When he was hired on October 20, [I noted that Joe Kerrigan had his work cut out for him]. He is inheriting the NL's worst ERA, along with the staff that allowed the most runs and walks.
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He's not wasting any time getting down to business.
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[The Trib has a real nice write-up on Joe]--it's his ...

Free Agency officially started today. For the billionth time, the Pirates aren't going to be doing much, even though [Neal Huntington says]:

"As we are looking at the 2009 Pirates, we'd love to upgrade the offense, upgrade our pitching and rebuild the bench. "

That's a great quote.
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I posted this on [December 3rd] last year:

"All kinds of rumors are swirling at the Winter Meetings, including one stating Bay is headed to Cleveland for Cliff Lee (SP) and Kelly Shoppach (C)."

ESPN's Steve Phillips [said the same thing]:
The Pirates and Indians are talking about a potential Jason Bay trade. Pittsburgh would get ...

Any talk about Damaso Marte potentially returning to the Pirates can officially end. [He signed a 3-year, $12 million dollar deal with the Yankees]. That would probably be about the most we could pay any FA this offseason, and Marte--though very good--is a one inning (or less) reliever who went ...

We all know the current polls week-to-week, but how does the Pirate clubhouse stand? Let's find out:
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1. Jeff Karstens--Texas Tech Red Raiders
Karstens is probably one happy guy right now since his squad is #1 in the land. Why did they beat Texas? Not because of an unbelievable offense. ...

There's been absolutely NOTHING to talk about regarding the Pirates lately. The best I can do for you? [Joe Ferrone hired as special assistant to GM Neal Huntington] Yippee.
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The headline at Pirates.com says "[Bucs will be active in free agency]" but that actually means this (quote from Huntington):

Good Days of '08 is a series looking back on some of the memorable Pirate wins this season. Previous entries: [Game 1], [Game 13], and [Game 43]
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Coverage:
[Recap]
[Quick Update]
[GameDay #49]
[Pirates 5, Cubs 4--5/24/08] and [Pirates 6, Cubs 5--5/25/08]
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Remember this? We were still hunting for ...

The Pirates have filled their other coaching vacancy: [Perry Hill will become the new 1st base coach]. Now, I always thought 1st base coach is the easiest job on the field (you basically pat a guy on the butt after he gets on base and tell him how many outs there are), but apparently Hill is [som... ...

The two just don't work well together. Every off-season, people always go on and on about how the Bucs need to jump in to the market and grab some bats, arms, gloves, whatever. It's not that easy, people. They try. We just don't remember because every year the attempt fails miserably. And guess ...

Instead of starting off with irrelevant Bucs news, it's time to announce the election day winners!
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Barack Obama did not only defeat John McCain in the electoral college, but he also won the RTJR poll, 20 votes to 15. That's why he'll be President. Instead of plastering his face up here like ...

[Pirates.com]
Good for him. Lots of people who cover the team and stats geeks will say he didn't deserve it (lots of fielding metrics have Nate [dead last in range for CF's]) but McLouth made no errors until the season's final week and made that fantastic play to extend the All-Star game.
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Don't ...

