19 Years and Counting ...

It was sure fun while it lasted.

The Pittsburgh Pirates managed to climb seven games above .500 in late July and even spent a few days atop the division, in July.

Then reality set in.

The Bucs soft-toss pitching staff started getting hammered. Kevin Correia, Charlie Morton and company have allowed the most runs in the NL since the All-Star break. And the offense, which was never good, couldn't buy a hit.

Since July 29, Pittsburgh is 5-11 in one-run games since the break and allowed at least 10 runs eight times in that same span.

Add a 10-game losing streak that started immediately after a controversial (to say the least) 19-inning loss in Atlanta where the Pirates got the brunt end of a blown call, and you have a recipe of the same.

The Pirates fell for the 82nd time last Wednesday, clinching the clubs 19th consecutive losing season. A streak untouched by any team in American sports.

In 19 years since the Pirates last had a winning season, Major League Baseball added four teams (Florida, Colorado, Arizona and Tampa), all have made the World Series, and two have won it.

Things are starting to look up for the Pirates.

Still there's a glimmer of hope for the faithful fans.

Instead of dumping all the players that had pseudo major league talent, the Pirates were active buyers at the trade deadline, not breaking the farm system adding two veteran bats (Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick).

Pittsburgh has been more aggressive during the draft, this year shelling out $13 million to sign top picks pitcher Gerrit Cole and high school outfielder Josh Bell.

The mastermind behind the Pirates new strategy, general manager Neal Huntington, has signed on for a few more years, as has outfielder Jose Tabata.

Future success might hinge on Pittsburgh going outside its comfort zone to lock up the team's only bone-fide star, Andrew McCutchen. And outside third baseman Pedro Alvarez the team still needs to find some power hitting.


There's a long way to go still.

While I doubt the streak is going to stop at 19, for the first time in two decades there's room for optimism.

Raising the Jolly Roger

One of baseball's feel good stories of summer, near and dear to my heart, might just walk off the plank.

Two weeks ago the Pittsburgh Pirates were actually leading the NL Central. That never happens.

Then at the trade deadline, instead of shipping away the entire starting lineup, the Pirates actually added two over-the-hill bats. Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick are minor upgrades, but again that never happens.

Even after getting back to "normal" in recent days, a strange tide is rising along the Three Rivers.

There's hope for Pirate fans, hope that hasn't existed since 1992. Sadly that year is seared into memory.

Three outs away from a pennant, an unfortunate series of events culminated in a Barry Bonds throw that couldn't catch former Bucco Sid Bream, the slowest man in baseball, running on one leg.

After watching the NL pennant slip away the previous two years, Pittsburgh struck out.

It's been 18 years and counting since they've even sniffed at winning, until now.

Following the Pittsburgh's 2011 season, I've maintained that I'm anxiously optimistic that the organization could really be turning around.

While the tide is rising, this season success is starting to fell like a facade.

Aside from centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, who's a bona fide star, the Pirates have two serviceable young guns (Neil Walker and Jose Tabata) and not much else. Offensively it shows, they're at the bottom of the NL in just about every batting category.

Somehow pitching has been the strength of this team. But it feels like the soft-tossing starting rotation was built on a house of cards. Kevin Correia, Paul Maholm and Charlie Morton had all been surprisingly good through 95 games, but not so much recently.

Just like 1992, this season appears to have been derailed in Atlanta.

A horrendous home plate call in the 19th inning cost Pittsburgh a chance at win. Where did umpire Jerry Meals have to go at 2 a.m.? Then the next night, they again lost in extra innings.

As the Pirates fade out of the pennant and into oblivion, it's easy to overlook all their success. This team is relevant again.

I hope the Buccos can right the ship and get back on track today. Is 82 wins too much to ask this year?

And There Was One ...

As a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, it is nauseating to think about the amount of talent that's been traded away from the Three Rivers over the past two decades.

But there's a reason why the team hasn't turned in a winning season in 18 years.

As it stands, since the start of general manager Neal Huntington's reign over the club, catcher Ryan Doumit is the only 2008 Opening Day starter left on the roster, and pitchers Paul Maholm and Evan Meek are the only other 25-man-roster holdovers.

It's truly an epic roster makeover.

That makeover started in 2008 with two trade deadline deals, one of which shipped All-Star Jason Bay off to Boston for four prospects.

Right now, it appears the Pirates have nothing to show for the Bay deal.

