Talking Baseball Vol. 16

The summer of baseball games and some thoughts on where the Pittsburgh Pirates go from here.

When the 2024 Major League Baseball season began I set the goal for myself that I wanted to attend at least 25 games.

It did not matter where. It did not matter when. It did not matter who. I just wanted to go to a lot of baseball games.

In the end, I went to 34 baseball games in five different stadiums and saw some pretty cool shit. While I am not ruling out the possibility of a playoff games somewhere (A LOT of nearby teams are in the playoffs) the regular season ruled.

The tally:

PNC Park: 27 games
Citi Field: 3 games
Yankee Stadium: 2 games
Camden Yards: 1 game
Citizens Bank Park: 1 game

Here are my top-six games from the season.

1. Sunday, April 14: Pittsburgh Pirates at Philadelphia Phillies (Citizens Bank Park). This was part of a weekend road trip that took me to Philadelphia and New York to see the Pirates play the Phillies and Mets on back-to-back days. The Sunday game in Philadelphia was a 9-2 Pirates win that featured a Jack Suwinski grand slam and Andrew McCutchen’s 300th career home run. That was the big moment. Andrew McCutchen is one of the main reasons I fell back in love with baseball with the way he did the impossible and gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a boost toward contention, so seeing him reach that milestone in person was awesome.

2. Wednesday, June 5: Los Angeles Dodgers at Pittsburgh Pirates (PNC Park). The Paul Skenes vs. Shohei Ohtani game. This was only Skenes’ fifth Major League start (and the first time I had a chance to see him pitch in person) and it was one of the must-see events of the entire season across the league. Skenes opened the game by striking out Mookie Betts and Ohtani, with the latter coming on three straight fastballs. Later in the game Ohtani got his revenge by clubbing a majestic home run to center field. It was captivating stuff. It was also fourth time I had a chance to see Ohtani play in person and that home run was the first time I actually saw him get a hit. Prior to that he was 0-for-everything with a bunch of strikeouts and one Aaron Judge home run robbery (I also saw him pitch the worst game of his career). It was a win all around.

3. Wednesday, August 21: Baltimore Orioles vs. New York Mets (Citi Field) and Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Yankees (Yankee Stadium). Two games. Two stadiums. One City. One day. This was the only day of the 2024 season where the New York Mets and New York Yankees were both home on the same day, and playing at different times where it was possible to go to both games. Before the season started I mapped out the schedules and figured out when it would be possible to do this, and this was the only option. It just so happened that Wednesday is always my day off so it could not have been more perfect.

Everything about this day rocked.

My brother Jeff and nephew James accompanied me to both games, while my friend Jayson (writer of Lots Of Commas and many, many other places) joined us for the Yankees game at night and introduced us to the pre-game stop of La Bodega. The games themselves were also amazing. In the day game at Citi Field, Mets starter Sean Manea took a perfect game into the seventh inning, with the Mets ultimately winning with a Jesse Winker walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. In the night game at Yankee Stadium, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge hit home runs (with Judge hitting two of them) in an 8-1 Yankees win.

An honorable mention to this game is that I also went to the Yankees game the night before, with Soto and Judge hitting back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first inning.

4. Friday, July 5, New York Mets at Pittsburgh Pirates (PNC Park). Another Paul Skenes start, and while he was dominant in a 14-2 win, the real story of this game was the Pirates lineup actually hitting the ball. A lot. They tied a franchise record with seven home runs, including TWO grand slams — one from Bryan Reynolds and another from Rowdy Tellez. An insane night.

5. Tuesday, April 30: Chicago Cubs at New York Mets (Citi Field). This was just a little surreal simply because it was Seymour Weiner dollar hot dog night. Long story short: Earlier in the season the Mets honored a veteran by the name of Seymour Weiner during a game. Fans went nuts for him. The Mets brought his family back (and played a video from him) for a dollar hot dog night. The Mets won, but I ate like seven hot dogs which was the real story of the game. Just a fun night.

6. Thursday, June 27: Texas Rangers at Baltimore Orioles (Camden Yards). In the middle of the summer I had a craving for some fresh seafood (crabs, specifically) and a desire to just take a little overnight road trip. So I cashed in some credit card points, went to my favorite stadium in baseball (Camden Yards) and saw the defending World Series champions (Texas Rangers) play one of the best teams in baseball (the Baltimore Orioles). The Orioles hit four home runs and won, and it was just a peaceful relaxing night doing one of my favorite things ever — attending a live sporting event of two teams I do not care about or care about who wins.

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Now, let’s talk about the Pirates.

The 2024 season ended exactly the same way as the 2023 season ended — with 76 wins, no playoffs, and a roster that has more questions than answers.

The most staggering thing about this season, and by far the most frustrating part of this season, is that they had the best pitcher in baseball (Skenes) for five months and actually had a surprisingly good starting rotation full of — at least — league average to above average starters, and they STILL did not improve by a single game. They still finished in fifth place out of five teams in the division (again) and they still missed the playoffs by a mile despite being buyers (even if only marginaly) at the trade deadline.

Just …. just …. what the hell, man? What are we actually doing here?

Unless something dramatic changes as I am writing this or soon after, pretty much everybody responsible for this product is going to be back for the 2025 season, including general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton. Sure, the hitting coach and bullpen coach might be gone, but how do you even pretend to care about the product and bring all of the most important people back for another season? This has been one of the worst five-year stretches in the history of the franchise, and when you think about how bad the past 35 years have been that is a damning statement on where things are.

What makes it worse is I just do not see how or when it changes.

What makes me the angriest is not actually just the Pirates themselves. It is the Kansas City Royals.

Let me explain.

Let’s talk about it.