Pirate fever

Ed Eagle reports on the delirium seizing western Pennsylvania. I believe the cure for this is eating a little bit of vitamin C every once in a while.

Seriously, though, Craig Wilson was asked to explain it.

Why are fans so excited about a team which is coming off a franchise-worst 12th consecutive losing seasons?

"I think the fans are getting more accustomed to the players and they are able to latch on to who they like," said Bucs slugger Craig Wilson, who has predictably fielded hundreds of questions about his new buzz-cut hairdo. "As players have been around here a little longer, the fans are getting to know us better and support us more. It's hard to get to know the guys who are only around for a year or two and then they are gone."

Me, me, me. Just like a clean-up hitter.

Win and we love you, Craig. Lose and you're dogmeat. No amount of personal charisma makes losing look good.

The surging enthusiasm dates to the 22-11 run that ended, more or less, with the Kris Benson trade for Ty "I'm Due" Wigginton.

Throw out the interleague games (the Bucs went 2-10 in interleague through the end of July, which is all the fault of those damn A's), and the Bucs were 45-40 at that point. In other words, the Bucs were holding their own against the familiar opponents. That winning streak began with the team ripping through Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Florida. They'd have won more games if it wasn't for the Quixotic trip to San Juan and the All-Star break. My theory is that the local fans pay less attention to the team when they play real far away (and especially when the games start at 10pm eastern). So there was a good month there before the football season started when the Pirates were ripping up the league and looking like they actually had a good chance to finish strong.

Technically, there were two more months of baseball after the Benson trade, but in Pittsburgh, if the Bucs don't win and the Steelers are playing, fans will tune the team out.

Two areas where the Pirates need to improve in 2005: first, in interleague. They can't be intimidated or overwhelmed by the novel experience of playing in places like Yankee stadium. They don't want to start the interleague with a 2-10 skid. Second, they have to play meaningful baseball in August and September.

One way to impress upon the fans that the baseball is meaningful: don't turn July into a month where we dare the rest of the league to outbid one another for some of our better players. I realize that trading veterans at the deadline has been part of Littlefield's game, but it has to stop being the big event of the summer. Even if it means getting nothing for someone who will walk at the end of the year. The big event of the summer has to be yet another meaningful game against a division rival.