THE PIRATES WILL NOT BE IGNORED

,The Penguins are knee-deep in the NHL Playoffs. The World Champion Steelers are preparing for this weekend's NFL draft. Traditionally, the Pirates are usually statistically eliminated by this point, and Adam LaRoche is hitting around .018 or so. They're already an afterthought. But this year? That's a different story. The Pirates are 7-6, they've thrown four shutouts (two more than their 2008 total), and they lead the league in team ERA. I hope they serve smelling salts at the All You Can Eat Counter, because we might need them to revive us after hearing statistical revelations like those.Last night, the Battlin' Bucs, coming off a blowout loss to Atlanta on Sunday, locked horns with the one-loss Florida Marlins. Surely, this would be the second game in the Pirates' inevitable free-fall. But not so fast, my friend.Ross "Mr. Wonderful" Ohlendorf (as you can see, I'm not giving up on that nickname) pitched seven innings, allowing two hits and str...