"Pittsburgh Isn't a Baseball Town." (stats, paint)

[safak]

pirates are definately built for another couple runs at it. its not like football where half the teams get in the playoffs, so a winning season isn't going to guarantee you anything, especially in this division.

you can talk about 20 years ago, and thats great for your game room wall. hang pictures of rod woodson and hines ward.

but today steelers are in bad shape.
-aging, average nucleus where the pirates have talented, really young nucleus.
-steelers have multiple holes where the pirates really have 1 or 2(ill throw shortstop in as a hole even though almost everyone else has the same hole)
-drafted terribly the past 5 years, like historically bad. name me a decent starting player they picked in rounds 1 through 5, and hes either on the IR(pouncey), the saints(lewis) or the dolphins(wallace). thats it!
pirates have done really well once they commited to the draft, spent a ton, even set a record signing bonus for draftpick, which paid off(cole)
-no money to spend, arguably the worst cap situation in the NFL going into 2014 where the pirates while a poorer team do have a little room to work.

i realize im going to get flamed by people in polamalu wigs and big ben shirts, but that doesn't change the fact that ben is average. polamalu makes 1 big play every 4 game and casual fans don't realize hes out of position every other play, and isn't very good. hey he has awesome hair and jumped over the offensive line a few times..

if you could buy stock in winning the next 2-3 years, you won't find a sports fan outside the yinzer metro that would put that money into the steelers over the pirates.

[erieguy]

More rationalization. When/if the Pirates continue to win then the comparisons to other teams and arguments of a fluke will hold water. As of now the facts are 1 in 20 or 1 in 7. Just the facts.

[Impala26]

Originally Posted by safak

pirates are definately built for another couple runs at it. its not like football where half the teams get in the playoffs, so a winning season isn't going to guarantee you anything, especially in this division.

you can talk about 20 years ago, and thats great for your game room wall. hang pictures of rod woodson and hines ward.

but today steelers are in bad shape.
-aging, average nucleus where the pirates have talented, really young nucleus.
-steelers have multiple holes where the pirates really have 1 or 2(ill throw shortstop in as a hole even though almost everyone else has the same hole)
-drafted terribly the past 5 years, like historically bad. name me a decent starting player they picked in rounds 1 through 5, and hes either on the IR(pouncey), the saints(lewis) or the dolphins(wallace). thats it!
pirates have done really well once they commited to the draft, spent a ton, even set a record signing bonus for draftpick, which paid off(cole)
-no money to spend, arguably the worst cap situation in the NFL going into 2014 where the pirates while a poorer team do have a little room to work.

i realize im going to get flamed by people in polamalu wigs and big ben shirts, but that doesn't change the fact that ben is average. polamalu makes 1 big play every 4 game and casual fans don't realize hes out of position every other play, and isn't very good. hey he has awesome hair and jumped over the offensive line a few times..

if you could buy stock in winning the next 2-3 years, you won't find a sports fan outside the yinzer metro that would put that money into the steelers over the pirates.

You forgot leadership. I know there's a lot of hate on Hurdle for being stubborn or failing to make changes/adjustments (Gee, how long have we heard THAT about a Pittsburgh sports coach?), but honestly he is one of the main catalysts for the shifting paradigm that is the Pirates right now. In the face of an established "losing culture" here, he taught his team to ignore all that crap and fight every step of the way, each and every day. And in so doing he, along with Huntington's calculated positioning of pieces, in three short years transformed a virtual 100-loss team into one that took the team with the best record in baseball to the brink of elimination. That, above all else, will be what's remembered about this 2013 Pirates team.

The Steelers on the other hand are going in quite the opposite direction, and I believe that too stems from leadership, or more specifically lack thereof. Tomlin goes into the same broken record diatribe after every single game and I don't really see him as a firm leader of those players. It's very likely a buddy-buddy relationship between him and his players. Oh lord what a coach like Cowher would do to this team... They honestly need someone who is a bit of a disciplinarian, because I'm seeing way too much prima dona entitlement their many inexperienced players. However, maybe this is more a symptom of the NFL today than with the Steelers specifically.

Still, there's no locker room cohesion: you've got players like Ryan Clark calling out Ben on ESPN, and Ben at times sounds like he's thrown some of the inexperienced players under the bus too. The poor drafting and incoherent and disorganized system has come back to bite the Steelers in the butt and it's clearly showing. I still think that Ben is a great QB and one of if not the best at improvising plays, but when you have to do that for 75%+ of the time because of your invisible O-line, well, there's just not a whole lot that can be done.

Oh and lest we not forget Mr. Haley, who seems like is involved in a new scandal of some sort every two weeks or so. Even the Rooney's aren't above criticism at this point honestly.

Needless to say, I'm glad baseball is relevant in Pittsburgh once again.

[safak]

Originally Posted by erieguy

More rationalization. When/if the Pirates continue to win then the comparisons to other teams and arguments of a fluke will hold water. As of now the facts are 1 in 20 or 1 in 7. Just the facts.

1 in 1, or 0 -4?. Just the facts..

i see what you are trying to do but it still doesn't make any sense. With your logic, Pitt is the best football program in the ACC.
hey, 9 in 24 or 2 in 24? Just the facts.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by safak

1 in 1, or 0 -4?. Just the facts..

i see what you are trying to do but it still doesn't make any sense. With your logic, Pitt is the best football program in the ACC.
hey, 9 in 24 or 2 in 24? Just the facts.

Pitt? Acc? Logic? None of that in that post.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by safak

1 in 1, or 0 -4?. Just the facts..

i see what you are trying to do but it still doesn't make any sense. With your logic, Pitt is the best football program in the ACC.
hey, 9 in 24 or 2 in 24? Just the facts.

Fact: Bucs have 1 winning season in 20.
Fact: Bucs have 1 winning season in 7 under current ownership.
Fact: Bucs made the postseason 1 time in last 21 years and haven't won a postseason series in 34.
Fact: Rationalization by Bucs fans will not make them more successful than the Steelers or Penguins.
Fact: Some fans have lower standards than others.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Fact: Rationalization by Bucs fans will not make them more successful than the Steelers or Penguins.
Fact: Some fans have lower standards than others. These are Pirates fans.

Those are not facts.

Just the facts.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by greg42

Those are not facts.

Just the facts.

Its just one of those things about denial.

I'm a Bucs fan but I can accept it. Not a big deal.

[SammyKhalifa]

And people wonder why I'm sick of the Steelers and am practically rooting for them to lose these days . . .

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

And people wonder why I'm sick of the Steelers and am practically rooting for them to lose these days . . .

Because they're more successful than the Pirates is no reason to root against them. Its just a dedication to winning and ownership. Same as the Pens. Pirates ownership may someday be in that category.