You don’t know their names, this time.
But meet the new Cards.
Same as the old Cards.
Continue reading “Game 130 // Ninth Inning // Meet the New Cards”
Tag: Pirates
Game 120 // Sixth Inning // Baseball Snow Day
It’s snowing, in April.
Whitecaps are swarming the surface of the Allegheny River.
A fleet of pirate ships are stuck in the ice. Clint Hurdle’s pegleg has frozen. His parrot has died. His eye patch whitens with frost.
Continue reading “Game 120 // Sixth Inning // Baseball Snow Day”
Game 117 // Tenth Inning // Misery in Tigertown
Tigers fans. You alright?
All is wrong in Tigertown, but—you all there?
Continue reading “Game 117 // Tenth Inning // Misery in Tigertown”
Game 104 // First Inning // The Death of the 2017 Cubs
TOP OF THE FIRST: PIRATES 10 (0) – 0 CUBS
Fifteen minutes into the first, and Jon Lester is down for the count.
Pulled before the inning ends. The worst of his career.
It’s the first inning and—10 runs?
Continue reading “Game 104 // First Inning // The Death of the 2017 Cubs”
Game 82 // Thirteenth Inning // Hashtag We Are Good
TOP OF THE THIRTEENTH: CUBS 6 – (6) 7 PIRATES
“Freese hits an infield single off the glove of Rob Zaztryz…Zaztrzyz…Zastryzny,” and Len Kasper’s almost worked himself up into a sneeze, stuttering over the strange sounds of too many Z’s.
Continue reading “Game 82 // Thirteenth Inning // Hashtag We Are Good”
Game 80 // Fourth Inning // The Way of the Pirates
Sketch by Henry Gustavson
TOP OF THE FOURTH: PIRATES 6 (1) – 5 BREWERS
Before McCutchen, there was Sparrow. Before Bonds, Captain Hook.
Continue reading “Game 80 // Fourth Inning // The Way of the Pirates”
Game 78 // Fifth Inning // The Fish Sink the Ship
TOP OF THE FIFTH: MARLINS 3 (1) – 2 PIRATES
The Pittsburgh skyline, with its yellow bridges and clustered office buildings, looks in on PNC Park and sees a sorry sight: the hometown Pirates, in mid-table struggle and fading, wearing the kind of outfit concocted from nightmares. Bright yellow baggy tops. Jet black baggy pants. Black shoes. The old kepi hats, striped yellow and black. Ryan Vogelsong hiking up his slipping pants after each pitch, with the elastic waistband too loose—and appearing, as the live-feed pixels blur out for a moment, like a big banana, dipped in tar. Continue reading “Game 78 // Fifth Inning // The Fish Sink the Ship”
Game 43 // Fifth Inning // Home of the Freese
BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH: PIRATES 5 (1) – 4 DIAMONDBACKS
Roses are red, Pirates are yellow, what the hell color are the Diamondbacks wearing?
They’ve got black lettering, charcoal gray fabric, and a black snakeskin pattern around the ankles that blends with black cleats as if they’ve been Continue reading “Game 43 // Fifth Inning // Home of the Freese”
Game 34 // Fifth Inning // David Ross, Forever Young
BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH: CUBS 8 (3) – 0 PIRATES
David Wade Ross turned thirty-nine years old on March 13th. He’s played in over 800 games. He has over 100 gray hairs bespeckling his beard. And in a sunny, afternoon game against the Pirates, in the fifth inning, he hit career home run number 99—into the reaching hands of a dozen Cubs fans, shirtless and drunk with the dream of a winning team at Wrigley finally alive. Continue reading “Game 34 // Fifth Inning // David Ross, Forever Young”