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We now resume our regularly scheduled programming.

After two days of absolutely nothing, MLB resumes its season tonight with a full schedule of games.

While the players surely must enjoy the time off, fans are eagerly waiting for some baseball again. And specifically, Pittsburgh Pirate fans cannot wait to “get it on”, as the team looks to make a run at the postseason and lay the ghost of 20 years of sub-.500 baseball to rest once and for all.

Opening the second half with an important three-game series right off the bat against division rival Cincinnati Reds, the Pirates will send arguably their best, yet possibly least known starter to the mound against Reds’ ace, Mike Leake. Two of the Pirates’ Francicso Liriano‘s three losses have come against Leake and the Reds, but the 29-year-old left-hander has pitched very well in both games, allowing only three runs on nine hits in his 12 innings of work against them. Leake has been better though, allowing just one run against the Bucs in his last 13 innings.

The Pirates need to start the second half of the season off the right way, by winning series and road games. The first half of the season saw the Pirates take 18 of 27 series (splitting three), while going 24-19 on the road. While playing good at PNC Park should be a given, the road is where the Pirates will be tested right away, as the series with the Reds marks the start of a 10-game road trip. If the Pirates can pass that test, they can head home with some momentum for an 11 game homestand, including an unusual as well as very big five-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals, whom they’ve been battling for first place in the Central division since June.

Five games head to head with the Cardinals could involve some significant changes in the standings should either team win more than three.

Pirates Need Sweep Of Mets

The New York Mets are in town for a three-game series to close out the first half of the 2013 baseball season, as MLB teams head into the four-day All-Star break looking for rest and rejuvenation.

Traditionally, the “second half” in a MLB season is like the three-quarter mark in a horse race: it’s where champions are made as well as broken. Many a team has hit the dog days of late-July and August and faded like the last rose of summer. The Pittsburgh Pirates hope to avoid such a fate, but first they must take care of business with the Mets this series.

A sweep would be nice as it would put the Pirates back at their season-high mark of 21 games over .500, and send the team into the break on high note after a mini-slump that saw them drop three consecutive three-game series.

And there’s no reason the Pirates can’t pull one off.

The Mets come into town next to last in the NL in team batting average (.235) and team slugging (.378), while the Pirates are first in all of baseball in team ERA (3.07), as well as opponent’s BA (.225).

The Pirates’ formula for winning so far this season has been shutdown pitching and timely hitting. Leading both leagues in shutouts with 13, the Bucs should be able to keep the Mets in check offensively while scoring just enough runs to win. If they can get a lead going into the seventh inning, the Pirates’ bullpen will take it from there.

Since the Pirates’ recent nine-game win streak, the team has gone 3-6 and has fallen out of first place, now one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals. The Pirates’ losing ways once again correlate with a Neil Walker injury that has put him on the 15-day disabled list — a right oblique problem that the team can only hope heals quickly over the break.

The Pirates have called up Josh Harrison, who was hitting .317 with four homers and 34 RBIs at Indy, no doubts with hopes of providing some much-need offensive spark.

El Toro's In!

El Toro’s in!

David Wright righted a wrong and selected Pittsburgh Pirate 3B Pedro Alvarez to replace Colorado Rockies‘ Carlos Gonzalez, who withdrew from the competition because of a sprained right middle finger.

No doubt Mr. Wright feared the mighty wrath of the Pirate fans in choosing Alvarez to replace Gonzalez, instead of Philadelphia Phillies’ Domonic Brown for the newly opened spot on the 2013 MLB Home Run Derby roster. Brown, whose 23 home runs equal Alvarez’s total, doesn’t have the added incentive of having Wright’s team, the New York Mets, come to town this week. The stars were aligned for Pedro though, as the Mets are in Pittsburgh tomorrow night for three games and Wright would have had to endure at least 12 boo-’n-hiss-filled plates appearances in the series had he passed over Pedro again. No doubt a second snub would have “endeared” him even more to the PNC crowds this weekend.

Alvarez is just as deserving as anyone though, as his 23 homeruns before the All-Star break put him in some pretty good company. The only other Pirates ever to have 23 or more homers before the All-Star break are Hall-of-Famers Ralph Kiner and Willie Stargell. Not bad company for the 26 year-old from Santa Domingo, DR who grew up in Manhattan. In addition, his at-bats per home run ratio this season is 12.7, tops in the NL.

Pedro will join Bobby Bonilla (1990), Barry Bonds (1992), Jason Bay (1995) and Andrew McCutchen (2012) as the only other Pirates to participate in the Home Run Derby. No Pirate has ever won the contest.