With Brandon Moss and Andy LaRoche already gone, Pittsburgh released pitcher Craig Hansen last month, who appeared in 21 games for the Bucs.

Hansen posted a 6.95 ERA with twice as many walks (24) as strikeouts (12) and was hampered by a rare nerve ailment over two seasons.

For the Buccos to salvage anything from the Bay trade, Bryan Morris probably has to win a Cy Young award. But Morris is still in the minors.

The Jason Bay trade probably won't go down as the worst deal, but it could come in a close second to the highway robbery that sent Aramis Ramirez to the Cubs.

That's just life in Pittsburgh.

A lost decade on the good ship Mariner

The Mariners could be looking up at the rest of the AL West for years.

In my lifetime, I've had very little to cheer about as a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The last time the Bucs won was 1992 and things ended in bitter fashion.

But I can say with solace it's probably worse to be a fan of the Seattle Mariners.

With a payroll trending in the upper-crust of MLB, Seattle should see the right side of .500 nearly every year. That's been the exception, not the rule. And as things played out this year the M's were the only other team, aside from Pittsburgh, to lose 100 games or more.

It's been a downward spiral at Safeco Field this decade.

In 2001, the Mariners won a record 116 games but failed to make it to the World Series. The next two years Seattle would finish with 93 wins, but miss the playoffs.

Skip ahead to 2008, the M's would earn the dubious distinction of becoming the first team in history to lose 100 games with a $100 million payroll. And by season's end in 2010, Seattle was experiencing its second 101-loss season in the past three years.

Expectations were unrealistically high entering this year. After 85 W's developing an identity as a defensive team in 2009, the Mariners went all in trying to stop runs, adding an aging Chone Figgins and trading for pitcher Cliff Lee. What the team failed to address in the 2010 off-season was its offensive.

Ex-manager Don Wakamatsu told ESPN Magazine he was surprised by the Mariners 24-game turnaround in 2009, because they had the worst offense in the American League. It didn't get any better in 2010.

Seattle had the worst offensive in all of baseball: 30th in batting average, slugging and runs. The team actually scored the fewest runs (513) for any AL team in a full season since the designated hitter arrived.

Some other humorous and dysfunctional moments that derailed the 2010 campaign: the report of Ken Griffey Jr. sleeping the clubhouse during a game, Griffey's abrupt retirement in June and a dugout fight between a slumping Figgins and Wakamatsu in late July.

It's hard to put a finger on exactly why Seattle's slumped in the standings this decade. But you can point one of those big foam fingers at the front office.

They haven't been able to recognize good talent when it's in the farm system (Shin-Soo Choo, Rafael Soriano). And for every big free-agent decision that worked out (like Raul Ibanez), there's three or four that failed miserably (Richie Sexson, Jeff Weaver, Miguel Batista, Carlos Silva).

Maybe their biggest blunder in this lost decade, was a five-for-one trade which sent outfielder Adam Jones and pitchers George Sherrill, Tony Butler, Chris Tillman and Kameron Mickolio to Baltimore for Erik Bedard.

Bedard has only started 30 games in three years for the M's, while Jones has developed into a solid everyday outfielder for the O's and at age 25 is likely just coming into his prime.

Seattle has holes everywhere, especially on the field. With limited financial flexibility and very few promising prospects there is little hope in the near future.

The Seattle Mariners are writing its own history of futility and its possible another lost decade is about to begin in 2011.

The Plight of the Pirates

It's been a cumbersome two decades for the Pirate Parrot and the rest of the organization.

Over the past decade, one axiom in MLB has held true: if it's July in Pittsburgh a veteran (or four or five) is being traded.

This year, the latter held true.

With the trade deadline looming, the Pirates turned one last double play with shortstop Jack Wilson and second baseman Freddy Sanchez, sending their two most popular players packing. That put the finishing touches on a complete roster overhaul since general manager Neal Huntington took over. Only four players remain from the original 2007 25-man roster.

Once more those trades seal Pittsburgh's fate, 82 losses are now inevitable and so is the infamy that comes with it. The Pirates will replace the 1933-48 Philadelphia Phillies for the most consecutive losing seasons in pro sports history (17).

In a sick way, that's an accomplishment. But what's gone wrong?

The simplest answer is years of mismanagement.

