I've been one of the more negative in terms of the Pirates, but am finally a bit excited about baseball. I actually look forward to catching some of the Pirate games when I have some free time. I'm 34 so I was around for the early 90's and heartbroken year after year. It's been a long 18-19 years to the point where I lost a lot of interest in baseball in general, but this young team is pulling me back. I love the hustle, the determination and how it seems they want to prove everyone wrong...they want to prove that they can get to the postseason. Personally, I don't think it will happen this year, but it will be fun to watch. I heard that their series with first place STL after the All Star break is almost sold out...that's not something we've seen in Pittsburgh for a while.
FWIW - The 1960 Pirates Championship is probably one of the better stories in baseball. Playing a powerhouse Yankee team and getting severely outscored in all 7 games by a total of 55-27, but winning the entire thing on a bottom of the 9th inning HR by Bill Mazeroski. I often think that Maz's HR has been somewhat forgotten outside of Pittsburgh and IMO is still the greatest HR in a World Series game. I seem to hear more about Kirk Gibson, Joe Carter, Bobby Thomson etc... I've even seen Maz's ranked as the 5th best WS HR of all time...hard to believe IMO.
PS - The Willie Stargell helicopter windup was awesome! Still my 2nd favorite Pirate behind Clemente (watching Clemente catch a flyball over his right shoulder in deep RF and spin around to throw a laser to 3B to get a runner tagging up is a thing of beauty).
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