I Tell Tall Tales

--Writing a blog on a regular basis is a good way to realize how your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs about your favorite athletes and sports teams can change on what might amount to an insanely consistent basis. Examples of this phenomenon include: thinking a player isn't ready for prime time and allowing performance of said player to change your mind, believing a youngster projects as a future star one day and believing he projects as mediocre another day and believing he projects as less than a bust on another day, and, of course, debating if your team is simply not talented or is also underachieving while not being talented or has enough talent that it's obviously underachieving.

--In any case, today's Bucco game enlightened me to the fact that I apparently told a "tall tale" yesterday when I wrote, "I just don't get up for games Matt Morris or Tony Armas pitch." Well, I thought that sentence was true when I wrote it; truthfully, I really did. However, flipping on Gameday and the radio and listening to Armas unexpectedly have several 1-2-3 innings against the Brewers was just, um, pleasant and enjoyable. And even with my favorite Pirate having a 1 for 5 day at the plate, the other Buccos getting hits and scoring runs was great. So, too, was the great defense that the Pirates were, again, playing.

--So, in today's 9-0 win against the Brewers, I guess the truth really does come out. I don't even need my baseball team to be a part of a pennant race, just (sigh: yet again) playing spoilers in a pennant race to be able to enjoy a win. And while it's probably true I don't get as temperamental with Armas or Morris pitching, for better or worse, as I do with the three younger pitchers (especially Snell), I still appreciate a good pitching performance and a solid win from my baseball team. Now, if only the team could win more games than they lose throughout the course of the "six month long" season that (I can still dream delusional dreams) may stretch into October sometime before PNC Park becomes an established old relic of a stadium.

--Final, and typically consistently truthful note: Winning is good. I enjoy winning.