Pirates need To Stay The Course (For Now)

The Pittsburgh Pirates need to stay the course.

Manager Clint Hurdle has claimed as much saying after their latest loss to the Oakland Athletics: ”We’re not changing lanes. We’re staying the course.”

Peaks and valleys. Valleys and peaks. That’s baseball season and the Pirates are certainly in one of those valleys to start the month of July, after dropping their fourth game in a row and six of their last eight. The chief culprit for the Pirates’ recent dismal stretch has been the hitting, in particularly, the bench.

Their last three losses have all been by one run, and a timely pinch-hit was needed in all three, but was nowhere to be found. Pirate pinch-hitters have scratched out only one pinch-hit during the recent losing streak and are now batting a paltry .148 on the season, with only one homer and 11 RBI.

That’s unacceptable, as a number of pitching staffs around the league are hitting higher than that.

Yet despite Hurdles vote of confidence, without bench production, the valleys will soon start to outnumber the peaks as the long season wears on. Reserves are always a key to any successful major league baseball season.

Gaby Sanchez (.233/7/24), Brandon Inge (.184/1/7) and Travis Snider (.225/3/22), the main block of Pirate reserves, have all underperformed so far this year, and questions about changes are naturally starting to arise. Deep in pitching, the Pirates could make a move by trading any number of pitchers without causing too much damage to a staff that leads all of MLB in ERA (3.12) and shutouts (12).

For now though, the Pirates do indeed appear to be staying the course as they head into the All-Star break next week. A few more wins will let them know they’re on the right one.

Pirates' Past Catches Up With Future

The Pittsburgh Pirates future and past were on display in Game 2 of their three-game series with the Oakland Athletics.

Unfortunately, the past caught up with the future.

The future, 22-year-old rookie starting pitcher Gerrit Cole delivered another excellent, yet wasted performance as the Pirates dropped their fourth game in a row; while the past, Brandon Moss, hit the game-winning two-run homer off Cole in the fourth inning, his 16th of the year, that held up the remainder of the way to give the A’s a 2-1 victory.

Cole was back on track after losing for the first time in his last start to the Philadelphia Phillies and seemed determined to lead the Pirates to a much needed win. Losers of five of their last seven coming into the game, the Pirates really needed a victory to right their ship. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound hard-throwing right-hander came away with a no-decision in keeping the Bucs in the game with a solid seven-inning, five-hit, two-run performance, but the Pirates’ muted bats continued to remain silent as they could only mange three hits on the night; the lone run-scoring one coming on All-Star Pedro Alvarez‘s 23rd home run of the season.

Moss, who played for the Pirates for three seasons from 2008 – 2010 before being let go to free agency, seems to have found a home in Oakland as a left-handed platoon player. Not quite living up to the expectations the Pirates had for him when they acquired him in a trade with the Boston Red Sox back in 2008, the Monroe, GA native has now homered 37 times for the A’s in his limited playing time with them the past two season and the A’s have to be happy as pie with his contributions.

The Pirates franchise remained winless against the Athletics’, their all-time record now at 0-11.

Pirates' Pedro Alvarez Snubbed By David Wright

David Wright snubs Pedro Alvarez!

Yo, dude? What’s up with that? Come on — El Toro’s born and bred NYC!

Alas, Pedro will watch from the grass in front of the dugouts as 16 other home run hitters swing from their heels and try and mess up their stroke for the rest of the season in what has come to be known as the annual MLB Home Run Derby, sponsored by Frito the Bandito and Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum! [Caution: Never mix these two products together.]

Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle may secretly thank Mr. Wright when he and the New York Mets come to town this Friday for their three-game series at PNC Park to close out the first-half of the 2013 season. The Pirate fans will not, however.

They will most surely display their displeasure in Wright choosing to go with Bryce Harper and Michael Cuddyer, both whose home run totals (13 each) seem pale in comparison to some other sluggers who’ll also be watching, Dominic Brown (23), Paul Goldschmidt (21) and of course, Alvarez, whose 22 dingers would normally be enough to get a chance to participate in the over-hyped, overrated, over-covered and under-ignored baseball “event”.

The reason the Pirates & Hurdle may be secretly happy is the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Pedro is doing just fine right now. He’s found his stroke. Why take any chances in messing up that sweet swing for some gimmick contest that’ll all be forgotten 10 minutes after it’s over? Think I’m exaggerating? Who won last year’s home run derby?

