CONSISTENT INCOMPETENCE
and the occasional, fleeting whiff of
mediocrity.
Because I like it, because many of you may not see
it in the comment threads over at The Burgh Blog, and because it's true, I thought
I would repeat here what I wrote there, in response to an "anonymous Burgher"
who whined that the Pirates should be shown the same love as the Steelers and
the Penguins...
The Steelers and Penguins get it because they deserve it. Because they have highly competent organizations that field regularly competitive teams. When they suck, they suck for a year — or, at worst, a couple of years — and are even then in the process of rebuilding the team, so that they emerge from their suckitude and soon compete again.
In the past 15 — count 'em, 15 — years of Pirates suckitude, the Steelers have had only 3 losing seasons. During that time, they’ve had 10 playoff appearances, including 6 conference championship appearances, 2 Super Bowl appearances, and one Super Bowl victory. The Penguins have had only 4 losing seasons. During that time, they’ve had 10 playoff appearances, including 5 conference semi-finals appearances and two conference finals appearances, are currently a lock to make their 11th playoff appearance, and have assembled what most hockey analysts consider to be the best young team in the game.
We can talk about the Pirates’ glory days of the 70s — when, by the way, the Steelers were winning 4 Super Bowls — or about those three great years in the early 90s — when, by the way, the Penguins were winning 2 Stanley Cups — all we want, but that does not change the grim facts, nor the piss-poor results, of the battlin’ Buccos during the last decade and a half.
That franchise, with a considerable assist from the taxpayers, has built the best ballpark in the country. For that, we should be grateful. Absent that, they have not done one thing — unless, of course, you count bobblehead nights and fireworks displays — to reward their loyal fans with anything more than consistent incompetence and the occasional, fleeting whiff of mediocrity.
If we’re still showing them love after that, our out-of-town friends should have an intervention and force us to get help at a Battered Sports Fans’ Shelter.
The Steelers and Penguins get it because they deserve it. Because they have highly competent organizations that field regularly competitive teams. When they suck, they suck for a year — or, at worst, a couple of years — and are even then in the process of rebuilding the team, so that they emerge from their suckitude and soon compete again.
In the past 15 — count 'em, 15 — years of Pirates suckitude, the Steelers have had only 3 losing seasons. During that time, they’ve had 10 playoff appearances, including 6 conference championship appearances, 2 Super Bowl appearances, and one Super Bowl victory. The Penguins have had only 4 losing seasons. During that time, they’ve had 10 playoff appearances, including 5 conference semi-finals appearances and two conference finals appearances, are currently a lock to make their 11th playoff appearance, and have assembled what most hockey analysts consider to be the best young team in the game.
We can talk about the Pirates’ glory days of the 70s — when, by the way, the Steelers were winning 4 Super Bowls — or about those three great years in the early 90s — when, by the way, the Penguins were winning 2 Stanley Cups — all we want, but that does not change the grim facts, nor the piss-poor results, of the battlin’ Buccos during the last decade and a half.
That franchise, with a considerable assist from the taxpayers, has built the best ballpark in the country. For that, we should be grateful. Absent that, they have not done one thing — unless, of course, you count bobblehead nights and fireworks displays — to reward their loyal fans with anything more than consistent incompetence and the occasional, fleeting whiff of mediocrity.
If we’re still showing them love after that, our out-of-town friends should have an intervention and force us to get help at a Battered Sports Fans’ Shelter.
Posted: Wed - March 12, 2008 at 10:18 AM
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Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM
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