Eighty-two

Twice this summer we were fortunate to get to attend two Pirates home games in what has become a (so-far) happily memorable season. Like many fans, our humble wish for the season was for the team to have their first winning season since 1992, ending one of the longest sub-.500 streaks in major American professional sports ever.

The minimum number of wins that the Pirates need to finish the season with more than a .500 record is 82. Wins 80 and 81 came earlier this week in Milwaukee. The Wednesday night game also in Milwaukee could have been the one, the eighty-second victory of the year. It wasn't, so Pirates fans must wait a few more days.

In the last week, while watching the number in the wins column start into the 80s, I have devoured Nick Hornby's Pray: Notes on a Football Season. It is a short but delightful read for a sports fan. I've especially enjoyed Hornby's sports writing, often feeling closer to him as a writer as I have to just about any other author or poet. For instance when he, a life-long Arsenal fan (and all the ups and downs that comes with that) writes this:

Perhaps one day - one day soon, if the global economy really blows a gasket - the football authorities will find a way to sell their product by guaranteeing universal happiness for all. Even the pain of relegation could be made to sting less by a big win, 9- or 10-0, say, in a local derby, or a five goal comeback against a big team. But as far as we know, nobody is planning to guarantee anything at the moment, which makes the unexpected good times even sweeter (location 332)

I know he understands why some of us, against hope and reason, continue to follow chronically less-than-stellar teams over the years.

In the end, that's all you want: to know that you support a team clearly straining every collective sinew to overcome its own limitations and get the result it needs.(location 461)

Those who love football, especially those who love a particular club or country, are used to having their hearts broken (location 556) 

I am sure as this baseball season progresses through September, I'll find other passages from Pray that will apply to Pirates fans, like this gem.

The glory of sport is its ability to make fools of anyone who thinks they can see the future (location 556)

A funny thing has happened, though, on the way to 82. The Pirates have spent a good part of the summer in first place of their division. They seem to have emerged as a contender for a playoff berth, maybe even a pennant. Twenty-one years have passed since the last winning season and the last chance for a World Series appearance. Even more since the last pennant. At least the designers of PNC park left a gap in the flags celebrating the Pirates past glory.




Myles has also been reading a sports book in the last week. Linda Sue Park's Keeping Score takes place in 1950s Brooklyn, following a young Dodgers fan who has also come to grips with the long-suffering nature of being a fan of her favorite team. She has tried praying for the Dodgers, but that hasn't changed their fortune. Myles was particularly amused that the Pirates were mentioned in this part.

If God did care about baseball, then it sure looked like He cared more about the Yankees than the Dodgers. And what about teams like the Pirates, who year after year lost more games than they won--a lot more. Didn't God care about the Pirates or their fans at all? (52)

It was true in the 1950s. It was true in the 1980s. It was painfully true for the last twenty consecutive seasons. The Pirates often lose more than they win, so this year has been full of the sweetness of unexpected good times.