In any event, it should be interesting to hear the fans’ reaction when Mr. Wright makes his first plate appearance this Friday.

Mark Melancon’s All-Star Snub No Surprise

Setup man Mark Melancon of the Pittsburgh Pirates has to be disappointed, but probably not too surprised.

Melancon, having his best year ever as a major league pitcher, was the odd man out as the Pirates sent four players to the 2013 MLB All-Star game. Leading all setup men in both leagues in holds (24), WHIP (0.80) and ERA (0.85), Melancon will have to watch from the comfort of his couch as his fellow teammates try to do the Pirates’s nation proud on July 16.

The best setup man by far this season in either league, the 28-year-old from Wheat Ridge, CO has been nearly perfect in his duties of handing the ball off to closer Jason Grilli to do his thing, who would not be leading the NL in saves without Melancon’s nightly stellar performance, and consequently would not be going to this year’s 84th All-Star game for the first time himself.

To his credit, Grilli has acknowledged this, and if it was up to him he’d have his eighth-inning setup man right there sitting next to him in the bullpen at Citi Field in New York if he could. But alas, players get no vote or say in who goes to the yearly Midsummer Classic.

Such is life. Who fed the puck to Wayne Gretzky for most of his goals? Who dished the ball to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most of his two-pointers? Who gave Brett Favre enough time to toss all his TD passes? Who knows? And kind of sadly, who cares?

Fans only care about results, not the process of how they’re obtained. And unfortunately, Melancon and all the middle relievers fall into the latter category. Starters and closers dominate the pitching roster of any All-Star game, so while Melancon has to be a bit disappointed, he can’t really be too surprised.

Despite Loss, Locke Pitches Well

Jeff Locke made his first start since being named to the 2013 All-Star team and did not disappoint. Unfortunately for the Pittsburgh Pirates, neither did Oakland Athletics All-Star Bartolo Colon, also making his first start since being named to team.

Pin-pointing a mixture of 91 MPH fastballs along with 82 MPH curveballs and change-ups, the second-year player went toe-to-toe with the 15-year veteran Colon, only to come out on the short end of 2-1 Athletics’ victory. Locke, who if not for one extra inning pitched last season, would be eligible for the Rookie of the Year award this season, allowed just three hits and two earned runs, in losing his first game since April 10. It was the 15th start in a row the New Hampshire native has not allowed more than three earned runs in a ballgame.

Locke, whose Twitter icon is Robin, has had a close relationship with AJ Burnett (aka Batman) all season long; the 14-year veteran no doubt mentoring the 25-year-old lefty on the fine art of getting major league hitters out. Locke has absorbed the teaching like a sponge, prompting Pirate manager Clint Hurdle to give him another nickname, The Intern. Whatever Burnett has been saying, he should bottle it and put it in a book, because no one, not even the Pirates, expected Locke’s performance this year. It was questionable whether or not he’d even make the team back in March, let alone become the staff ace and an All-Star selection.

The quality-pitching performance went to waste though, as the Bucs bats remained silent once again in losing their third in a row, the first time that’s happened in over a month. Dropping five of their last seven now, the Pirates’ ship appears to be taking on some water to start the month of July.

The two teams will go at it again tomorrow evening in Game 2 of their three game series, as the Pirates try to defeat the A’s for first time ever; their all-time mark against them standing at 0-10.

Pirates Need Good Homestand Before Break

The Pittsburgh Pirates vs. the Oakland A’s. Now there’s a matchup you don’t see too often.

In fact, the last time these two teams met was over three years ago back in 2010, when the A’s swept the visiting Pirates in their three-game series, outscoring them 22-6. That pretty much equates to a “F” on any grading scale. Pirate fans can only hope to see a better grade from their team this time around, but if the first week of July is any indication, the Pirates might be headed for a little summer school.

After going 2-4 against two sub .500 teams last week, the Bucs will need to pick it up this three-game series against the visiting A’s or risk falling out of first place in the NL Central. The Athletics come into town at 52-37 and will send Bartolo Colon to the mound against the Pirates’ Jeff Locke in a battle of All-Star pitchers.

Hopefully PNC Park will provide some much-needed tail winds for the sails of a Pirate ship that has been pretty much flaccid over the past week. Losing two of three to both the sub .500 Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, some home cooking might be just want the doctor ordered before the Pirates head into the four-day All-Star break.

Another sub .500 team, the New York Mets, follows Oakland into town, and the Pirates need to make some hay against a Mets’ club that’s next to last in NL team batting, slugging and on-base percentage. But before that, they’ll have to take on the first-place AL West A’s, a more than formidable opponent.

