Collecting...when your team...SUCKS

 

I’m gonna come right out and say it.

            I’m going to tell you something that you already know.

            …collecting SUCKS…when your team SUCKS.

            Okay…maybe it doesn’t suck.

            But it’s not as fun.

            For those of you who read these posts regularly (when this blog is, in fact, regular), you know that I’m a lifelong Pirates fan. Being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan almost defines “long suffering” at least in terms of sports fandom. The Pirates were 71-91 this year. They were 76-86 in 2024, and 76-86 in 2023. In the years that I’ve been what I’ll call…an active Pirates fan…the team has had exactly 8 winning seasons.

            In 45 years.

            Pretty Pathetic for the team of THIS guy: 

            What made collecting the 2025 Pirates such a sad task is that it just feels like promises unfulfilled at this point. This is year six of a rebuild. YEAR SIX. Most professional teams that aren’t the Pittsburgh Pirates usually see the fruits of their labor by now. A playoff team. Handfuls of that developing young talent getting voted to all-star games and winning awards.

            The Pirates fired their manager in May.

            They traded away an unfulfilled piece of their future at the All-Star Break. 

            The young talent failed to develop. 

            The team’s best player regressed and is now on the wrong side of 30. 

            I guess there’s still good ol’ Cutch. 

            …for now.

            Am a missing anyone?

            Oh…right…this guy. 

            I like Paul Skenes. How can you not? He’s an exciting overpowering pitcher. He seems like an alright dude too. But the Pirates didn’t develop Paul Skenes. That kid came to them as a gift. Fully formed. Almost no time in their wretched minor league system. No time for Skenes to regress like most of the Pirates prospects, who have watched themselves slip further and further and, in a lot of cases, even off Baseball’s top 100 prospect lists.

            God have mercy on Mr. Konnor Griffin and his stats should he get to the major leagues under this current regime.

            And as for Paul Skenes…any reasonable fan has to know that he’ll be pitching in New York or L.A. before the Pirates even gets close to sniff the playoff again.

            Provided they ever do.

            So…what does that mean for me as a collector?

            It means there’s nothing and no one to collect on the Big League team.

            And nothing and no one to really collect in the minors.

            Now, you’re probably reading this and saying to yourself…this guy is a Pirates baseball card collector: Shouldn’t he be used to all of this losing?

            Yes…and…no…

            I’ve been a Pirates fan for 45 years…but I’ve only been a collector for about ½ of that time. I was six when I got into cards in 1980. I had no clue what the Pirates record was back then. For the record it was 83-79. When I started paying attention in 1984/85, yeah, the teams were bad.

            I’ll admit I did have my personal favorites. 

The Pirates were bad. But the culture of losing wasn’t there the way it is now. In 1984 the Pirates were only five seasons removed from their last World Series win. Only a few years removed from a decade that they dominated…minus the goddamned Reds and their Big Red machine.

This guy had only retired a few years back.

 The Pirates were bad but the expectation wasn’t that they’d stay bad. And they didn’t. By 1987 the Buccos were on their way back toward greatness. They were on their way to being a great ballclub. The Pirates that I really collected as a kid were these guys.

            All-Stars.

            Cy Young Award winners.

            MVPs.

            Division Champions.

            Promises fulfilled.

            Unless you count the playoffs…

            When I got back into collecting in 2019, rebuilding into a winner was the trajectory that the Pittsburgh Pirates were once again on. Damn the decades of losing. By 2020’s pandemic season the Pirates had a new manager, a new General Manager, and they were going to build the club back into a winner.

            At least that’s what they said.

            What they always say.

            But the proof is in the tasting of the pudding.

            The owner is cheap and is bad at hiring.

            The clown of a GM is still employed despite the following:

            And the Pirates are a long way from winning anything.

            I’m stuck with all of these Ke’Bryan Hayes cards.

            Even Topps doesn’t care.

            Here’s the Pirates checklist for 2025 Update:

            So, what have I been collecting this year?

            I’ve been putting team sets together from doubles for other teams that I follow. I’ve been putting the base set together, despite my protestations at the way Topps collates packs under the Fanatics regime. I’ve been buying older players. If I’ve been buying Pirates cards at all; they’ve been older Pirates as well.

            There also hasn’t been much products. Or not AS much. We’re in October and there’s still no Stadium Club. No Allen & Ginter. No Archives.

            And that’s okay.

            Not buying cards and saving money not buying players from a team that doesn’t seem to care about its fans…

…that can be considered being a smart collector too.

 

Thanks for reading! Happy Collecting!