Wainwright and champagne
The Pittsburgh Pirates, dispatched from the 2013 MLB postseason tournament last night by the team and pitcher pictured above, had a wonderful baseball season. Playing in the world’s toughest division in the toughest league, they won more than 90 games and gutted, poised, through six tense and competitive postseason games. I had to laugh when TBS announcers kept repeating that the Pirates hadn't been in the postseason in 21 years, which is true enough, but the reporters kept missing the larger story, which was that they were in the playoffs this year after not having a winning record for 21 years. Considering that, they were competing this fall in some pretty rAARRRRified air.
Like the Cardinals team that bested them, the Pirates of Pittsburgh have some pretty good young AARRRRRRms. Third baseman Pedro AlvAARRRRez drove in a run in all six games the team played, although Neil Walker and StAARRRRling MAARRRRRte combined to go only 1 for 38 for the entire NLDS. To say nothing of Clint BAARRRRRmes. The team probably could have hit better, in general, against Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha, and company if they had removed their eye patches before heading to the plate. Now Buccaneers executives and players have only one piece of business left on the 2013 baseball calendar—salAARRRRRy AARRRRRRRRR-bitration.
---
It was back to regular business in Pittsburgh the day after. On the front page of the Post-Gazette’s sports site already this morning at 9am Eastern, the top headline was this: “Bill Cowher knows how Mike Tomlin, Steelers feel.” Below that, a photo of the two football coaches and six NFL story links, Below that, the headline: “Cardinals’ prowess on the mound, at the plate doom Pirates in NLDS clincher.” I guess there's no use dwelling on the old for even 12 hours.
---
Among the many impressive Cardinals’ postseason statistics since 2011, this one hardly gets a notice, but the Birds have now won Game 4 and 5 of the Division Series two times in the past three years. This achievement may not seem all that remarkable until you realize that only one other team has done this even one time in the last decade.
---
Quote of the day: Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan: “The big, scary Los Angeles Dodgers embody everything about baseball that turns people’s stomachs here in the Midwest. It goes beyond the whole pee-in-the-pool incident, though it is safe to say, after watching the St. Louis Cardinals celebrate their National League Division Series victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates with a party that registered a negative-20 on the 1-to-10-get-leaky-like-the-Dodgers scale, the Cardinals save their business for the urinal.”
posted by CM @ 9:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home