Tough times for steel city baseball

In 1979, Pittsburgh was home not only to the Super Bowl Champion Steelers, but also to the… In 1979, Pittsburgh was home not only to the Super Bowl Champion Steelers, but also to the World Series Champion Pirates.

It was the fifth time the Buccos took home the Commissioner’s Trophy, which at the time tied the Giants and Red Sox (yes, the Red Sox) for third place all time. These were good times in the Steel City.

Nowadays, the era of celebrating with Kool and the Gang seems as far away as when Louis Armstrong played his trumpet. Being swept by a Kansas City Royals team that’s battling with the Pirates for a head start out of the depths of baseball’s Hades has left Pittsburgh baseball fans out of hope for the foreseeable future. This is as bad as it gets.

Looking at Kansas City, this is a city with even less of a sports tradition than Pittsburgh. A city with no major sports franchise by 1950 had three major teams move out of town and judging by the atmosphere at Royals Stadium, there could be a fourth.

Kansas City has only two sports legends it can claim as its own, George Brett and Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson, who comes a distant second. Sorry guys, but Joe Montana doesn’t count. You only had him for two years.

It just doesn’t seem fitting that America’s pastime is losing its attachment through the heart of America the way NFL teams do. Guys like MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner impede these values with their disdain for a salary cap.

The scene two weeks ago at Royals Stadium seemed more welcoming to a journalist than a fan. The three-game total of 44,560 “journalists” were interested in documenting how the other half performs and who wanted to escape the baseball underworld first instead of teams competing for first place.

In baseball, the more things change, the more things stay the same. This old adage holds firm as the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, Cardinals and Astros are shoe-ins for the playoffs, while the Pirates, Royals, Devil Rays, Brewers and Rockies will begin their holiday once October begins.

Sandwiched in between are teams such as the Phillies, Orioles, Blue Jays and Reds, who spend money for a pennant drive and expect fans to spend their part on tickets, but always find themselves on the short end of the postseason.

This type of atmosphere seems to be a greater cause of tension for fans trying to find competitive enjoyment through the dog days of summer. A playoff appearance for the Phillies and Orioles has been overdue for about a decade and they haven’t tasted a World Series in a quarter century. Jays fans, on the other hand, remember the early ’90s like it was yesterday.

Meanwhile, watching baseball’s bottom-feeders can be a positive. Fans can watch professional baseball players play the game with true fun and without pressure. Such is the case when you’re thinking football by June 1.

Both the Pirates and Royals have combined for one winning season since 1994, but the mouth of Kansas City becomes even drier. The Chiefs have not won a playoff game since 1993, there are no major professional indoor teams (possibly unless the Penguins pack their bags), and college basketball aficionados have to choose between Lawrence, Kans. and Columbia, Mo. for school spirit.

While Kansas City’s adjacent Royals and Arrowhead Stadiums are situated on a parking lot in the outskirts of Kansas City, Pirates fans can always stare up at Mount Washington, when the team’s fortunes go down at PNC Park.

And although the Pirates have lost 75 percent of their one-run games so far, the game’s result is usually indicated by the fifth inning. That’s when fans begin to chant, “Here We Go Steelers.”

The Chiefs haven’t won the Lombardi Trophy since Vince himself was alive and the Royals’ 1985 World Series championship seems just as long ago. In the context of W.C. Fields, on the whole, I’d rather lose in Pittsburgh.