Category: default || By officerjim

(Guest Commentator: Officer Jim)

Hullo all you faithful denizens and ex-pats of the storied Mon-Yough region. Once again it’s time for your faithful editor to take his annual “vacation” at the lovely and bucolic state run “hotel” at scenic Mayview.

So as the nice young men in their clean white coats were dragging him off…er…I mean, “escorting him to the courtesy shuttle,” he was sure to think of you, his dear reader(s)?. In fact, his first request to me was that I, faithful private servant Officer Jim, keep the Almanac running smoothly until his return. (Okay, his real first request was that I stop jolting him with the Taser, but then I digress.)

So while I can’t promise that the Almanac will be updated every day this week, I will try to provide some “filler content” until next week. Sadly, my filler won’t be nearly as tasty as that of an International Village pierogi, but it should hopefully get you though until your regular editor can resume his duties and/or escapes.

Speaking of mental health issues, are you as excited as I am by the Opening Day of Pirates baseball?

Really?

You are?

Geez, maybe we need to inquire about Mayview’s group rate.

Seriously, though, I have to say that I am a baseball fan. Certainly I’m not the most rabid or knowledgeable, but I am a little excited to see the boys of summer take the field again. And while Pittsburgh fans have spent more than our fair share of time in the Mudville Nine, I can’t help but believe that maybe, just maybe, this year could be the one that pulls us out of the losing streak. After all, even Charlie Brown hit a home run eventually!

Of course, I’m a realist and I ain’t looking for a pennant this year. (Or next year... Or the year after that...) And maybe it says something about a team when all the fans desperately want is a season at or above .500. And maybe we in this region are way too forgiving of an ownership group who has allowed us to wallow barely above the bottom of Major League Baseball (thank you Tampa Bay and Kansas City for stinking even more than the Pirates). And maybe the fans have allowed the league’s lack of a salary cap and some sort of reasonable revenue sharing plan erode the spirit of fair play between the larger and smaller markets. But doesn’t the love of America’s pastime transcend all that negative thinking?

Naw, you’re right… It’s getting purty darn tough to enthusiastically root for a team that has continuously failed to produce a winning record for the past 14 seasons. Maybe the players and owners don’t owe anything to Pittsburgh and the region (I can think of 262 million things they owe, but I digress again), but it seems to this mild-mannered flatfoot that if I spent 14 years on the job with sub-standard performance I’d darn well have to answer to somebody. Not that I’m saying anything new or earth shattering here (or that hasn’t been said more eloquently by others). I’m just tired of all the losing, and I don’t know if it will get better under the current ownership.

Maybe I’m wrong, though. Maybe only a minority of fans are disgruntled whiners, and everyone else in the region is perfectly happy with the losing record. Obviously the owners are quite comfortable with it. I’m not, though, so if you see me wearing my Boston Red Sox (not Elizabeth Township’s Boston, but that other little town up north) cap more often than my Pirates cap, you’ll know why.

What was the point here? Oh yeah. It’s baseball’s Opening Day! Wheee! (Season Opener tonight at 7:05 in Houston. Home Opener April 9th versus St. Louis.)