Random Thoughts While Watching The Pirates And Giants

I know it's still early in the season, and the Giants are playing better than I thought they would, but I still think these two teams are going to be fighting until the end of the season, perhaps even to the final series, for the right to pick first overall in next year's Amateur Draft. Jose Castillo is playing third base, Bengie Molina is hitting cleanup, and I've never even heard of their No. 1 and No. 2 hitters. What a terrible, terrible team. Is this Randy Winn hitting third? Goo.

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Apparently game two of this series is going to feature Barry Zito -- $126 million paperweight for the Giants -- facing off against Phil Dumatrait -- replacement for the Pirates' $10 million paperweight, Matt Morris. There's only one image that comes to mind.

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Last week Kevin McClatchy was inducted into the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall Of Fame. Mind if I ask for what? Normally, the phrase "Hall Of Fame" is associated with people who are successful at what they do. No. Scratch that. For people who are legendary at what they do. Mario Lemiuex. Joe Greene. Willie Stargell. Franco Harris. Guys like that.

McClatchy, on the other hand, was the face of the Pirates during the darkest period (which we're still in, by the way) in the franchise's storied history. And he's in a Hall Of Fame? Any Hall Of Fame? We're through the looking glass here, people.

But as a quick side note, going back to the never-ending sea of suck the Pirates are currently swimming in, it's actually far worse than the 15 consecutive losing seasons which is still growing by the season. Really. It is.

Since the Pirates last won the World Series in 1979, they have managed just seven winning seasons in the ensuing 28 years. The fewest amount in the Major Leagues (excluding the 1990's expansion teams). Four of those seven seasons, and the only three playoff teams, came when the Pirates had Barry Bonds. It's really not a 15-year drought, as it is a 28-year drought minus a couple of seasons when Barry Bonds patrolled left field.

Glad to hear that the man who was in charge for, oh, I don't know... at least eight of those years is now in some sort of Hall Of Fame. Cats living with dogs.

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Nate Mclouth just hit his eighth home run of the season. At least somebody is exceeding expectations this year. Well, to be fair, Xavier Nady is as well.

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Plenty of good seats still available. Adam Laroche struck out a couple of innings ago and you could hear every comment the fans made to him as he walked back to the dugout. Even worse, the crowd is so small, and so quiet, that you can hear one of the broadcasters -- I haven't figured out which one -- breathing through his nose into the microphone. And you can hear Lanny flipping through his sheets of paper that contain presidential trivia and Freddy Sanchez' batting average in night games, against left-handed pitchers, in May, in games east of the Mississippi River, with a 7:05 start time.

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Adam Laroche just hit a 2-run home run. He's actually been playing well the past few games. Somebody should tell him the season starts in April, not May. Some guy in the right field stands made a fine catch, barehanded, and Lanny and Steve are discussing whether or not he looks like Astros outfielder Lance Berkman. Now Lanny wants to read his shirt but isn't sure if he should because it might be dirty. It's not. It says "I let my mind wander and it never came back."

Lanny seems disappointed.

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Other than the season opener, and the game I went to a couple of weeks ago, I think this is the most I've watched the Pirates all season. Sadly, this doesn't disappoint me. Baseball is still great, and the Pirates are still boring.