The Losingest Losers: A Pirates Fan Looks At 17

Dom Cosentino is a lifelong Pirates fan (yes, they still exist). To commemorate the 17th consecutive losing season of the franchise, he's provided this essay on what it's like to be under .500 all those years. Sept. 30, 1990, was a bright, early autumn afternoon in Pittsburgh, a Sunday in which the Steelers were playing the Miami Dolphins at Three Rivers Stadium. Only nobody cared. The record shows that 54,691 were in attendance – roughly 5,000 short of capacity-and I was one of them, age 15. But the actual crowd was far less. Aside from the weather, two distinct memories from that afternoon stand out: Bubby Brister throwing three interceptions, and the wild cheering that suddenly ensued as a result of something that didn't even happen in Pittsburgh, let alone on the field at Three Rivers. The Pirates were playing in St. Louis that afternoon, and just after Doug Drabek got Denny Walling to bounce out to second, with Jose Lind flipping a throw to Sid Bream for the final o...