BRAND LOYALTY AND INVESTMENT BANKING

A guy wrote recently about the loyalty of the  New England Patriot fans when it applies to accusations of cheating. He claims that similar to a parent and their kids - if someone accused your favorite team or kid of cheating or cutting corners  - it's just like them accusing you.

His reasoning was that once you buy the game tickets, the ridiculously high priced garments depicting your team favorites,  the signs for decorating your vehicles, lawn , and basement, you are invested in your team both figuratively and literally.

His analysis suggests "We will not be convicted by a jury of ourselves that our team has cheated."

I see this occur down here in sunny Florida where even in our 408 home development, folks from the New England area refuse to accept that their team would do anything wrong. Clearly, they are in denial.
The theory is that if you are a true fan - you support your team through thick and thin. 

So, then why is it that as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan of over 70 years I can't allow myself to get excited about the fact that for the third year in a row our Bucs  will make the playoffs?

Is it perhaps because I'm more convinced this excellent 2015 squad will need only one change of clothes with them when they head to their winter home after the game?

Where is MY "brand loyalty?"

I guess I'm just a lousy Pirate fan who has used a lot of reverse logic through his years of fandom.

Like the guys in the beer commercials on TV who remind us to never change our seating position during a tight NFL game, my contribution to baseball superstition is to never get too optimistic about the outcome of either a game or the season as a whole. 

It's sort of a "not counting your chickens before they hatch" approach, but it's even more than that.

It's as if I believe, like the fans in the commercials, I also have been given the power to change the favorable outcome of a game by my actions - or absence thereof. 

You see, in my fantasy world it is not my physical power - but my mental prowess.

I do not speak favorably about the projected outcome of a contest involving my Pirates lest the baseball Gods come down and punish all of us, including me, with a resultant bad outcome.

So, perhaps this is why I'm forced to be pessimistic about how many games my Pirates will participate in this year.

This is despite the fact, that on another level, even I will admit it would take an idiot not to recognize and applaud the records the Pittsburgh team has set this year  both offensively and even via "some" fielding plays in the outfield, that become weekly highlights on ESPN.

Despite that, I remind myself as your favorite pessimist that the operative word here is "some" and one doesn't know what the fielding team will do in a Wild CARD GAME. 

I will to continue to exercise my freedom to be pessimistic as to the number of errors my team has committed or will while in the field. Last time I checked, the Pirates were leading both leagues in the number of miscues recorded by them.

The team is exciting in many ways: Batting, Pitching, and Pedro.

Like Dick Stuart before him, even Vegas can't predict how he'll conjure up an error during the the next play  when the ball heads his way from a variety of sources. His saving grace - like Stuart - is Pedro hits a lot of home runs - (26 and counting) - some even when there are players on base.

My concern now is that the young and coming Pirate outfielder Polanco is too close to him position-wise and has apparently concluded that "to error is human" if you play on the right side of the field.

A Pirate right fielder scooping the ball ON THE RUN is an acceptable and efficient way to field and possibly throw someone out - if your Hispanic last name is Clemente.

However, with Roberto this feat  first required having a reasonable "in the ball park" knowledge of the location of the walls as well as the struck ball,  when you began "the scoop" and were therefore free to look at the runners locations on the field.

He'll get better - as will the Pirates as a whole.

They are an exciting team and breaking the good records in the process too. Looking for the results of the previous nights game in my online version of the Post-Gazette, first thing in the morning, sets my mood for the day - and I've been a pretty satisfied senior as a result. .

I have mostly enjoyed this baseball season, particularly if I compare it with the 20 years of under.500 baseball my favorite team gave us prior to recent years.

But, until the leagues decide to make the wildcard game a "best out of three" series, I fear my Buccos will  continue to frustrate the fans and themselves; unless they can come up in a one game series with a pitcher who is odds-on to beat the other guy.

This particularly holds true this year as it did last year - when it's pretty clear the opposing wildcard pitcher in 2015 will be the the same guy who one-hit them the other night, and got a couple of hits in the process.

Barring catastrophic injury to him (and even as a Pirate fan, we hope not) or we received the Pope's blessing between masses in Philly, or some other religious experience happened to us, like in the movie "Angels In The Outfield" - this match-up is sure to send the Pirates home early, one more  time.

Despite the Pirates excellent year, winning and losing percentages apparently impress the owners, only if you are his investment banker.