Enjoy it now, this may be the last day the Pirates are in first place. It is a shame that the franchise has fallen to this point. The author is correct in most of his points: Argueably the best park in the majors, a baseball team in a football town, a small market squad in big market league. It seems to be an almost cruel existence, somewhat like a patient on life support. Not well enough to function by themsleves but not quite dead.

It's worse than you think - they're profitable under the current model. We're stuck with them as long as the current owners are making the decisions.

Are you guys from Pittsburgh?

When I found out that there were something like 6 former Pirates named in the steroid report, my first thought was, "man, they must have really sucked before they started doping!"

Originally from the 'Burgh, but haven't lived there for quite a while. The probelm with their yearly trade off of their best players (yard sale as the author says) is that they don't seem to be building for anything. I understand that if a guy is going to be a free agent, you may as well trade him and get something in return. However, this has to lead to something; some type of long term strategy. What we have seen with the Pirates is that they trade the rising star away to get a hanfull of prospects, only to see most of them not pan out and watching one develop into a star. Then they trade THAT star for a handfull of prospects to begin the cycle anew. Its like an infinite loop.