It's a Steelers Monday ... "God Bless America"

Rest assured, we will offer more blithering gibberish on the Steelers' win yesterday, the Ravens' loss to Tennessee, the state of the NFL in general, and maybe even Warren Sapp.

It's a Steelers Monday, yes, but we just can't let the Pirates fly under the radar today.  Their "performance" yesterday and really since mid-July, just begs for attention, and we've already written the Steelers-Seahawks game recap, so here goes ...

Following the Steelers' win over a woeful Seattle squad yesterday, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls turned on the radio broadcast of the Pirates game in the fifth inning yesterday, and the always-electric Bob Walk and Greg Brown sounded like they were in excruciating agony.  

The late, great Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Prince, "The Gunner"

Seriously, the Pirates' broadcast team sounded like they were in pain. The game had already gone on for about two-and-half-hours, the Dodgers led 12-1, and "Walky" in his typically lugubrious manner was saying things like, "Well, what do we have to look forward to here? ... the seventh-inning stretch?  Yeah.  God Bless America."

And with that in mind, we can ponder the following:  With yesterday's 15-1 shellacking in Los Angeles -- certainly the low point of the season -- the Pirates sank to a record of 68-85 (still one game ahead of the Cubs! in a "battle" for fourth place).

Sufferin' Catfish!

After going 53-47 through the season's first 100 games, the Bucs have gone 15-38 since.  As noted by beat writer John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times, since moving into first place on July 19, when they went seven games over .500, the Pirates have won back-to-back games just twice.

They must win five of their remaining nine games to avoid 90 losses for the season.  If they lose 90 games this year, it will be their seventh consecutive season of 90 or more losses.

Looking on the bright side, even if the Bucs lose 90 this year, that would still represent a 15-game improvement over last year's record!  Progress!!!

It may be tough sledding this week, however.  The team begins a three-game series in Arizona tonight vs. the first-place Diamondbacks, who send ace Ian Kennedy (19-4) vs. Jeff Karstens (9-8), who probably has been the Pirates best pitcher this season, but still ... this looks like another mismatch.

Indicative of the turmoil and instability on the Pirates this year, yesterday the Bucs set a team record for the number of players (52) used during a season.  The club has used seven catchers already, and this week that number almost certainly will increase to eight, which would equal the most catchers used in a season since 1953, as noted in the "Pirates Notebook" in this morning's edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

When Mike Pagnozzi makes his debut behind the plate, which is expected this week, he would become the eighth catcher the Pirates used this season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that will be the most catchers the team used in a season since 1953 (also eight). The team record is nine, set in 1914.

The incredibly gory details of yesterday's loss -- the worst of the season -- can be read in the Post-Gazette's game column written by Michael Sanserino.

The starting pitching was ineffective, the bullpen was worse and the offense was absent in a 15-1 loss to the Dodgers today at Dodger Stadium.  It was the Pirates' most lopsided loss of the season.

The Dodgers (76-76) tallied 23 hits off eight Pirate pitchers. The 23 hits are the most allowed by the Pirates this season. The eight pitchers used ties a franchise mark for most pitchers used in a nine-inning game, matching a record set four times prior, three times during the Pirates' streak of 19 consecutive losing seasons.

The Pirates failed to record a 1-2-3 inning for the second consecutive game. The Dodgers had 30 base runners, stranding 14 of them.

Every Dodger in the starting lineup had at least one hit. Three had three, Jerry Sands had four, and James Loney had five.

Just asking here, but how does a team score 15 runs, yet leave 14 left on base?  Oh, yeah, they play the Pirates.

Maybe the Pirates need help from the angels, as suggested in a guest column in Sunday's Post-Gazette by Richard Peterson, baseball historian, who referenced the 1951 movie, "Angels in the Outfield":

After 100 games, the 2011 team was actually in a battle for first place.

When the team finally went into a tailspin, most fans wanted to blame an umpire's bum call, but having grown up in the 1950s, I knew what had happened to our Buccos. All those clutch plays, all those close wins, I'd seen it before -- clearly there were angels helping the Pirates. But for some inexplicable reason, the angels departed after 100 games.

Mr. Peterson recommends invoking the angelic spirit of the late, great Pie Traynor ("Who can? Amer-i-can!") by building a statue of him and placing it outside PNC Park.  

Pie Traynor

One of the great third basemen in baseball history (but largely forgotten these days), Traynor was one of three Hall of Famers on the the 1925 World Series Championship team.  That happens to be the only one of the five Pirates World Series-winning teams not represented by a statue outside of PNC Park  (Honus Wagner, 1909; Bill Mazeroski, 1960; Roberto Clemente, 1971; and Willie Stargell, 1979).

Why not?  A statue honoring Pie Traynor makes as much sense as anything else.  In fact, the Pirates could take the money they might otherwise spend on yet another unproductive free agent (Lyle Overbay, Matt Diaz, Jeromy Burnitz, Derek Bell, etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum), spend it instead on a statue honoring Pie Traynor, and still have enough left over for at least a couple Fireworks nights or Bobblehead giveaways -- maybe even some improvements to the Seven Springs Ski Resort also owned by Pittsburgh Baseball Club owner Bob Nutting.

Go, Bucs!