The spark has been missing in the first week of July for the Pirates, as the timely hitting and lockdown pitching just hasn’t quite been there. In truth, the pitching’s still been acceptable, but the with the Pirates’ mediocre offense to date, it just hasn’t been enough to carry them.

The MO for the Bucs this season has been 3-2 and 4-3-type victories, not 7-6 and 6-5 ones. Still, with All-Stars’ Andrew McCutchen yet to get hot and Pedro Alvarez now coming into his own, the team is capable of scoring runs more than they have been and hopes to yet regain some of the batting prowess that put them fourth in NL homers last season.

Anything less than a 4-2 homestand this week will not get a passing grade though, as previous concerns about second-half meltdowns no doubt will arise.

Maybe that’s just because the Pirates have been playing such good baseball so far this year. Or maybe it’s because it’s hard to erase the memory of 20-consecutive losing seasons. Either way, a winning homestand will put the team back on track and raise their record to equal their season-high of 21 games over .500.

 

Pirates Need To Step It Up

Playing just so-so baseball over the last few games is not going to cut it for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates need to step it up in the last week or so before the All-Star Break. Going 2-3 against the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs is not so hot. Let’s hope the Pirates aren’t putting it on the ol’ cruise control as they head in for a much-deserved four-day rest.

Sans the four All-Stars, of course. There will be no rest for the All-Stars — or at least not as much as everyone else gets to enjoy. The price of success? Eh, if they’d just play the game instead of all these other circus events, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. I mean, is the home run hitting contest really that interesting? (Gotta market the game, I know.)

Today’s Game 3 against the Cubs may say a lot about the coming end of the first half, but it won’t say much about the beginning of the second, despite my initial contention. The four days off kind of erases any momentum coming in as most players head for the hills to forget about baseball, if only for a short while.

In most cases, the break can only help. A six-month season is basically half over, if not mathematically, at least symbolically. Players know this coming in and no doubt look forward to the break, one way or the other.

The Pirates need to step it up, however, because the Phillies, Cubs, and upcoming Oakland Athletics and  New York Mets are teams they should be beating more often than not, not just playing .500 baseball against. After disposing of the likes of the Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers in their recent nine-game winning streak, they should be disposing of these aforementioned baseball clubs just as easily.

With the exception of maybe Oakland, who always seem to have a scrappy club, the Pirates should be winning more than losing. These games count in the standings just as much as the ones in September.

Tabata's Gets Chance To Start

It appears Jose Nicolas Tabata‘s chance has come. The 5-foot-11, 210-pounder from El Tigre, Anzoategui, Venezuela is going to get every opportunity to win the starting job for the Pittsburgh Pirates in right field and become an everyday player.

With no else really stepping up to do the job, Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle has indicated Tabata will get ample playing time after returning from an oblique injury that had him sidelined since the end of May.

The Pirates, who thought enough of Tabata to sign him to a six-year deal last year, are hoping the once-and-still promising prospect will live up to the potential they envisioned when they first acquired Tabata in a trade from the New York Yankees back in July of 2008. Back then, Tabata was rated as a top-Yankee prospect who could do it all. At the age of just 17 and in his first year of professional ball, Tabata led the Yankees farm system in batting average when he hit .314 for the Gulf Coast Yankees in 2005. Since his acquisition by the Pirates though, injuries and “unsatisfactory” play have dotted the 24-year-old’s play. Last summer, Tabata was sent back to Triple-A Indianapolis to “find a way to help him reignite his game”.

Since returning from his recent oblique injury, Tabata has batted .357 with a double and a triple in 14 at-bats. With up-and-coming rookie prospect Josh Bell projected to be a starting outfield soon enough, Tabata may be running out of opportunities and needs to take advantage of this current one the Pirates are giving him.

Pirates Falter As 4 All-Stars Selected

The Pittsburgh Pirates fell flat in Chicago this afternoon, losing 4-1 to the Chicago Cubs as they learned four of their team members were selected to represent the National League in this year’s 2013 MLB All-Star Game on July 16 in New York. Should they make it all the way to the World Series, perhaps one of their selections will have a say in them obtaining home-field advantage.

It’s understandable that over the course of a 162 games a team is going to come out flat once in a while and without the proper mojo needed to win a game; that was exactly the case today as the Pirates could only muster four sorry singles to go along with newly selected All-Star Pedro Alvarez‘s 22nd home run, a solo shot in the fourth inning, which was the only sign of life by the Pirates in this one. The loss broke the team’s six-game road winning streak.

