It's May 10th and currently the Pittsburgh Pirates are above .500. I know, I know it is way too early to jump around and anoint this team as the one that breaks the losing streak, but at least it is something for Pittsburghers to cheer about.
Hockey is finished, we never know when football will be back, Mendenhall doesn't tweet everyday, and Hines Ward is now a ballarina (I'll get back to this in a minute) so there isn't much sports related to talk about from the Steel City.
The Pirates over .500 this late in the season is news. There's no denying it. I mean they don't even have a regular hitting over .300, so how are they doing it?
They are 21st in runs scored, 22nd in batting average, 19th in on-base percentage, and 26th in slugging. Solid.
They have no one with more than 6 HRs or 20 RBIs, but they do have a ton of strikeouts.
They aren't stellar on the mound either.
They are 11th in ERA (not too bad), 14th in quality starts (sort of an oxymorn in Pittsburgh), 19th in WHIP, and 18th in Batting Average against.
Paul Maholm leads the team with 29 K. I went to a game early in the year against the Rockies and it looked like the guy was playing pepper with the batters. He got lit up like the Pittsburgh skyline after a Zambelli firework show leading up to a Donny Iris concert.
Jimmy McDonald has looked good recently, good enough to grab the picture on ESPN's Power Rankings page. The last time the Pirates were on ESPN, Randall Simon was laying the lumber to a sausage in Milwaukee.
Maybe they really like playing for Clint Hurdle. He seems like a good guy, a good coach, and someone who can motivate a team that hasn't had a winning record since New Kids on the Block were on tour.
What! What? They are touring again? Must have spent their money wisely. Can't imagine how many 30+ year old women will be dolling themselves up for that one.
But back to Hurdle, seems like he gives a shit. Although anyone following John Russell will look like Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday.
They score runs early. I guess if you score enough runs early, you have a nice cushion to blow later on.
They have 11 wins on the road, and have already won more road series this season than they did all of last year.
Motivational coaching, scoring early, Bob Walk and John Wehner in the booth, and winning on the road, all recipes for a .500 record in mid-May.
We will check back in June.
So back to Dancing with the Stars. I have always been a Steelers' fan, always will be, but the yinzer nation is out in full effect when it comes to Hines and this dancing crap. I have heard people at work say that they call, text, email, twitter, smoke signal, basically do everything to vote, and that is to vote before Hines even dances. If Casey Hampton were on the show he would probably be winning, just because he is a Steeler. Don't get me wrong, Steeler nation is great, we have the greatest fans in America. They have Steeler bars at all the beaches. But come on guys lets cheer for something that matters. Something that is significant to life. Something that actually has to do with sports (if Kirstie Alley can dance, then it is not a sport.)
Let's cheer for the Buccos.
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