It was difficult for me to deal with the NL Wild Card game due to my concussion symptoms. I’m not supposed to watch TV, so I turned it on and closed my eyes and tried to listen. That proved to be difficult, as TBS had the crowd noise up, and with the jeers of ‘Cueto, Cuteo,’ constantly ringing through the stadium, I could only get the gist of what was happening.
What was clear, however, is that Pirates fans showed up for this game. Back in the early 1990s, when Pittsburgh produced a three-year run of regular season success, one could walk up to Three Rivers Stadium on game day and get a ticket for the NLCS. Twenty years of ineptitude appears to have made Pirates fans hungry for a winner. They not only showed up on Tuesday night, they were an effective tenth man.
The Pirates imports paid off handsomely. Francisco Liriano pitched seven strong innings continuing this dominance at PNC Park. Russell Martin hit two home runs, and late addition Marlon Byrd hit another. The Pirates own home grown star, Andrew McCutchen, went two for three with two walks. Everything went right for the Pirates against the Reds, and they face the Cardinals in NLDS.
Pittsburgh also has a page in the post-season section of the Day by Day Database now!
Dave, sorry to hear about the concussion symptoms. Re the Pirates playoff series in the early ’90s, the Pirates had 7 home games in ’91 and ’92 the last two years they were in the playoffs. They drew 53K+ for 6 of them and, I think, 4 were sellouts at 57K. While there may have been tickets available it wasn’t as if the team didn’t have great support. Last night’s they were sold out and had the largest crowd in PNC Park history. Attendance was 40,487.
David Todd » Thanks, David.
What’d you do, Pinto? Try and explain the merits of advanced statistical analysis to Rob Dibble or something?
WeWanttheFunk » I actually used to work with Rob on Baseball Tonight Online. 🙂
I stood up without realizing I had moved under some shelves and banged my head. That probably wasn’t so bad, but the next day I ran a 5K, and I think that made it worse.
Love the Dibble joke.
We all want you healthy, of course, and I know you don’t want to miss the action. Have you considered using the radio feeds? I believe you have an iDevice, and you must have the MLB TV subscription. Just a thought.
Scooter » Yes, I’m going to try that tonight.
Did he call you an egghead? Because that would have been awesome.
Take it slow. You only get to rest your way out of these.
WeWanttheFunk » Dibble and I got along just fine. We had different audiences on the site, so there wasn’t much cross talk.