The Bucs will try to rebound in tomorrow’s Game 3 rubber match as AJ Burnett returns to the mound for the team after being out for nearly a month with a torn calf muscle. The 15-year veteran Burnett refused a minor-league rehab assignment, so the added pressure of stepping in without seeing a professional hitter over the last four weeks should get the second-guessers going should Burnett falter.

Andrew McCutchen, Jeff Locke, Jason Grilli and Alvarez were all selected by San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy to this year’s All-Star team, making it the first time since 1981 the Pirates have sent four players to the mid-summer classic. Only Mark Melancon could be argued to have deserved a spot along with these four, but, as a set-up man, appears to be the odd man odd. With the exception of McCutchen, who will be appearing in his third All-Star Game, all will be experiencing the game for the first time.

Neil Walker Handles Hometown Pressures

Neil Walker. Born and raised in the ‘Burg.

The Pittsburgh Pirates‘ 2004 first-round draft pick must feel great to be playing his baseball before for his hometown, especially at the professional level. To be paid to do something you love, and in front of thousands of people who love you, well, it just wouldn’t seem to get much better than that for a “job”.

Still, I can’t help but wonder if the home-grown product of Pine-Richland HS in Gibsonia, PA, just 16 miles north of “dawntawn” Pittsburgh doesn’t secretly enjoy a good road trip now and then. There has to be a lot of “interactions” with friends and family that a player from out of town doesn’t necessarily get exposed to in the same way Walker does on a daily basis.

“Neil, you’re Cousin Ginny called and wants to know if you can get her those same seats for the game?… No?!…Well why not?!”

“Neil, you’re parents called and can’t make the game tonight. You’re mom’s not feeling up to it. Can you stop there before the game?”

“Neil, you’re Uncle Joe says you’re pulling off the ball too much, keep that front shoulder in there!”

Mind you, the stats don’t necessarily bear it. Walker’s career .272 batting average on the road is almost identical to his .278 home BA, and his home run and RBI production on the road (25/117) vs. his home numbers (19/127) pretty much match each other.

Still, maybe he’d be hitting .300 at home and knocking the ball out of the ballpark more often if he wasn’t born on the banks of the Monongahela? (I know your son wasn’t really born on the banks of the Monongahela River, Mrs. Walker, but I’m just trying to be creative. Hopefully you’ll forgive the poetic license.)

I guess there's no way to know for certain the effects of being a “local guy done good”. Real good.

In any case, the guy certainly seems to handle the demands of being a hometown hero, whatever they may be. Walker always seems affable and in good spirits around the ballpark. He’s certainly one of the quiet leaders on the team and it’s obvious that the team just isn’t the same without him in there on a nightly basis. He’s an integral part of their current winning formula.

Kudos to Neil Walker for not cracking under the pressure of Uncle Joe’s batting tips. 

Andrew McCutchen Has The Look

Andrew McCutchen has the look.

Much has been said, written, videoed, blogged, tweeted and whatever other social media is out there these days about the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ 1st-round pick back in 2005. Yet, I’m not sure any of it quite captures how good McCutchen is. Still, at just 26 years old, the native from Ford Mead, FL is one of the top five players in the MLB, at least as far as the complete package goes. The proverbial five-tool player “Cutch” can do it all. Hit for average? Check. Hit for power? Check. Throw? Check. Defense? None better. Run like the wind? Check.

But this isn’t about how good McCutchen is or isn’t, right now anyway. This is about how good he will be. And he will be good enough to be in the Hall of Fame. Unless injury or some other unnecessary set of circumstances prevents him from doing so, he will be there. You can mark your calendar 7/6/2013 as the date I wrote it.

In truth, it’s really not that bold of a prediction; akin to maybe saying Apple computers will still be in business 20 years from now.

Still, how can I be so confident in my prediction, especially without firing off a bunch of numbers that will prove my point?

McCutchen has the look. Exactly what do I mean by the look?

Perhaps a better words is focus. And his, as with all the great ones, appears to be laser-like. But more than that, consistent and constant. Unrelenting. Like a shark that never stops seeking it’s prey.

Every MLB player knows what it’s like to be “in the zone” out there on the field, when everything you do just works, but what separates the best from the not-so-best are the one’s who can maintain it over the long and grueling MLB baseball season. The average fan does not see (or feel for that matter) the wear and tear on the body a professional baseball player must endure, at least the starters who play 90 percent or more of the games. And anyone who’s played a little basketball, or any sport for that matter, knows that when you get tired you loose focus. The same easy 10-foot jump shot in the first quarter is not the same easy 10-foot jump-shot in the fourth quarter. Same principal applies to baseball.

