickly become a joke around Major League Baseball. After the way the Pirates have gone through their losing seasons, it only makes sense that the Pirates should own this record of consecutive losing seasons.
Get ready for history...infamous history.