First and foremost, congrats to the Phillies. Of course I was rooting for the Rays to win, but the Phillies are mostly a good group of guys. Their fans, however, [are a different story].
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I loved watching the entire postseason, but seeing the Phillies celebrate on the mound like they did made me think (always the Bucco fan): "I can't wait until that's us." They talked about all the suffering Philly did, how they haven't been in the WS in 15 years (that's nothing), how they haven't won since 1980 (Pirates haven't won since 1979), etcetera. All the pain will make the eventual triumph (whenever it is) that much better.
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It also is sad that baseball is over, done with, gone for [157 days and counting]. Football, basketball, and hockey get to attempt and fill the void until then.
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Offseason mode begins...NOW: The Pirates removed John Van Benschoten (the "White Flag") and Ronald Belisario (who?) from the 40-man roster to clear some space. That leaves them with 4 open spots, two of which will be filled by Gorzo and Dumatrait (both on the DL) and the other two will be used to protect potential Rule-5 casualties. This means Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, and Jamie Romak, and others will almost certainly find their way on the roster. How will we make room for them all? Doug Mientkiewicz, Luis Rivas, Chris Gomez, and Jason Michaels are all eligible for free agency. [PG]
I don't feel like doing the math, but that is a lot of runs the Pirates saved themselves over the past few days. Herrera, Salas, JVB, Osoria (now a free agent), wow.
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Some moves around the league today: Ken Macha (candidate who lost out to Jim Tracy for the Bucs job a few years ago) [was named the Brewers' manager].
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The [Royals dealt Leo Nunez to the Marlins for Mike Jacobs]. Jacobs hit 32 homers this year. The Pirates traded Leo Nunez (same guy) away for Benito Santiago a few years back. Santiago had 23 at-bats as a Pirate.

By now I'm sure you know about the crazy effect rain is having on this World Series. [Bud Selig narrowly escaped another epic screw-up] when Carlos Pena singled home BJ Upton to tie the game in the 6th inning. Had that not happen, we'd be looking at a serious problem. All the "what ifs" are starting to come out and Selig is (not surpisingly) garnering plenty of criticism.
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Some links from the Pirates Hompage:
[Pedro Alvarez "as advertised" in the instructional league]
[Jim Benedict hired as assistant to the GM]
[Mailbag Q+A]
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The Green Weenie takes a long, detailed look at [ Phil Dumatrait] and [ Chris Duffy]
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Yoslan Herrera and Marino Salas were taken off the 40-man roster a few days ago. [Yawn]
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If you're mighty bored with the lack of all this news, start joining in the conversation at the [PBC Blog]. A devoted group of commentors post here virtually nonstop all day about the Bucs and whatever else they can think of--they've named themselves "inmates of the asylum." Since they're kind enough to link here every day (as part of the "Morning Links" Dejan did during the season) I figured I'd give them a shout-out. They have get-togethers, too, and are planning an informal meeting at Primanti's that Frank Coonely will be attending, just 'cause he's a great guy. If you want to attend, though, you better make it known who you are over there. I'm sure you'll be welcomed into the "asylum."