So maintaining focus is the real challenge at the professional level. And just when you think you “got it”, the other guy has it “more” and beats you.

But not Andrew McCutchen. More often than not, at least in terms relative to baseball, he beats you. So that’s why, without listing a bunch of stats and extrapolating the numbers over a 20-some-year career, as long as Andrew McCutchen remains Andrew McCutchen, I can confidently predict success and the numbers will take care of themselves.

McCutchen has the look.

Russell Martin Catches On With Bucs

Russell Martin seems to like being a Pittsburgh Pirate. Maybe it’s just me, but I get the feeling he really likes playing in the ‘Burg. And the guy can sure catch. Jason Kendall-type catch. While everyone raves about Yadier Molina, and rightfully so, Martin quietly goes about his business of calling and catching an excellent game.

And while Martin may not be better than Molina, he’s right up there with him. He hasn’t made an error all season, and his .488 percentage of base runners caught stealing is tops in all of the MLB.

And the guy always hustles. Always. If anyone can be excused for taking it easy running down the first base line in the 10th inning after he hits an easy ground ball to second base, it’s the catcher, but you won’t see Martin doing it. Martin rarely, if ever, takes the free pass. He’s all-out 24/7.

After last season’s base-stealing fiasco where Pirate catchers threw out only 19 runners all season, Martin’s stability behind the plate cannot be understated. He’s already nabbed 20 potential base stealers this year, and as a result, teams are simply not attempting as many stolen bases as they used to. This helps take pressure off the defense as a whole and immeasurably improves team defense.

If all this wasn’t enough, Martin’s bat has contributed more than expected, as the three-time All Star has homered eight times and knocked in 32 runs, both from fourth in the Pirates’ current lineup.

When all is said and done, the free-signing of the 30-year-old from Ontario, Canada last November is one of the best in the last decade by the Pirates.

Pirates Deserve More Recognition

Ho-hum. Another win for the MLB-leading Pittsburgh Pirates.

You may hear something about it, but I wouldn’t count on it. The team doesn’t seem to be getting much credit where credit is due.

Is it my imagination or are the Pirates being pretty much ignored these days by the major media outlets?

ESPN, Fox, Yahoo, MLB itself… you name it. No one’s saying much about the Pirate’s winning ways. Either that or I’m just turning on my TV or PC at the wrong time. Maybe it’s like the boy who cried wolf or something, as we’ve seen this scenario the last two seasons before from the team — a pretty good first half of the season, only to be followed up by a pretty bad second half  — and the media doesn’t want to invest too much time on what they consider another mirage of wins by the Bucs. Maybe. Or maybe the media doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Because this time it’s not just a pretty good first half, it was a franchise record setting first half, as the 2013 Pirates became the first team in franchise history to win 50 games before July 1. That’s a lot of good baseball teams they just passed. Five World Series winners and nine pennant winners didn’t do what this team has done this season. Pardon me, but I think that deserves a little more than usual quick blurb about “the much improved Pirates team,” that is “just trying to finish .500 for the first time in the last 20 years.”

I guess it’s only fitting that Franciso Liriano, a Pirate I’ve dubbed The Invisible Man because of the lack of recognition he’s been receiving all season, would pitch his second career complete game and first for the team this season, to put the Pirates back on track and atop all of MLB with the best record in baseball at 53-32 . Liriano pitched a full nine innings of four-hit two-run baseball to win his eighth game in just 11 starts, as the Pirates downed the Chicago Cubs, 6-2, in the first of their three game series in the Windy City.

Since joining the Pirates on May 11th, no NL pitcher has more wins than Franciso Liriano, but you probably won’t hear or read much of that outside the local Pittsburgh media.

Some say winning is it’s own reward.

Probably those who don’t want to give credit where credit is due.

Modern MLB Scheduling Short-Changes Fans

After watching the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates square off this week and culminate their three-game series on the 4th of July, one can’t help but feel Pirate fans are getting short-changed. And Phillies fans too.

The Phillies and Pirates! 4th of July! Day baseball! A sellout crowd! A pennant race! It doesn’t get much better than this.

Well, it could.

What used to be an 18-game hardcore season-long rivalry between two blue-collar baseball teams back in the days of Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Steve Carlton and Mike Schmidt is now a mere three-game wham-bam-thank-you-maam short visit to each city, that can only leave fans from both teams wanting more.

