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Hard not to be excited

There is currently a lot of cynicism about the Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball Club. However, it’s hard not to be excited when Spring Training starts. There’s something about seeing your favorite team playing actual baseball games that causes some optimism. I am not naive, I don’t think a few practice games will fix the damage done this offseason. Only winning during the regular season will solve that. However, hope forever springs eternal. As of right now, this team has all future and no past. I am not 100 percent sold on the current lineup but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit more excited for Opening Day than I was during the dark days of January.

I am fully aware that not everyone is as optimistic (aka foolish) as I am. It’s fairly obvious that the Pirates have almost zero goodwill with a large chunk of the fanbase and that’s perfectly acceptable. The Pirates have only one option to fix its relationship with the fanbase and I will let Talia Shire speak for me:

Fans or Idiots?

During the good years of 2013-2015, there was a chunk of the fanbase that never really believed in the Pirates. When they would speak this negativity, they’d accuse any dissent as “fan police.” Now that the Pirates are coming off two straight losing seasons, those negative voices have multiplied. The optimistic fans are the ones on the defensive. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t guilty of a little fan policing when the team was winning. So I am not going to say the negative fans are wrong for speaking a little louder than in previous years. However, I will say if you cross the line from attacking the team to personally attacking other fans, I have a problem.

You can dislike or distrust Bob Nutting, Neal Huntington, or Frank Coonelly as much as you’d like. If you refer to a person that’s still a season ticket holder as an idiot or consistently tell them they’re “getting conned” I think you need a new hobby. People can spend their money on whatever they want. If they choose to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018, that’s awesome. If you have quit on the team and wish to ignore them, that’s awesome too. Heck, if you want to spend the entire 2018 season tweeting about how awful the team is and how management is dumb, you absolutely should. However, there is zero reason to disrespect those that choose to watch the team. I genuinely regret some of my actions during the winning years and I have a feeling if you keep disrespecting other fans, eventually, you will too.

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