Well, this blog certainly went out with a whimper and not with a bang. All things shall come to pass, and all things shall come to an end. The truth is, the driving force behind this blog was (primary) how bad the Pirates had sucked for so long; and (secondary) the lack of culpability we thought team management and ownership faced from the local mainstream media in their miserly ways leading to decades of losing well they sold us a bill of goods in a taxpayer funded cash machine of a ballpark.
And the truth is, that pattern, which had so long frustrated those of us who ran this site, began to come to an end pretty much as soon as this blog was launched. The reason we started this project was not because we hated the Pirates, but because we loved them. They had been part of our lives since childhood (the early 90s) and seeing them (we felt intentionally) being run into a ditch season, after season, after season had lead to endless frustration for us as dedicated fans. Thus the Mutiny, as an offshoot of other blogs that we felt were giving too much credit to a unending pattern of consistent failure, was launched in 2011 in an effort to cultivate our passionate anger with the team's state of affairs, bond with like minded fans, and possibly do something to display our massive disapproval of how our Bucs were being run.
The absolute last thing we thought we were witnessing during the summer of 2011 was the long awaited light at the end of the tunnel. But there it was, staring us in the face. When your raison d'etre is frustration with cheap and incompetent ownership denying your team any reasonable chance of winning, and the team starts to inexplicably win, it kind of takes the wind out of your little 'mutinys' sails. This incarnation of the Pirates is now most assuredly worth watching. And honestly, we are quite happy about that. We still discuss the Pirates over email, but like the Penguins and Steelers, it is pretty much focused on the product on the field, not a discussion of how much ownership is screwing us over. We have honestly lost the spirit of mutiny and are just regular fans in our seats again, cheering our team on. This is not a bad thing, it is a good thing. I will proudly take a failure of a blog concept and gladly watch my first place team in comfort. In retrospective, we had some fun, raised a little bit of cyber hell, and called it a day as the team got good again. Thanks to all the readers and especially the commentators who sought refuge here from the tyranny of the censored Smiz-Blog.
We have moved on, but we have not forgotten. My one personal regret is that I never got my chance to follow through on my plans to infiltrate the Pirates season ticket office for a guided tour at an attempt at some gonzo journalism. That certainly would have been interesting. If for some bizarre reason you actually miss my writing, I am relaunching my original hockey and politics blog (pucks_and_pols)
So long, thanks for all the fish, and LETS GO BUCS!!!