No doubt some of the rivalry remains, but with only six total games over the entire season now being played these days between the two cross-state Pennsylvania foes, it’s hard to build up any good old fashion animosity or any kind of a dramatic storyline. There just isn’t enough opportunity.

Before 1994, when MLB went from two East/West divisions in each league to the current three East/Central/West setup, teams like the Phillies and Pirates had a natural geographic rivalry that played out in 18 games over the course of the long season like a good dramatic film. A few years later in ’97, when MLB adopted interleague play, it all but cut the film into little more than a coming attraction’s trailer.

With hundreds of Phillies’ fans in the stands after making the five-hour car trek west to the ‘Burg to spend their holiday watching the two teams do battle this week, one can only wonder what it would do for both team’s fan bases, as well as baseball fans in general, if there were more games being played between the two geographic rivals. And others as well.

MLB and the major sports networks have no problem shoving the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox rivalry down our throats every year, as if it was the only series that mattered to every single baseball fan on the planet, so the league must understand the value of a natural rivalry. By not playing teams like the Phillies, New York Mets and even theWashington Nationals more than a handful games, Pirate fans are simply getting the short-end of the scheduling stick.

Maybe, since the line between the American League and National League gets blurred more and more every year, MLB should just scrap the whole present AL/NL divisional setup and regroup every team according to a more geographically friendly format. Then they could come up with a real balanced schedule instead of the unbalanced joke they have now. Do Pirate fans really care about playing teams from the AL West division this summer? Seeing them in the World Series is fine, but before then, who cares?

Would Pirate fans really rather see the Seattle Mariners or Oakland A’s than the Phillies, or the Mets for that matter? Are the Mets even in the same league as the Pirates anymore? Do they still play each other? Blink and you’ll miss it.

As a kid living on the east coast, after watching the Mets and Pirates play 18 times a season on local New York TV, year after year after year, the Mets’ old theme song is forever ingrained in my brain…

Meet the Mets! Meet the Mets! Step right up and greet the Mets! Bring the kiddies, bring your wife, guaranteed to have the time of you life! Because the Mets are really sockin’ the ball, hittin’ the home runs over the wall. East side, west side, everybody’s comin’ down, to meet the M-E-T-S Mets of New York town!

Could I have ever learned such a valuable piece of information with only the handful of games they play now? No. It just wouldn’t have been possible.

Or how about the Mets’ sponsor, Schaefer Beer and their most-excellent ol’ jingle?

Schaefer, is the, one beer to have, when you’re having more than one. Schaefer, pleasure, doesn’t fade, even when your thirst is done. The most rewarding flavor in this man’s world, for people who are having fun… Schaefer, is the, one beer to have when you’re having more than one!

Yes, baseball fans everywhere are truly getting short-changed these days with the modern schedule.

MLB All-Star Game Ain't What It Used To Be

The All-Star Game, I already said it ain’t what it used to be, before naming the five Pittsburgh Pirates who I thought most-deserved to make it, at least among themselves anyway. It’s hard to argue they ALL should go though, without pretty much ignoring the rest of the league’s best players. But that’s what a lot a fans will do. They’re thinking is, “If he’s a [insert any MLB team name here really], he’s goin’ to the All-Star Game, the rest of the league be damned!”

Not that it matters because, like I said, the game ain’t what it used to be. It’s pretty much become some hippie-love-fest-everybody’s-a-winner-look-at-us-we’re-all-All-Stars type of “event” instead of a real competition to see who has, at least for one night, the best baseball team. The classic example most-often given of just how much the player’s attitude toward the game has changed, and everyone else’s I guess, is Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse* at home plate in the bottom of the 12th to win the 1970 All-Star Game for the National League. That play would never happen now. Now they just run out of pitchers and call it tie.

[*That play incidentally DID NOT ruin Ray Fosse's career as many, myself included at one time, erroneously believe. Fosse played 42 games in the second half of the season AFTER his monumental collision-felt-'round-the-world with Rose, and even made the All-Star team the very next season in '71; winning a gold glove also I might add. Why the argument is made probably has more to do with Pete Rose and who he is than anything else, but the reality of Fosse's decline, if you look into it with any detail, simply does not jive with the initial contention Pete Rose ended Ray Fosse's career.]

