Patience

The Pirates need patience. I've seen enough immature aggression from the Pirates to last me several years, and I think all the varieties of patience would be most healthy for our young club.

Let's run through the definitions of this word:

1 : bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint 2 : manifesting forbearance under provocation or strain 3 : not hasty or impetuous 4 : steadfast despite opposition, difficulty, or adversity

How can anyone deny that the Pirate players need all four kinds of patience described there? Pains and trials will surely come in 2005, and the Pirates need to not kick the proverbial laundry cart in response. Opposition and difficulty will surely meet the team throughout the season, and the Pirates need to remain steadfast and play consistently well to shorten the losing funks that have characterized the last dozen seasons.

I could pull a dozen examples from 2005 recaps, documenting how various hasty and impetuous Pirate hitters killed rallies by bailing out struggling pitchers with a first-pitch groundout. For example, from the September 27 recap:

The Pirates took a 2-0 lead on Nate McLouth's RBI single in the second and Ryan Doumit's bases-loaded walk in the third.

They could have had more in the latter, but Brad Eldred swung at the first pitch -- even though Los Angeles' erratic Edwin Jackson walked the three previous batters -- to pop up and end the inning.

Mackanin was asked if he or anyone instructed Eldred to take a pitch or two in that situation.

"You'd like to think they're aware of that," Mackanin replied. "You can do that, but you also know that, at some point, that pitcher's going to leave a ball out over the plate. You can blow a game wide open, especially someone like Eldred. I'm not saying he should have taken, but it comes with experience knowing when to do it."

The word today, when applied to baseball, often relates to a hitter drawing walks. There's no one way for all hitters to maximize their effectiveness, efficiency, and consistency at the plate, but this is surely good advice for young, impetuous hitters who are too eager to show off their childlike aggression: Festina lente. That's stoic Latin for "make haste slowly." The Pirates show little control of their aggression at the plate, and the results are losing, losing, and more losing.

Our problem with walks - the hasty, impetuous at-bats - is well documented. Brian O'Neill wrote last month about our death by a thousand walks.

As O'Neill's essay points out, our problems with patience abound outside the batter's box. Much of what's frustrated the long-suffering fans stems from the failures of hasty, impetuous pitchers. In addition to the laundry-kicking episode which well illustrates immature aggression, we also have pitchers whose attention spans are too short to pitch effectively.

On September 19, John Perrotto reported something for the Beaver County Times which I can no longer access because they've moved their archives behind a pay wall. Mackanin described Oliver Perez's struggles as the product of boredom. Remember the quote? He said that he was like a bowler who gets tired of throwing strikes over the same arrow. When Perez sticks to one thing and does it patiently, he's Johan Santana. But apparently this kind of winning provides too little stimulation for his beautiful mind, so he must change arm angles and engage in other kinds of "dipsy-doodle" stuff.

The walkin' ways of our impatient starters fail to command the limited attention spans of our young, impatient infielders. The infielders cannot bear the pain of concentrating on the at-bat for more than a few pitches. God knows what they are doing - making eyes at pretty ladies, perhaps - but time after time they looked unfocussed and ill-prepared when a batter finally puts the ball in play.

Dejan Kovacevic wrote about this in his September 27 notebook:

The Pirates seem to elevate their play behind Duke and Maholm, no doubt because of their efficiency. "When a pitcher's not going well, a defense sits back on its heels, as if they're saying, 'Come on, throw a strike!' " interim manager Pete Mackanin said. "These guys throw strikes."

My point is not that the Pirates need to become a group of sober, longsuffering stiffs. Animation, enthusiasm, passion for winning: all these things are good.

But let's hear no more bullshit from managers or players about how patience is "not such" a good thing. Why, for example, does Mackanin apologize for Eldred's horrendous gaffe described in the first quote, above? Had that first pitch been left out over the middle of the plate, Eldred would have crushed it. It's fine to be "contrarian" on the subject of patience, but it's absurd to deny that patience has great value -- especially when we're talking about how to improve the play of a team characterized by hasty, impetuous youngsters with too-short attention spans.

The current Pirates have gone overboard in their defense of being aggressive at the plate. They have their point, but they carry it too far. You need some patience to succeed consistently in this league, and whatever that "some" may be, it's clear that the current collection of players do not have enough.

Since they will be a little bit older, they will surely be a little bit more patient next year. I doubt a little bit more will do it, however.