i was sleeping in a bunk bed listening to games under the covers. lanny frattare's call on bonds' walk-off HR in this game is still burned in my memory (didn't even see the video of it till the 6:00 news the next day):

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT199108120.shtml

not even gonna pretend like i stuck it out though. i jumped ship sometime around the end of the giles era. still think MLB's salary situation is a joke, and it's dumb to get invested in a sport where your team is playing with two arms tied behind its back every year.

i also think breaking the streak is counterproductive in a way. the pirates situation had become such a national embarrassment, i was hoping it would spark some sort of movement towards revenue sharing, a salary cap, or anything to level the playing field. that's over now, as MLB can point to the 2013 pirates and say anyone can win under the current system. but it was probably a lost cause anyway. baseball really is america's game, where the rich are given every possible advantage while the poor get sold a dream year after year.

whatever. i'll root for the pirates. i'm happy for the team and happy for a city that deserves way better than this. but really, all this hoopla over a .500 season is kind of pathetic. these are table scraps. better than starving, sure, but you're still eating off the floor.

"i smack clowns with nouns, punch herbs with verbs..."