But back to the game itself and just why it stinks so much now…

It’s merely a popularity contest now based on the media manipulation of the masses. An American Idol with bats ‘n balls ‘n bases. Like some Hollywood Oscar’s show … A Night for the Stars! (yawn) Excuse me while go watch a rerun of 8 Men Out, or something worthwhile. I don’t know, Downton Abbey maybe. Anything but the sickening doting love-fest the All-Star game has become. I’ll probably harp on a million-and-one different things as to why the game ain’t THE game anymore from now till the end of time (or longer), but for the moment, I’ll start with the process of selection…

Exactly why a person should get 25 votes for something when another person gets 25 votes for the same thing doesn’t make sense to me. Unless you’re giving the former to a commercial market with a larger fan base, say ah, oh, I don’t know, New York, LA or Chicago or … oh, you know what I mean. Or where I mean, I should say. If you got more people to vote than I got more people to vote, and you multiply those votes 25 times by the more people you got than I got, well, you’re going to “win” any election more often times than not, simply because you got more of what they call, clout. You simply have more voting power based not only on the more people you got than I got, but also by empowering those “more people” with “more votes”.

It’s like an exponential-Einsteinian-thing or something. I don’t know, I’m not a mathematician; but you don’t have to be one to see that one group has a numerical advantage over the other group to begin with, even before you give them the extra 24 votes each. Under the present system, 25 votes a piece by 1,000,000 Yankee fans goes a lot further than 25 votes a piece by 300,000 Pirate fans in getting your player elected. But then again, 25 votes a piece by 1,000,000 Yankee fans goes a lot further than 25 votes a piece by 300,000 Pirate fans in consumer purchasing power also, which ultimately is, boys and girls, what it’s all about these days. But it didn’t used to be that way.

Just ask Pete Rose and Ray Fosse.

No No-No's

No no-no’s this season?! What gives?

After seven no-hitters were tossed last year in 2012, there has not been any yet as we approach the halfway point of the 2013 MLB season. A few close calls, but still, no no-no’s. So what’s the deal?

Well, despite last year’s flurry of no-hitters, the fact is, it remains a very rare feat. Only 279 have been thrown to date in nearly some 400,000 major league baseball games. Give or take a few thousand, that’s roughly seven every 10,000 games. With some 4,860 games a year (not counting postseason), that allows for only about two per season. So with seven from last year, odds are there won’t be another for three or four more years.

The seven no-hitters last year matched the modern record for one season, tying 1990 and 1991. (There were eight no-hitters in 1884, but the rules were a bit different back then to say the least. Without going into a lot of specifics, six “called balls” were a walk. Suffice to say, things were a lot different back then, thus the differentiation of the “modern” era.)

The first recorded no-hitter was thrown by Joe Borden in 1875, pitching for the Philadelphia White Stockings against the Chicago White Stockings. (Apparently white was a popular color back in the 1800′s and stockings were all the rage.) Borden, who played under numerous surnames, reportedly came from a prominent family. If they had known he was playing baseball for money, they would have greatly disapproved of his bourgeois activities. My, how times have changed.

The last no-hitter thrown, as many will no doubt remember, was thrown by one David Dewitt Bailey, Jr., otherwise known as “Homer” by many of his teammates, fans and just about everyone else who follows the game of baseball today. Bailey tossed his no-no for the Cincinnati Reds last September against the Pittsburgh Pirates; a 1-0 game that doomed the Bucs to 20 consecutive non-winning seasons, a major North American professional sports record that Pirates fans hope will finally come to end this year. (So far so good.)

But beyond the mere statistics of no-hitters, the fact remains that hitting a baseball is not an easy thing to do. Striking a small-round object with a relatively long-skinny stick as it travels anywhere from 85 to 100 mph towards you can be like trying to catch a bullet in your teeth … Well, okay, it’s not quite that difficult, but you get the idea. But any activity where you can fail 66% of the time and that still gets you in the Hall of Fame (providing you do it long enough), cannot be anything but hard as hell.

So if it’s so hard to hit a baseball, why then aren’t there more no-hitters?

Well, if you watch enough baseball games, you’ll notice that most balls don’t get hit the way the batter had in mind. A ball off the end of the bat that bloops over the infield for a base hit, a jam-job that results in a perfectly placed swinging bunt or a misplayed ball by an outfielder that gets scored a double are just a few examples of “hits” that fall into the “luck” category; or “bad luck” category if you’re the pitcher. So over the course of nine innings of baseball, something’s bound to fall in between the fielders, whether it’s intended to or not. That’s what really makes it so hard to throw a no-hitter.

So, as luck would have it, yep, no no-no’s so far this season.