OK, so I guess there's plenty of time to work on this. But who knows? Maybe, by the time the Buccos are participating in the Fall Classic, all these ridiculously annoying nuisances will be completely gone:
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1. The Umpiring: It's been absolutely terrible thus far. The overall strike zone, the Longoria tag at 3rd in Game 4, the bunt play at first in Game 3...everyone involved admits the umps are struggling. Look, I'm not trying to knock MLB umps. They usually do a great job and even the calls they clearly miss on slo-mo replay are super-tough to judge in real time. But there are plenty of umps out there who manage to make those calls, night in, night out. Get the best ones out there for the WS.
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2. The Teams: Yes, I'm happy the Rays have made it this year, and I don't have much of a problem with the Phillies, either, besides their fans. But when the Pirates are here, I want an opponent we can really HATE, not some low-profile team like the Rays. The Yankees would be ideal, and I'm sure many of you would like the Red Sox as well. Cleveland would probably be OK. If we were playing one of these teams, the series would be a heck of a lot more intense.
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3. FOX: Joe Buck drives me nuts. I think less than 1% of all baseball fans appreciate Tim McCarver's commentary. Plus, they've had it for so long, they have seemingly every other big sports event, and they never even do regular season games (OK, once a week they do, but what's that?). Gimme some ESPN or maybe some other major network can strike a deal with MLB.
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3a) TBS is a joke. There is no way that ALCS Game 7 should have only been on cable. There's also no way that they should have MISSED THE FIRST INNING OF GAME 6 FOR STEVE HARVEY. Not very funny. Even with the Frank TV ads in between.
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4. The Rain policy: Sure, I'm aware that it may rain at PNC Park for a World Series game. Here's a crazy concept: Call the game!! Reschedule it for the next day!! Just like you've done all year!! A bunch of fans are going to leave after 3 hours of waiting, and you'll have a half-empty stadium with the fans that are left tired and the players tired too. You only understand how frustrating it is to be at one of these games if you've done it. Awful. Games should not be allowed to start at 10PM.
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5. The Start Time: No, it's not 8:00. That's when the COVERAGE comes on. Throw in long pregame ceremonies, longer commercial breaks than usual, and if the game happens to be long, you have yourself a miserable experience (for most fans). Personally, I have no problem sitting through baseball games, but a lot of people do. This makes it worse. How about letting little Joey the baseball fan stay up and watch the game? The one time a game fell on a non-school night, it lasted until 2AM thanks to rain. Joke.
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6. The Scheduling: Saturday night, a heck of a lot of people (especially in PA) were tuned in to Penn St.-Ohio St., not the World Series. That was one of the biggest college football games of the year. Earlier in the playoffs, the TB Bucs played a home game on the same night as a Rays game, and South Florida played Pitt a few hours after another one. This is it for MLB. Try to get these games in when TV audiences are at the max--especially within the local market.
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7. The Pregame: Maybe I'm just sick of Jeanne Zelasko because I play MLB2K8 too much. Or maybe it's because the FOX pregame gives you zero relevant information fans might want to know before the game starts. Highlights from yesterday are about as good as it gets for these people.
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8. The Rally Towels: Does every team in the playoffs have to copy off the late [Myron Cope's brilliant towel-waving idea] to the point where it's just silly? I actually thought this was pretty cool for a while until it started being used in excess. Get original, people.
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9. The Cowbells: OK, I'll give the Rays some credit for being original here. But it's still pretty dumb. No, it's not some storied tradition, the [Rays' owner just thought the SNL clip was hilarious and started passing out cowbells at games]. I thought noisemakers were illegal at these events anyway?
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10. The Lopsidedness: When was the last time the losing team in the WS won more than one game? St. Louis ended the AL domination streak, but I don't really care which league wins, I want to see some intense baseball. Is a walk-off homer, Game 7 too much to ask? Probably. But stop with the sweeps and 4-1 winners. (Unless the Pirates are the ones doing the sweeping. That I could live with. Game 7 would be more exciting though).
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There you have it. Get to work, MLB, the Pirates will be there, uh, soon enough.

With all the issues we have nowadays in sports, going all the way from the Mitchell Report early this year to Santonio Homes' pot this week, it sort of struck me: the Pirates are never involved in this kind of stuff. A Think about it: the worst run-in a Bucco had with the law this year was Nyjer Morgan's windows being too tinted.
-Sure, the Pirates have been absolutely terrible on the field. But when we hear anything about these guys off the field, it's always positive. A bunch of the guys that I've met over the years as a fan have been great: doing charity work, taking time to sign an autograph or talk to a young kid, or just being goofy and having a good time. Never any arrogance or ignorance from anyone on the team.-The examples of this are endless. Go to a game early and head down near the field to catch a glimpse of the guys and maybe even get a chance to talk with someone. Watch the specials on FSN about Freddy Sanchez setting up a field for disabled kids. Attend one of the numerous Pirates Charities events. Tune into "Inside Pirates Baseball" and see Ian Snell, Ryan Doumit, and others just joke around. Turn on ESPN and see another report of steroids, an arrest, a suspension, and notice that it's not a Pirate.-This kind of stuff should be expected from all athletes, but unfortunately it's not the case, so I think the Pirates deserve a little bit of credit. They don't get credit for their baseball, so why not?-That takes me to my point. It's awesome to have a team like this....except for the 16 losing seasons in a row part. The Pirates are paid to win baseball games, not be great guys. We talk about winning games (or lack thereof) every day, though, so I think the fact that the Pirates have done everything they can beyond baseball is worth a mention.