The 2007 Pirates: Holding Company With John Smiley and Doug Drabek

aided by a four-run 5th inning, the pirates prevailed 5-4 over the astros, and swept the first series of the season. considering that the buccos havent swept the astros in houston since 1991, at the astrodome, i consider this sweep a massive positive to build on for the rest of the season. in 1991, the pirates ruled, so equalling a feat by the buccos of my childhood is commendable. the pirates started 0-6 last year. right about the time of the 4th or 5th consectutive loss, i actually wondered if it was possible to go winless! thats not even a possibility this year.

sweeping the astros in the opening series between the two teams got me thinking. this reminds me of the pens sweeping the flyers in philly this hockey season. the pens were a young group of guys, playing in an arena where wins have been hard to come by, against a divisional foe that the pens have struggled against in the past. crosby and company ended up exercising some demons and making a run to the playoffs. the pens beat the flyers 8-2, 5-3, 5-3 and 5-4 in philly. the pirates are a young group of guys, playing in a ballpark where wins have been hard to come by in the past, against a divisional foe that the pirates have struggled against in the past. hopefully, this means bay and company can make a meaningful run to the playoffs, and not a bs run like the one by the 1997 "freak show" pirates (although that pitching staff was pretty sweet).

i think the pirates can make some waves in the national league this year, and although ive said that every year since that other sid crushed my dreams in 92, i honestly think these buccos can be legit.

more later...

Can You Say, "First Place?"

sorry for the lack of domination the past few days (there, thats my april fools joke, a lack of posts when one would be normally expecting posts) . ive been real busy at school, because i get my b.a. in a little more than a month. oh well, lots to get to today.

last night was sweet. the pirates opened their season with a win. props to the buccos for hanging around during a game in which roy oswalt was pitching some fierce stuff (or the pirates just couldnt hit, a simpler explanation). pittsburgh knew hits were going to be hard to come by, and their patience paid off, when nate mclouth's pinch-hit homer broke the shutout, and xavier nady added to "lights-out lidge's" frustrations (remember when lidge was feared in the league, like before he threw that pitch in the 2005 nlcs to pujols? dude hasnt been the same since, even though he denies the hell out of it). jason bay hit a cool 2 run homer in the 10th, and the pirates prevailed for only the 12th time in 54 games at minute maid park (remember when it was enron field? i do, you stupid astros and your association with a criminal company that bought the naming rights to your ballpark).

pirates are in 1st place in the central! awesome. after 14 shitty seasons, i will take any moral victory. the cards and astros and cubs (good job spending a lot of money, toolbags) are all underneath us. i am imagining an anthropomorphic pirate standing over an anthropomorphic cardinal, anthropomorphic astro (what the hell? this, maybe?) and an anthropomorphic cub, and taking a giant poo on each.

here's a video of three rivers being demolished. i still almost cry when i see this.

levi jones said that joey porter waited for his 6 friends to jump levi, then came and punched mr. jones in the face. i dont care if you are right, levi jones. joey porter is cooler than you.

florida won the national championship. i was cool with chris leak and company pooing on ohio state in the football championship. i love to see ohio state lose. but i really cant stand joakim noah, and now everyone keeps talking about the gators being one of the best teams ever. go away, florida. i liked you better when you couldnt win anything and your fans kept getting pissed. however, i already picked tim tebow as my heisman front runner (hes gonna be nuts).

the pens play tonight. they better win, seeing as how the devils keep winning (and by winning, i mean axing their coach). an overtime loss will get us even atop the atlantic, but still in 5th in the conference due to nj having two more wins than the pens. we really need to get the two points tonight against the sabres, who we beat in a shootout on march 13th. pens dropped to number 7 in the espn power rankings (that doesnt mean anything to me). the game is on versus.

pirates play tonight in houston again. everytime baseball season starts, my mind gets warped and i have to adjust my brain from football/college basketball mindset (playing division opponents 2 times a year, 3 times a year max if you make the tourney) and nhl mindset (5-10 matchups a year against any division foe) to baseball mindset (3 games against a division foe within the first 3 games). here we go, ian snell! who cares if you hate pittsburgh!

i gotta go do some stuff (stuff=look for the mpotd).

ill be back, dont worry!