First of all the Pirates tried to build their franchise by drafting pitchers, a high-risk strategy. Between 1996 and 2006, Pittsburgh picked eight first-round hurlers and all but one of them (Paul Maholm) suffered major elbow or shoulder injuries. None of those draftees were named Scott Kazmir or Cole Hamels. The payoff for this strategy, Maholm has made it to the majors, but isn't much more than a solid No. 3 starter. 

Also, Pirates coaches messed up pitchers' deliveries that were working. Take Zach Duke for example. He arrived in the bigs in 2005 and went 8-1 with a 1.81 ERA in 14 starts. What happened next year? New manager Jim Tracy and his staff decided to change Duke' delivery despite his numbers from '05, and Duke hasn't fully recovered yet. The story is eerily similar for Oliver Perez.

Next in this horror story, Pittsburgh wasted millions on mediocre veterans like Derek Bell, Sean Casey, Jeromy Burnitz and Matt Morris. Really!?! What's even better is they traded away one of their few productive players in 2006 (Craig Wilson) for Shawn Chacon, who was going to be cut by the NY Yankees. That's brilliant!

Even more brilliant are other numerous mind-numbing trades.

Since 2000, the Pirates have shipped the likes of Aramis Ramirez, Jason Bay,  Jason Schmidt, Mike Gonzalez, Jose Guillen, Kenny Lofton, Jeff Suppan, Xavier Nady, Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez.. the list continues.. Brian Giles, Nate McClouth, Adam LaRoche, Jason Kendall, Tony Womack, Oliver Perez and Bronson Arroyo out of the Burgh.

Who have they gotten in return? I can't say for sure.

The most egregious of these trades happened in July 2003. Trailing the division leader by less than 10 games, the Buccos decided to trim their payroll trading away their only homegrown power prospect in decades. Then 25-year-old Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton headed to Chicago's ivy confines, while the Pirates brought in Jose Hernandez, Bobby Hill and Matt Bruback (who?).

Ramirez hasn't hit fewer than 25 home runs in his time in the Windy City. He's also batted better than .300 three times in five years as a Cub and driven in 100-plus RBIs four times. The players Pittsburgh got, well none of them are playing baseball anymore. That sums up the plight of the Pirates.

Pirate fans have been wandering in the wilderness since 1992 when, dare I say it, Sid Bream hobbled around the bases for a Game 7 soul crushing loss in the NLCS.

How great would that be now? Losing a meaningful game in October sounds amazing. I haven't watched the Bucs play a meaningful game beyond June since I was seven.

Once upon a time the Pittsburgh Pirates were a flagship franchise. They won five world series, produced 11 batting champions and 34 Hall of Famers (including Honus, Willie and Roberto). Hard to believe you will soon add longest pro-sports losing streak EVER to that list.

Trading away the team's last popular veterans seems like a fitting close to this decade. While it's been painful, I hope GM "wheel-and-deal" Neal (Huntington) knows what he's doing.

Hey that's saying something... there's a little hope out there.

Be thankful for Forbes legacy

As the Pittsburgh Pirates get set to play in their new gem of a ballpark (PNC Park) they pause to honor baseball's first palace, Forbes Field.

Forbes was the National League's first modern concrete-and-steel park built in the Oakland neighborhood in 1909. The field was cozy and certainly quirky. The outfield walls in left, center, and right field were 360 feet, 462 feet and 376 feet respectively when the park was completed. The field also feature ivy-covered walls and the infield sported a "rock-hard" surface that earned the stadium the nickname the "House of Thrills."

Baseball history happened at Forbes from Roberto Clemete's first hit to the Babe's parting blast. But what memorializes Forbes Field forever is Bill Mazeroski's 1960 Game 7 World Series winning home run that propelled the underdog Bucs past the NY Yankees. The magical moment lives on in baseball lore to this day.

The treasures of Forbes lives on today too, in nearly every one of the 21 retro-ear ballparks built since 1992, from Camden Yards to SAFECO Field to Nationals Park. I've visited the hallowed grounds for Pittsburgh fans where the two-tiered Forbes once stood. I've starred at the home plate used in the stadium's final game (preserved inside Pitt's Posvar Hall). I'm thankful for the Forbes legacy.

The Pirates christened the park on June 30, 1909 taking on the Chicago Cubs, 100-years later the Cubs are back, a fitting tribute in itself.

AP PHOTO/Gene Puskar: Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski sits in front of a replica of the left field wall at Forbes Field, at PNC Park before the Pirates' baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Pittsburgh.